The English Ice Hockey Association’s (EIHA) 2019/2020 season was cut short like many sports, and there is still uncertainty for many teams around its return for the 2020/2021 season.
With the local team, Lee Valley Lions, being one of the teams involved in the National Ice Hockey League (NIHL) second division it is worth having a look at how much information about the upcoming season is presented to the viewers.
Lack Of Information
There is a lack of information about the season ahead for the Lions, a lot of online content is outdated with the most recent being from July 2020. This is not a knock on the Lions but more so the individuals running the league.
The EIHA has presented some information on their own website about other leagues/competitions. Some teams up north have been given the green light for scheduling their return to play as well as the Spring Cup schedule is confirmed.
But the lack of information leaves the NIHL second-tier division and others in the dark. Most teams and their fans are clueless about what the future holds for them right now.
Hockey’s Return
The EIHA Spring cup was scheduled to start on the 13th of February, the competition will run for seven weeks with just five teams being involved for a total of 12 games each.
It was announced that all these games will be played behind closed doors, but streams will be available. The EIHA states that their streaming platform, which was piloted last November will be the main source of watching these game as it was dubbed “successful”.
But what constitutes the streaming platform as successful? Last year the mini-tournament was organized between a few teams and the viewing figures of these games’ streams seemed questionable, to say the least.
At What Cost?
To watch those games, it cost a single viewer £12, and the league claimed to have had about 2000 viewers, which seems exorbitant when it was at most some average ice hockey.
An interesting comparison to this would be the outrage football fans had towards Sky Sports a few months ago when they tried to charge £15 a game to view Premier League Football. Even the NHL only charges $24.99 a month which is the equivalent of £18.05 for the highest grain of ice hockey.
The sense of overestimation from themselves at the top of the EIHA is becoming very clear. Speaking to those who have worked with both teams in the NIHL second tier, and the top tier they described it as ‘greed.’ It is in no way fair or sustainable to be charging viewers £12 to watch just one game of ice hockey, online and not even in person.
Andrew Miller, the director and acting chairman of the EIHA commented saying “Teams have coordinated a shared platform for the streaming of games to allow fans the chance to watch their teams in action and this collaboration is considered to be a success…Tickets are priced at a comparable level to what has been the standard price for tickets for streamed games.”
