This is being reported on Tony's forum, by Tony.




A group of eight teams, including our hometown Raiders, have been approved to have their own “conference” within the league next season. The teams that are apparently confirmed are St. Mike’s, Hamilton, Newmarket, Georgetown, Wellington and Junior Canadiens with another two to come, maybe Stouffville.

The winner of the “conference” will compete to get to the RBC through the OP and has approval from the OHA, much to the chagrin of the Al Dorias of the world. It will be run with slightly different rules regarding the number of overagers and how they handle the 16 year olds.

Anyway, it’s a big, big deal with the other owners, who are pissed at the guys who set this up. This is a move designed to upgrade the quality of the league and get more of the better kids who want to scholarships. The whole thing is being spearheaded by the Buzzer owner, who is in this for all the right reasons – to improve the quality of the OP and not make it so much of a Daddy league.

There was a big meeting this week with the owners of all the teams and there were huge fireworks, but it’s going ahead. I know it’s a quiet time on the forum(s) but I thought you would like to know and do a little digging and spread the news.

Now what do you all think about that proposal?








Go Raptors !
Go Jays !


WEXDOG
09,11,01
Lest We Forget
11,11,11

If it goes through it will hurt the balance of opjhl clubs in many ways, one their team value drops in half and two it will be tougher to find players.How can a select group who are part of an members group just say "Oh by the way we are going our own way but we want to fall under your name and rules etc" At least the Metro league went on their own and the OHA have no use for them but support this move. Bet other opjhl members are just thrilled???

I agree, if it is true, it just emphasizes one more short coming of the OPJHL executive in dealing with matters of importance.

I can't believe the OHA would allow this to happen, but then again I can't believe that they appointed Abrams as GM of Team Canada East.

The OP gets raked over the coals for having too many teams, then they try to reduce the number of teams in the highest class and get raked over the coals anyway.

The OP/OHA cannot seem to win no matter what.

Everyone's favorite team cannot be included or we have what we have now.

Give it a chance, at least wait until we hear it from official channels.







Go Raptors !
Go Jays !


WEXDOG
09,11,01
Lest We Forget
11,11,11

"The whole thing is being spearheaded by the Buzzer owner, who is in this for all the right reasons – to improve the quality of the OP and not make it so much of a Daddy league."

I guess the Waxers are out.

surprising they did not include the Tigers or the Blades.

Toronto Maple Leafs= Ford Motor Company

just saying where does this leave the other teams....wait to six now fold due to this new league and then they are happy! Who picked this selected few? or can they all jump in and make it 35 teams?

Base this on a rotation similar to the british soccer leagues. Have a 10 team super league. At the end of the season the last 2 teams drop to the regular group and the top 2 teams from the other group move up to the super league. Gives incentive to other teams to be competitive so they can move up.

Don't get excited yet guys.

On checking with my sources and a few owners, this thing has not been approved or even close. At this point it is only a discussion and a very heated one at that. To be approved all the 35 teams in the OPJHL would have to agree to it and right now there is a lot of opposition.

Anyway, that's what I am hearing.

All 35 teams have to approve? I find it difficult to believe that half of the 27 'other' teams would approve of it, since those are the teams that would suffer. Are there any other articles on this, or is Tony's post the only one?

Why not have a division that bypasses the marginal hockey that occurs in the DHC?  But let's not give the eight teams a free pass.  Rather the membership to the division is based upon the previous year's results. 

Of course, previous success doesn't guarantee future success, particularly in this league with turn-over so high, but it might be an interesting concept.

 

this will be great for the teams involved but for the rest of the teams it is a joke and will hurt the league overall. this was first discussed several months ago and i didnt think it would get off the ground with the league as st mikes AND newmarket were heavily pushing it.

This is not a super division, but a division that is a pilot project.
Also it can't be a Super Division because Cobourg is in it also. The group from Cobourg were the ones that were also the spearheaders of this division.

Some of the criteria is as follows:

2 20 year olds
More local players less billets
More then 2 16 year olds.

They are only a new division, that well have to travel further for games, therefore costing more money in busing.
Can they all afford the bus expense alone????

there goes the carbon-skate-print !!

If Hamilton is involved we all had better be weary of it...

Itis about time. Good Luck

I'll repeat a portion of what I said on Tigerpaws.

If there was any doubt the selfish objectives of the elitist few had nothing to do with the betterment of the league as a whole, the game itself, or the thousands of quality kids who just need a bigger commitment to development to come into their own, well there you have it.

This whole thing is nothing but shady! Keep an eye out for OHA exec's driving new vehicles some time soon if this pushes through.