New elite league picks up sticks

• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Author: HOCKEY
• Publication title: Bay of Plenty Times

It was the first time HNZ had handed over a domestic competition to private owners

The plan, according to HNZ chief executive Anthony Crummy, was two-fold.; develop a league to bridge the gap between the Black Sticks and local competitions, and give fans more elite hockey to watch.

The “just over a million” hockey fans in New Zealand who support the Blacks Sticks didn’t have a “fan-focused product” outside of the national teams to get behind, Crummy says.

HNZ had been toying with the idea of franchise hockey for years, and some players were sceptical it would ever get across the line.

However, the PHL is a response to what players had told HNZ was the number one thing that needed to change in the current Black Sticks pathway — another tier of competition.

“It will be a huge opportunity for our emerging Black Sticks but also our current Black Sticks to keep plying their trade and getting better,” Crummy said.

“We need to make sure we’ve got elite competition for them so they’re getting prepared as best they can for when they do pull on the black shirt or singlet and head off to play international hockey.”

It has similarities to the National Hockey League of the early 2000s and the Premier Hockey League piloted in 2020 as a response to Covid-related circumstances.

The difference is that it is not owned by the national governing body and there is a focus on revenue generation and fan engagement.

Initial plans to introduce the league last year were held back as Crummy says they were taking their time to get it right.

Despite times being tough for all sports, Crummy was confident that this year the timing was right to launch the men’s and women’s teams playing for franchises based in Auckland, Waikato/BOP, Lower North Island and the South Island.

With seven months until the seven-week home and away competition begins, investors are still being sought for some franchises.

But the free-to-air broadcast deal is locked in.

Former Black Stick Dave Kosoof is a driving force behind the Auckland franchise called the Tridents — which encompasses from Northland down to Manukau — and says New Zealand is ready for this type of competition and it “should have happened sooner”.

“There are a lot of members or parents who are able to invest in something like this. There is quite a high cost to play hockey, therefore our supporters of hockey are the right demographic and the right market to tap into for something like this.”

Kosoof grew up playing hockey on Auckland’s North...