Reworking the UK's EIHL

[Hathaway Browne]

First off, I'm not entirely sure I'm posting this in the right place, sorry if I'm not.

I've been toying with the concept of improving the United Kingdom's Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) for quite some time, but I seem to have hit a bit of a wall and thought I'd get some opinions on here.

So far I've compiled a league consisting of 28 teams (EIHL has 10 in reality) and have split it into two 14 team conferences (well before the league announced last week that it will be doing it for the '12-'13 season). To get to 28 I've taken the existing EIHL teams and have added some from the lower leagues. I've also added a few expansion teams and resurrected some defunct teams along the way, just for the fun of it.

This is partly where I've hit the wall - nicknames for some of the teams (primarily Liverpool and Manchester, but also Coventry and Leicester (see notes)), so any suggestions will be most welcome.

Here are the conferences: (existing EIHL teams italicised, 'E' for expansion, 'R' for returning defunct team, others taken from the lower league EPL)

Northern Conference

- Aberdeen Oilers ^E

- Belfast Giants

- Braehead Eagles (renaming)

- Dundee Stars

- Edinburgh Capitals

- Fife Flyers

- Hull Stingrays

- Leeds Titans (relocation)

- Leicester Rockets / Lions^E

- Liverpool - Armada / Admirals / Riverkings / Leopards ^E

- Manchester - Phoenix / Metros / Storm

- Newcastle Vipers ^R

- Nottingham Panthers

- Sheffield Steelers

Southern Conference

- Basingstoke Bison

- Birmingham Bulls ^E

- Bracknell Bees

- Brighton Tigers ^R

- Cardiff Devils

- Coventry Jets (renaming)

- Guildford Flames

- London Racers ^R

- London Knights ^R

- Milton Keynes Thunder (renaming)

- Peterborough Phantoms

- Southampton Vikings ^R

- Solihull Barons

- Swansea Sharks ^E

Notes on existing teams and names.

- Coventry Jets (American Football) already exist, as well as the Slough Jets (Ice Hockey) but for this instance Slough remain the EPL.

- Leicester Lions (Speedway) also exist, but only recently after being defunct for a while. Hence the Rockets alternate.

[Whittier S]

Manchester Metros

Braehead Maulers (off of the shopping centre)

Coventry Phoenix (works better with its history than Manchester, I think)

Liverpool Mariners

Milton Keynes Horde (Playing off this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes_Hoard )

Is Liverpool Beetles pushing it?

[wildwing64]

You've got three teams in the Southern Conference that have BB alliterative names. That feels repetitive. I don't know too much about any of those three places to suggest better options, but you could name the Birmingham team the Axemen for the Saltley Handaxe that was found there.

I like the idea of there being two London teams, which would make up for there not being an Elite League team there for nearly seven years, but part of me isn't sure if the city could or would support both teams. Where would you put them both?

[Hathaway Browne]

Coventry Phoenix (works better with its history than Manchester, I think)

Well it does fit, but believe it or not there already is a team with that name - the city's ladies ice hockey team.

I renamed the Blaze the Jets as the creator of the first jet engine, Sir Frank Whittle was from the city.

I couldn't think of any automobile related names.

As for Manchester, they currently use the Phoenix name (logo) as that team was created from the collapse of the Manchester Storm (logo). The Trafford Metros (logo) are the lower level affiliate of the Phoenix. To add to the confusion, the city's university team is also the Manchester Metros (logo)

I'm really split between them...

Liverpool Mariners

Is Liverpool Beetles pushing it?

I'm liking the Mariners name. I was looking for something maritime (hence Armada and the like). I guess I could re-purpose the logo from the old Newcastle Riverkings (tiny logo)

And I only just found out that they used to have a team in the '50's called the Leopards, but that sounds run of the mill these days.

Beetles maybe pushing it, but I did actually consider at one point either Liverpool Beat or Liverpool Rock... thankfully I dropped that idea quickly.

You've got three teams in the Southern Conference that have BB alliterative names. That feels repetitive. I don't know too much about any of those three places to suggest better options, but you could name the Birmingham team the Axemen for the Saltley Handaxe that was found there.

I like the idea of there being two London teams, which would make up for there not being an Elite League team there for nearly seven years, but part of me isn't sure if the city could or would support both teams. Where would you put them both?

Thanks for the suggestion on Birmingham, I went for the Bull as its the symbol of the city. They even have a statue of one in the Bull Ring shopping centre. Certainly nicer than Milton Keynes 'concrete cows'.

I'll be honest, the only reason there are two teams in London is that I love both the Racers and Knights logos. In my little fantasy world, they probably would both occupy the O2 Arena (same way the Clippers and Lakers share the Staples Center). I know that's not feasible in reality, but then I can't see Brighton and Southampton really working out, but as they were historic teams I added them.

Same goes really for Solihull and Birmingham - there's only 8 miles between them (and only 14m between Coventry and Solihull) so the Barons probably should be an affiliate of the Bulls, but I was thinking it'd make a great rivalry.

All part of the fun of the project though. I'm open to all suggestions at the moment.