NHL: Will There Ever Be Another WHA?

The long-lost WHA left its mark on professional hockey and the NHL. If the XFL can come back, then why not the WHA?

This year football didn’t end with the Super Bowl. Thanks to the revived XFL, there’s still football playing to be done as the calendar turns towards spring. While the NHL shouldn’t necessarily be worried about the new XFL sharing its market space, what does it mean for the sport of hockey as a whole?

If football can have two “major” leagues, what about hockey. Remember the World Hockey Association, which battled with the NHL for the 1970s? Could we see a new WHA?

Problems To Be Fixed

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There’s one major similarity between the new XFL and the new WHA: both capitalized off of problems in their sport. The WHA was instrumental in importing European talent and challenging NHL contracts that were harmful to players.

The new XFL is capitalizing off solving problems fans have with NFL football, such as long games, too many television timeouts, and confusing officiating with a lack of clarity.

No doubt the NHL has its fair share of fan complaints. The most prevalent example being the shootout as a way to end a game instead of a tie. But is that really enough for someone to sit there and say “you know what, we should create an entirely new league”? Probably not.

NHL’s Vast Expansion

One of the key things that kept the WHA going as long as it did was the fact they had teams in markets that had enough support for a major league hockey team but had no NHL team. The legacy of the WHA lived on with the four teams the NHL merged with following the WHA’s demise.

That brought professional hockey and NHL teams to hockey-crazed cities such as Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec. The XFL has followed suit with the St. Louis market, with their St. Louis Battlehawks team-leading team attendance and bringing professional football back to the city after the NFL’s Rams left for Los Angeles.

While three of the four surviving WHA Teams would go onto to relocate (although the Winnipeg Jets would return as the relocated Atlanta Thrashers franchise), the NHL has a much larger footprint than it did in 1979. Prior to the WHA and NHL merger, the NHL had only 17 teams. Today in 2020, there are 31 teams, with a 32nd Seattle franchise on the way.

The argument could be made that every city in Canada or the United States that can handle an NHL team has an NHL team. There might be one or two exceptions, such as Houston and Quebec, but for the most part NHL hockey is no further than a stone’s throw from most places.

Major And Minor Leagues

One of the biggest organizational differences between professional hockey and professional football is the lack of minor leagues. Sure there’s college football but football doesn’t have the different levels of minor and junior leagues the sport of hockey has across North America. If you live far away from NFL action, most of the time you are out of luck.

This goes back to the whole expansion part of the NHL, where pretty much every city that can handle an NHL team has an NHL team. Well through hockey’s minor leagues, pretty much any city or area that can handle a professional hockey team has a professional hockey team.

They may not be able to sell out a 17,000 seat NHL arena on a nightly basis, but established small but just as loyal following in AHL and ECHL crowds. If there was ever to be another WHA, they’d have to look hard for a city that doesn’t have any professional hockey entertainment of some kind at some level.

Any Season Could Be Hockey Season

One place where another professional hockey league could potentially succeed is on a different schedule and different season than the NHL. The USFL co-existed with the NFL until they decided to play their seasons at the same time. The XFL avoided that mistake positioning themselves as a spring football league.

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The idea has been tried with the sport of hockey before, but not on ice. Roller Hockey International, the most successful non-NHL “hockey” league in the post WHA era, survived and limped through the 1990’s playing during the summer months. They fell victim to their own over expansion. Then there was Pro Beach Hockey, who played all their games in Huntington Beach, California. They lasted for three seasons from 1998-2001 until ESPN pulled their broadcasting. Maybe third times the charm for some summer hockey and another league can take a try?

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