I don't mind panthers at all. Just despise Neil Black. He's so up himself it's unreal - that's my view
What a ridiculous thing to say!
Stays in the background almost all the time and is someone who has put his money in to help the sport in the UK more than any one other individual over the past gawd knows how many years.
Are you just jealous?
Jealous of what? There isn't much to be jealous of really.
Help the sport in the UK? Are you actually off your rocker? He has done absolutely NOTHING for the sport in the UK whatsoever.
Has he invested in the youth system? Hell no. Instead he insists on the increasing of import levels... this will NEVER do anything for the sport on a national level. To get REAL interest and growth you need either local talent, or global superstars. Since global superstars aren't going to come to the EIHL, you need local talent.
Other than Robert Lachowicz, how many players good enough for EIHL level have Nottingham churned out? Nottingham didn't even produce Robert Farmer and he's from there! He went to Sheffield for his training instead!
Who is everyones favourite player in football growing up? It is either a superstar like Ronaldo or Messi, or it is your local hero like Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard, Gareth Bale, David Beckham (superstar and local) etc etc.
Whilst the above is football, what is the difference here? It is pointless to have a bunch of canadians who don't even know if they're going to be there next season.
Neil Black is solely responsible for what has been a disaterous EIHL era riddled with instability and disarray. Why is he responsible?
When there were smaller clubs struggling to compete and crying out for the wage cap to be stuck to and the lowering of import quotas, it repeatedly fell on deaf ears.
Black's justification for this stance is that British talent costs too much in wages because there are too few of them who can cut it.... right, so how does not investing in the junior system to produce more and hire more foreigners solve that? It doesn't. It merely sweeps the problem under the carpet for another year.
Manchester, Basingstoke and Newcastle, who paid the ultimate price, were the victims of this stance. Hull were saved at the last second by Paul Thompson and his buddies from becoming the next victims and Edinburgh have survived purely by several strokes of luck as they were literally on the brink for years and aren't exactly getting a clean bill of health now, although are 'stable' so to put it. You could also argue that London Knights were another victim, although I do not blame Black for their demise as they were a lost cause even in the ISL era, before Black was as prominent as he is now.
After the league dropped to 8 teams, Sheffield appeared to see this as a warning shot and stuck to the wage cap for the following season, but without the other big teams doing the same, Sheffield quickly became out of their depth, unable to compete and finished 5th in the 8 team league. Attendance numbers plummetted throughout this season to the point where they weren't even getting 1400 to some games. In order to recover, Sheffield had to spend 25% over the wage cap the following season and this pretty much destroyed them and lead to several changes of ownership over the next season or 2.
Braehead this season, particularly in it's treatment of 1 player in particular in which Black refused to sign the ITC, has been a complete disgrace and a farce to the game in the UK.
There is also the well known gap between Black and the owners of Guildford Flames. Flames could easily compete at EIHL level, but do not agree with Black's stance with regards to imports and spending levels on those imports and Black takes this macho man 'we don't want Guildford in EIHL' attitude when really what he means is 'Guildford aren't going to let me tell them what to do so I don't want them'.
Personally, I believe this is why Fife stalled so long before making an approach to EIHL to join. I could be wrong here, but I believe there have always been good ties between Fife Flyers and Guildford Flames' respective owners as they see eye to eye on a lot of things, particularly their stance on spending levels and giving the local talent a chance. Therefore, I believe that Fife were considering all options other than the EIHL, but with Dundee gone and Solway on their way to ENL, staying in the SNL was no longer an option either, eventually leading them to the conclusion that EIHL was the only option.
Quite similar to that of Newcastle in a way, it was EIHL or nothing for them because unlike Basingstoke and Manchester, EPL was not going to be an option due to it's predominately southern nature and the ENL already had several teams in their catchment area.
In the past EPL clubs were invited to join the BKO cup (before it was scrapped) but declined to do so after EIHL teams would not agree to the competition being at a lower import level so it was a level playing field.
It is things like this that set the game back years in this country and I place the blame mostly at Black's feet.
I could go on and on about this all day and search the internet for articles, various facts and right down conversations I have had with various clubs' owners over time, but I will not do so.
Black's comments on Guildford in which he says Guildford are too far south and he's only interested in London. Give or take 15 miles, Guildford is pretty much London and is an extremely wealthy suburb of said City!. Also says that by 2013 (so next season) there would be 14 teams in the EIHL. So, he's got alot of catching up to do huh? Just one example, below, cba to find others.
www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/Panthers-owner-future-Elite-League/story-12276290-detail/story.html#axzz2Nt3O3Rzx