Guildford pull out of continental cup

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DiscoRay
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Any serious or professional club enters the competitions they qualify for, not just the ones they "like". Success in itself breeds more games for you to play, that's the reality of it. Very poor showing from the Flames.
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steeler pete
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We’ve turned it down too! I’m not sure how I feel about that. I can see some sense in not putting more pressure on ourselves with our league ambition but there’s no guarantee on that.

We’ve won challenge cup, we’ve won the league, we’ve won the playoffs but we haven’t won a European trophy. Nottingham have that one over us. I’d have liked to see us enter it and give it a go.
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Robert Mansell
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The only reason the spot has been turned down is the club see it as revenue lost and something that they would have to finance.

So you can draw 2 conclusions.

1. The club does not want success on the ice

2..The club cannot afford to finance a trip because its money lost.

Injuries are not an excuse otherwise we would use tye young brits more.
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BontSteeler
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Robert Mansell wrote:
Thu May 18, 2023 11:01 am
The only reason the spot has been turned down is the club see it as revenue lost and something that they would have to finance.

So you can draw 2 conclusions.

1. The club does not want success on the ice

2..The club cannot afford to finance a trip because its money lost.

Injuries are not an excuse otherwise we would use tye young brits more.
Have to say, I'm very surprised at the decision not to take up a spot in a European Cup Competition.
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steeler pete
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They're not saying on the club website that its a financial decision -

A club spokesman said “With the addition games to be played in a shorter period of time to fit in to the schedule, it would just not have been sensible for the club and our playing staff”

That implies to me that it's not wanting to risk injuries or put extra pressure on us. A lot seems to be made of the busy schedule and need to play consistently for a long season. Something some players are not used to??? If they're not up for it IMO they shouldn't be wearing the uniform.

Too late now but I agree I'd make the challenge cup a knockout from the start in favour of a European cup. I can't imagine anyone values the Challenge Cup elimination games so highly that they wouldn't accept a knockout format.
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DimTim
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From recent press releases the season is starting this year on 23/4 September later than previous years. If the play offs are early April 2024 it doesn’t leave many weekends to play 54 league games. Then there are ‘qualifying’ rounds of the Challenge Cup to loose 2 teams then potentially 2 leg quarter/semi finals. Are we allowing an International break over a weekend this year?

As I’ve seen in a tweet from Simmsey - how many midweek games do people want? It will be interesting how Cardiff fit it all in.
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ginger
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Left this alone yesterday, but will chuck my 2 cents in.

Disappointing that we've turned it down, but there's a number of factors involved in a decision like this, and given we're not privy to even 50% of that, we have to accept that decisions are taken with the best interests of the club at heart - which when you know it might look crap from the outside, suggests that it's not one taken lightly.

Last 2 seasons there's been a lot of moaning about injuries and players running out of gas at the back end of the season. So extra unplanned games add to that potential. So I imagine Fox was asked his perspective on that.

Season also starts later this year, with all plans having been made with us not in Europe, so expect the truncated schedule causes availability issues with ice.

Then there's finances. Cost of living going up, I imagine Steelers costs are too. Couple that with potentially budgeting for slightly smaller crowd numbers (due to CoL), then might not make the most financial sense. Arena ice time is not always available, so have to factor in that. Some fans say use Ice Sheffield but no guarantee available, plus we tried to move away from that as it was not good financially for us.

If we owned our arena, I suspect the decision may have been different, but who knows.

Dave Simms reaction isn't great, but some of the ridiculous comments on Twitter from fans are just incredible. Calling your own club tinpot when it's the most stable and professional it's ever been is just laughable.
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smbmetal
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I’m usually quite critical of our club, but I can see both sides here.

As a fan, I like to see us compete and try and win every competition. I’d be lying if I wasn’t disappointed that we’ve chosen to pass on the opportunity, it does slightly annoy me that the Panthers have won this competition and we haven’t. I would be even more disappointed though if we’d officially qualified and then passed the on the competition like Guildford have. I would suggest that the Steelers old ambition of trying to win as many trophies as possible has sadly diminished under Tony’s ownership IMO.

As the owner and from the club’s perspective it won’t be cheap to go on a European adventure and the risk of injuries is always a possibility. Didn’t stop Belfast completing a grand-slam though, although the CHL is slightly different of course. Not 3 games in 3 days etc. I can understand why we’ve not entered the competition.

Fox has absolutely NO EXCUSES now not to deliver on silverware with us passing the opportunity to Cardiff and I’m sure many will be watching our performances this season very carefully indeed.
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greeny
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Game On

No big loss to me if were not in the competition
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