Cup format

[Bryan]

As we begin to think about next season, surely there must be a restructure of the cup. It is beautifully designed to ensure Belfast will win it every season. Surely it cannot stay like this. I presume it was a money saving idea (travelling costs) but it really is ridiculous. Giants will win their group probably without loss so will be guaranteed a final in Ireland. This competition has been problematic for years but this is no answer. I’m sure plenty of you on here can come up with better ideas than I can.

[greeny]

unfortunately bryan things probably wont change, maybe too much hassle for the powers that be to try changes for the better,,, they happy to plod along, after all its a minority sport in uk with not even a dozen teams in league, we maybe have to be grateful for what we have,,,

[DiscoRay]

As we begin to think about next season, surely there must be a restructure of the cup. It is beautifully designed to ensure Belfast will win it every season.

Rather it's designed so everyone "wins" at the bank. If Fife or another team doesn't come in, they'll need to change something anyway, but if it's still 10 teams I can see them all being stubborn enough to stick with it for years to come. It took them long enough as it was to change the format, can't see them changing again after a year, that would be admitting a mistake!

As a fan, all it does is make games against certain teams so boring down to you playing them too many times, with the farce this time waiting 2 months between group stage ending, and the "elimination" match. So even though my family all had season tickets, we never bothered buying the extra tickets, and settled on streaming a few of them instead. If we must have a cup, then have it straight knockout with adding a couple of the previous seasons' top NIHL National teams in it to make the numbers work, and make the 1st round of the play-offs a round robin. Still not perfect by any means, but at least more interesting and meaningful for all concerned.

[ginger]

Radical idea but could they devise a draw system similar to how the CHL group stage works? Base the pools on league positions the year before? Could make it a lot more interesting

[KAR]

We won last season?

[ginger]

If we lose Fife, I suspect they would do 3 groups of 3, top in each plus best placed second go through to semis. Probably Belfast/Glasgow/Dundee, Manchester/Sheffield/Nottingham and Cardiff/Coventry/Guildford