2019/20 Tier II Preseason Evaluation: aka Another giant waste of SoCal money

[Clue12345]

To resolve this whole issue of travel for CAHA weekends, why doesn’t AA just follow the same as A hockey. Play all the SoCal teams during the season and then the top 2 travel and meet the northern top 2 teams for the state title? That system works well every year for A. Why does an extra A have to add so much unnecessary travel when we have plenty of teams to play in SoCal?

Because there are not enough AA teams up North.  Usually only 3 or 4 in Norcal and 14 or so down south.
I don’t want to seem like I have no sportsmanship, but I don’t think that is SoCal problem.  I think NorCal should be thinking of ways to grow hockey up north. Maybe with less travel down south they might get more takers.


And maybe just maybe if CAHA didn’t feel the need to regulate the levels of play and restrict clubs from having AAA teams, you might just be able to grow the sport! 

[Rats13]

To resolve this whole issue of travel for CAHA weekends, why doesn’t AA just follow the same as A hockey. Play all the SoCal teams during the season and then the top 2 travel and meet the northern top 2 teams for the state title? That system works well every year for A. Why does an extra A have to add so much unnecessary travel when we have plenty of teams to play in SoCal?

CAHA tried that 3 seasons ago.  SCAHA games counted travel for CAHA weekends for north south games.  That was before my kid played but I think it only lasted 1 season.  People complained about too few games.  Or that's what I remember hearing.

[Teemu8]

You guys do realize that you signed up for "travel" Hockey right?  If you really hate the traveling then I suggest you play "A".

[Clue12345]

You should not have to travel with all that expense to play at a higher level. That is why there would be so much more better competition if it was affordable to more people. You do know that all athletes are not rich, right?

[Teemu8]

That's the nature of California hockey and its not likely to change.  It will never grow with all the complainers whining about traveling and all the top talent moving to Minnesota.  2 trips per season up north is pretty much the norm... Looks like each division will make one more trip this year other than labor day.  Its not that bad...


I still say you knew what you were signing up for so smile and break out that credit card.

[lcadad]

You guys do realize that you signed up for "travel" Hockey right?  If you really hate the traveling then I suggest you play "A".

Even non-tier teams travel.  Depending on the teams in your division, and where your club's home rink is, you may find yourself going from Bakersfield to San Diego.  What's needless is the travel from Socal for a CAHA weekend where you play 4 other Socal teams you could have played locally.


As the Norcal tier teams have dwindled this problem has become more pronounced.  Adding Flighting only made it worse.  From the most recent pronouncement on the SCAHA site, it seems that they are moving back towards the experiment from 3 seasons ago:

In an effort to address concerns of our membership the following format has been approved by the full CAHA Board of Directors for the 19/20 season:
 CAHA will attempt to schedule primarily North vs South games and North vs North at the North venues and South vs South games at the South venues. Each venue will most likely host multiple divisions each weekend. 
 
What does this mean for your team?
South teams: Ideally, 4 teams per division will travel North and play only North teams in 1 of the 5 weekends. The other 4 weekends you will be in the South venues playing your South opponents.
North teams: Ideally, you will spend 4 of the 5 weekends in North venues playing both North and South teams and travel South once to complete the round, if needed.
 However, based on the number of teams in each flightision the above scenarios may not be adequate to complete the required games, but it is the intention of CAHA to schedule games as reasonably as possible based on the teams geographical make-up. 
 
What if there are more or less than 4 North teams in a flightision? If there are less than 3 or 4 North teams in a flightision South teams should anticipate playing a South opponent in order to get the required games in.
If there are more than 4 teams in a flightision a South team may be required to travel North more than once and/or a North team may have to travel South more than once.
 
We appreciate your patience as we roll out this new format and hope the outcome is a positive one for all our members.  Feel free to email me or your League President directly with questions.
 
Sincerely,
 
Laura Cahn
CAHA Youth Council Chair
lauracahn@yahoo.com

[Rats13]

You guys do realize that you signed up for "travel" Hockey right?  If you really hate the traveling then I suggest you play "A".

Even non-tier teams travel.  Depending on the teams in your division, and where your club's home rink is, you may find yourself going from Bakersfield to San Diego.  What's needless is the travel from Socal for a CAHA weekend where you play 4 other Socal teams you could have played locally.


As the Norcal tier teams have dwindled this problem has become more pronounced.  Adding Flighting only made it worse.  From the most recent pronouncement on the SCAHA site, it seems that they are moving back towards the experiment from 3 seasons ago:

In an effort to address concerns of our membership the following format has been approved by the full CAHA Board of Directors for the 19/20 season:
 CAHA will attempt to schedule primarily North vs South games and North vs North at the North venues and South vs South games at the South venues. Each venue will most likely host multiple divisions each weekend. 
 
What does this mean for your team?
South teams: Ideally, 4 teams per division will travel North and play only North teams in 1 of the 5 weekends. The other 4 weekends you will be in the South venues playing your South opponents.
North teams: Ideally, you will spend 4 of the 5 weekends in North venues playing both North and South teams and travel South once to complete the round, if needed.
 However, based on the number of teams in each flightision the above scenarios may not be adequate to complete the required games, but it is the intention of CAHA to schedule games as reasonably as possible based on the teams geographical make-up. 
 
What if there are more or less than 4 North teams in a flightision? If there are less than 3 or 4 North teams in a flightision South teams should anticipate playing a South opponent in order to get the required games in.
If there are more than 4 teams in a flightision a South team may be required to travel North more than once and/or a North team may have to travel South more than once.
 
We appreciate your patience as we roll out this new format and hope the outcome is a positive one for all our members.  Feel free to email me or your League President directly with questions.
 
Sincerely,
 
Laura Cahn
CAHA Youth Council Chair
lauracahn@yahoo.com

At face value it actually seems reasonable.  Let's see if they can pull it off!

[area51]

You guys do realize that you signed up for "travel" Hockey right?  If you really hate the traveling then I suggest you play "A".

This would be great if they get it worked out. 2 seasons ago they had the SCAHA games count in the CAHA standings. The way they are wording it now is there will be South CAHA Weekends between South teams only (occasional North team). I'm sure there will still be complainers, but this is what everyone has been asking for for years. Hopefully they finally get it right! Maybe next season they change the Labor Day format!!!


Even non-tier teams travel.  Depending on the teams in your division, and where your club's home rink is, you may find yourself going from Bakersfield to San Diego.  What's needless is the travel from Socal for a CAHA weekend where you play 4 other Socal teams you could have played locally.


As the Norcal tier teams have dwindled this problem has become more pronounced.  Adding Flighting only made it worse.  From the most recent pronouncement on the SCAHA site, it seems that they are moving back towards the experiment from 3 seasons ago:

In an effort to address concerns of our membership the following format has been approved by the full CAHA Board of Directors for the 19/20 season:
 CAHA will attempt to schedule primarily North vs South games and North vs North at the North venues and South vs South games at the South venues. Each venue will most likely host multiple divisions each weekend. 
 
What does this mean for your team?
South teams: Ideally, 4 teams per division will travel North and play only North teams in 1 of the 5 weekends. The other 4 weekends you will be in the South venues playing your South opponents.
North teams: Ideally, you will spend 4 of the 5 weekends in North venues playing both North and South teams and travel South once to complete the round, if needed.
 However, based on the number of teams in each flightision the above scenarios may not be adequate to complete the required games, but it is the intention of CAHA to schedule games as reasonably as possible based on the teams geographical make-up. 
 
What if there are more or less than 4 North teams in a flightision? If there are less than 3 or 4 North teams in a flightision South teams should anticipate playing a South opponent in order to get the required games in.
If there are more than 4 teams in a flightision a South team may be required to travel North more than once and/or a North team may have to travel South more than once.
 
We appreciate your patience as we roll out this new format and hope the outcome is a positive one for all our members.  Feel free to email me or your League President directly with questions.
 
Sincerely,
 
Laura Cahn
CAHA Youth Council Chair
lauracahn@yahoo.com

At face value it actually seems reasonable.  Let's see if they can pull it off!

[Hockeykid]

To resolve this whole issue of travel for CAHA weekends, why doesn’t AA just follow the same as A hockey. Play all the SoCal teams during the season and then the top 2 travel and meet the northern top 2 teams for the state title? That system works well every year for A. Why does an extra A have to add so much unnecessary travel when we have plenty of teams to play in SoCal?

CAHA tried that 3 seasons ago.  SCAHA games counted travel for CAHA weekends for north south games.  That was before my kid played but I think it only lasted 1 season.  People complained about too few games.  Or that's what I remember hearing.

3 seasons ago (see CAHA schedule 2016) CAHA tried to make South happy and had North teams play North teams at a North Rink & South teams playing South teams at a South rink. Then North teams and South teams would travel to play each other during CAHA weekends at North or South rinks.
The difference from this seasons new format and the 2016 format is that South vs South games & North vs North games were held mostly during NON-CAHA weekends. The South teams complained that playing these CAHA games during the NON-CAHA weekends interfered with their South AA league & they lost games. So CAHA went back to the regular format. 
 

[lcadad]

My son played Tier that year as a PW.  They combined 2 ideas:


-Reduced season to 1 CAHA weekend per south team. 
-Made all "SCAHA" games part of the normal schedule.


There were 18 teams in the AA, So the entire season boiled down to every team played each other once.  18 game season. This is why people complained.  They were still paying all that money and only playing 18 games. 

It's interesting to look back on it, because there were 5 Norcal teams that year:

GSE 1
GSE 2
Blackhawks
Colts
Sharks


This year there is going to be how many from Norcal?  Meanwhile it seems that their local competion 'A' league has grown to be 9 teams?  Seems that in Norcal there is dwindling interest in CAHA and the associated time, expense and Flight nonsense.

[keepdrinkinthekoolaid]

FYI:
Southwest Airlines "California Sale $29" just came out today, for any SoCal parents looking to travel to SJ Jamboree. 

fineprint
Must purchase travel by 7/31/19 @ 11:59pm PST
Travel between 08/20/19 thru 12/18/19.
Blackout dates of 9/3/19 as well as 11/22/19 thru 12/2/19

JetBlue also has "Fetch a Deal" = $54 one way and more fineprint

[hockeymap]

What is likely the earliest game could be on Friday, Aug 30?

[Bear71]

What is likely the earliest game could be on Friday, Aug 30?

What's the most inconvenient time you can think of?  Betcha some governing body has already thought of it.


I've heard games could start at 4pm Friday and could go until 4pm Sunday, but that's merely a rumor at this point.

[Teemu8]

What is likely the earliest game could be on Friday, Aug 30?

What's the most inconvenient time you can think of?  Betcha some governing body has already thought of it.


I've heard games could start at 4pm Friday and could go until 4pm Sunday, but that's merely a rumor at this point.

The 4pm thing is not a rumor.  It was what was reported at the CAHA manager meeting this past saturday.

[Clue12345]

So does anyone know when the Jamboree schedule will come out?  You know some of us need to make travel plans.