Schedule Dissection Part 2: The Traveling.

As I am trying to dig deeper into the AHL, I'm finally getting into the media aspect, This is more along the lines of the things I would like to get into, especially once the heavy lifting get out of the way, but more or less, about a week ago, Falcons TV posted this video:






This relates back to my schedule blog way back when, The video is pretty dry, and goes over a lot of the technicalities of how the schedule comes together. It sounds like a logistical nightmare. I mean, did you see this board?

Look at that thing. Its all yellow squares and black stars and orange circles, maroon hexagons, green hexagons, blue trapezoids scattershot over magnets and squares. John Nash himself would walk up to that thing and go, "Oh, screw this." I mean, don't they have an app for this yet?

But aside from that, there are a few key issues I think its worth touching upon really quick.

1. Scheduling is important for competition and marketing of the team. I think there are ways the AHL could market itself better, and hey, different blog for a different day, but this goes right back to what I said before: The schedule needs more balance. The limitations for travel expenses put a huge hit on this but if the schedule is more balanced, it gives those divisional rivals more meaning and make the games more important. Yes, more people will want to see the Providence Bruins if they live in Springfield because they are probably Boston Bruins fans, and so forth, but too many games against one opponent and there's less urgency to go to it. For thirteen bucks, you can catch them the next time they're in town.

2. Dove tailing off of that, AHL might be spreading itself too thin. With less teams local, that means travel expenses go up, and that makes it hard to fit in the rest time, get greater opponent diversity, and build that culture of rivalries that get people to the games.

3. The NHL puts on tough restrictions. Here is what I don't get about that, they have to regulate the rest and the games per week, which is good for a player but what about player development? Wouldn't a schedule more similar to the NHL, though perhaps less intense, be infinitely more beneficial  in the long run?

4. The AHL probably needs a little more oversight. I may be reading into this too much, but the impression I got was the teams draft their opponents and then the pieces get tied together. What could probably help with this is some better regulation. I get budget constraints but if the product is suffering because of the schedule, those budget constraints will only get tighter.

But, this is all leading to the four things that need to go better to fix the scheduling problem:

1. NHL needs to better support their affiliate.
2. AHL needs to do a better job at selling itself.
3. AHL fans, NHL fans, hockey fans and general public need to do a better job of buying in.
4. AHL has to take some risks to get a better product so #3 is more sustainable and successful.

There will be more on those points soon. Trust me on that one.