It is that time of year: the start of the Elite League season is just weeks away and British Ice Hockey would love to know how you are feeling about your team and their rivals ahead of puck drop.
With that in mind, we are conducting an anonymous preseason survey to tap into fan sentiment.
Will the Belfast Giants retain their regular season title, share your prediction in the 2022-23 Elite League Fan Survey (Image: Dean Woolley)
The wisdom of the crowd is an underrated way of detecting how the sands are shifting in sport, mainly because you – fans – are the lifeblood of hockey in the United Kingdom.
If not for your ticket purchases, jersey sponsorships, or trips to the bar in the second intermission, the Elite League would not exist. This survey, then, is a chance for your voice to be heard before the upcoming campaign.
Elite League Fan Survey: How Does It Work?
The following survey is split into two sections, covering division-wide predictions and an evaluation of how confident you feel in your favourite Elite League team.
While the first section is self-explanatory, it is worth drilling down into the second half – when you are asked to rank your club in four areas. Here is a short explainer of each category:
Roster Building: How the club has managed its roster, including contract length and squad composition. In other words, how confident are you that your team has built a balanced squad capable of meeting expectations?
Player Development: How the organisation has managed its players, including homegrowns and imports. In other words, how confident are you that your franchise improves its players?
Long-Term Planning: How the front office communicates its vision to fans, including explicitly (what they tell you in press releases) and implicitly (the players they sign and coaches they hire). In other words, how confident are you that your team has a plan for the future?
Head Coach Quality: Finally, are you confident in your head coach?
In effect, this boils down to a key question: do you believe your club is heading in the right direction?
Will Omar Pacha deliver glory to the Motorpoint Arena as CEO of the Nottingham Panthers? Let us know what you think in the 2022-23 Elite League fan survey (Image: Dean Woolley)
The results of the survey will be published just before the buzzer sounds for the new season, with the final deadline for responses set for Wednesday, 31 August at 17:00 BST.
Click here to participate in the survey.
Thank you for participating in our anonymous questionnaire, please share it with your hockey-watching friends!
2022-23 Elite League Roster Pages:
Throughout the offseason, Luke James has been curating squad summary articles for each of the Elite League’s clubs. You can find them below: