Will anyone here watch the WHA?
 

I was wondering if anyone is gonna watch it? they are supposed to start in October but only two teams even have logos and names and Toronto and Hamilton don't have Arena's. Aswell they all have to sign a full team in two months! I think it can happen but will be very porrly done.

I will i know that as I am curious as Hamilton is getting a team and I'm from there :)

Probably not.

I'd rather see Bob Probert with coke in his underwear.

I feel the same way as KoZ

i might not even get the channel lol

Is the league even running?

arent they going to try and start in january?

Possibly. on my digital cable it says there is going to be some December hockey tour on Pay Per View, but I'm cheap and I wont order anything.

Why did I vote yes ?
 

Depends on how it would be available...but....
The old WHA ran from 1972-73 [ with 12 teams ] through to 1978-79,[ with 7 teams, but just 6 at the end of it.]
The '72-73 WHA league kicked off featuring the most prolific goal scorer in the world...Bobby Hull !!

A lot of great players were there for some of those intervening years..

And at the end, the '78-79 WHA league wound down... featuring a "new kid" named Wayne Gretzky !!

The league had no chance to succeed financially, but I watched those guys every chance I got...!!!

If the NHL & NHLPA decide to not play nice, and there is a WHA....maybe that's the only time we'll be able to afford tickets to see someone like Sydney Crosby ????? :wink:

Merry Christmas;
Mike

I believe Sidney has turned down a couple of pro contracts already. He wont be in the WHA

Never say never.

You may not be old enough to remember back in '77 when Gretzky was "never" going to sign with anyone but an NHL team.

I believe Crosby's position was stated before the NHLPA and NHL basically agreed to keep rookie salaries very small for the first three years. The NHL proposal freezes out rookie contracts from any bonus clauses also.

If you're Crosby, and you have to accept, say, $300,000 a year for 3 years, with no bonus eligibility, OR $3 Mil a year, plus bonus, from some other league, you might have to consider it...especially if those funds were guarantee-deposited in trust.
The rival league will be trying for him really hard, IF that league does get off the ground...it is pretty iffy that they could.

I'll say it right now, Sidney Crosby will never play a game in the WHA. The WHA was a lot different back then, for one it gave a huge contract to Bobby Hull, and then some other players came over. But right now they wont be able to get many if any star players, and the league will probably end up folding up. Besides, Sidney Crosby grew up following the NHL, not the WHA. His dream is to be a star there, and he's not going to accept a 3 year contract to play there when he can play in the NHL whenever it starts up again.

Renuszm ;
Without meaning to lecture, I think your knowledge of the old WHA, and of the economics that drove the whole '70s hockey decade, is very sparse.

The exodus of players to the WHA league was about MONEY....not just Hull...his signing was to give the whole league credibility...and it did.

The older players signed to get a few more years of decent salaries, as they weren't wanted in the NHL any longer.
The younger players knew that even if they were only with the WHA for a short stay, they could leverage greater salaries from the NHL because there WAS a rival league, even if that league suffered and franchises rapidly went under.

Even the Gretzky signing by Nelson Skalbania in Indianapolis was a strategic leveraging transaction, bypassing the NHL draft, knowing the league would, with 95+% certainty, go under at the end of his first season...but knowing his rights would be transferred to Pocklington in Edmonton, whose franchise would be accepted-(with 3 other WHA teams )-into the NHL.

Crosby is good, but not of the stature Gretzky was at his age...no one ever will be, I suspect. Gretz "grew up following" the NHL too...but that wasn't the point.

The reason for the NHL lockout right now is MONEY.

It may well be there cannot be a WHA, due to many factors, with availablity of arenas being the #1 problem...but the longer this lockout goes on, the greater the chance another pro league will get started. If it does, the reason will be still be good ol' MONEY.
If that happens, will Crosby play for 10% of what he could earn in a rival league, just to stand tall with his NHL "heroes"?

Time will tell
Merry Christmas;
Mike

I dont care about the old WHA. The fact is, nobody cares about the new WHA enough to play for them. When the league was forming it seemed like 1 or 2 players expressed interest but there all in Europe now or are enjoying their time at home. There plan is to target the players in the NHL who are making little money and arent that good, because the new WHA wont have a lot of Money
I'll repeat myself again, he wont go to the WHA, and hes already turned down other pro contracts, so what makes the WHA different? By the looks of it so far, it's just a joke.

and to prove my point
http://msn.foxsports.com/story/3270694