A change of venue may be in order for the NESHL, as allegations have arisen that the entire operation may be moving off-shore. According to sources, the NESHL will be re-branded as the NISHL (New Indian Senior Hockey League) when it makes its transition to India next season. These sources claim that the multi-million dollar operation would be much more profitable in India.
The rumors have surfaced, because of concerns over massive schedule changes. As schedule dates, times and ‘bye’ weeks have flip-flopped constantly over the past few months, it can only be assumed that ‘something’ is going on in the NESHL front-office.
“When you see mass-changes and confusion in the schedule, you have to assume something big is going on,” cited one hockey insider. “Besides, if they can out-source the entire operation to India, they will save a ton of money, while still making a considerable margin. It was only a matter of time before they made a move like this.”
Allegedly, the first move will include only the NESHL operations group, along with the officiating. As of now, they have already begun a series of off-shore officiating prototype games, where officials in India monitor the games on 17” black and white televisions from Mumbai, and remotely blow a whistle mounted in the rafters for penalties and goals. This move is not sitting well with many of those involved.
“Are you kidding me?” questioned Rodger Blunt, a player who experienced one of the first games using the off-shore officiating. “There was a huge delay in between the actual penalty and the whistle blowing. In fact the whistle blew in the 2nd period for a slashing call that occurred in the 1st period. Then, you have to dial a 800# to figure out why, and this took another 10-minutes just to walk through the automated command prompts to finally get the penalty call. I couldn't even get to a live person! Somehow I accidently bought a Dell computer in the [expletive]-up process, too!”
One source admitted that there were glitches in the initial practice run, but that these will be worked out over time.
“Our goal is to bring the phone wait times down under 5-minutes,” commented a source close to the league. “There will always be a delay, hell the officials in India are actually Cricket umpires, and have never even seen a hockey game, but they are damn cheap. We can get ten of them for less than we pay one U.S. official here in the States. This is a win-win for the league.”
In subsequent phases, entire teams may be moved to India as well. This does not bode well for many players and their families, as they will be required to re-locate or find another league to play in. Sources claim that they can get more players at a better rate in India. Even though the quality of play may go down for the first 20-30 years, this is something the league is willing to live with.
“We are reviewing team names right now,” admitted Rhamm Babbu, an external consultant to the league from Mumbai. “We are preparing to change the team names to things that make sense to us here in India. For example, the Old Dogs will become the Slum Dogs after that great movie of the same name. We don’t have Penguins over here in India, so we may just change their name to Tikka Masala, which is a very good Indian chicken dish. I think a Penguin is like a chicken, no?”
In a list that was leaked to the media, other team name changes include; the Maple Leafs becoming the Delhi Mayapuri Nagar, and the Scorpions being renamed the Rajasthan Royals. The only name that will not be changed so far is Analog, which already does a lot of outsourcing in India.
Although all indications point to mass protest over this move, there has been no official comment over these allegations from the league. As of now, players are left wondering about their future in the NESHL or the NISHL if the transition takes place.
No comments:
Post a Comment