September « 2011 « billsportsmaps.com

September 24, 2011

NHL 2011-2012 Location Map, with average attendances from 2010-2011 regular season, and Stanley Cup titles’ list (active teams) / With a short article on the arrival of European players into major-league ice hockey in North America, featuring the Hot Line of Hull/Hedberg/Nilsson (Winnipeg Jets 1974-78) / Plus Winnipeg Jets (II), logos / Plus Winnipeg Jets (I): a graphic synopsis of the franchise that is now based in Phoenix.

Filed under: Hockey,Hockey-NHL and expansion — admin @ 8:52 pm

NHL, 2011-12 location map, with 2010-11 avg. attendances, and all-time titles list
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NHL.com
For the fifth-straight season, the NHL will begin the season by playing a set of games in Europe…
‘NHL to play regular-season games in Europe again‘.
The 2011-2012 NHL regular season will begin on October 6. On October 7, 2 games will be played in Europe – one of which is the Anaheim Ducks versus the Buffalo Sabres in Helsinki, Finland. It is no coincidence that the Ducks are playing in Finland, because Helsinki is the birthplace of their 18-year veteran superstar Teemu Selänne, who plays Right Wing and is 41 years old, yet still was the 8th-highest scorer in the NHL last season (with 80 points). In fact, there are 4 Finnish players on Anaheim, the other three being the Ducks’ captain, and two-time-All-Star, the Center Saku Koivu; Defenseman Toni Lydman, and Goalie Iiro Tarkki. The Anaheim Ducks currently have 7 European players on their roster [all the roster lists linked to here were as of Sept.24,2011]. The Buffalo Sabres also currently have 7 European players on their roster, including Finnish LW Vinne Leino.

Also on October 7, the Los Angeles Kings will play the New York Rangers in Stockholm, Sweden. On the LA Kings’ current roster is 1 European playerr. The New York Rangers boast 8 European players on their current roster, including 3 Swedes, most notably their starting Goalie Henrik Lundqvist, as well as LW Carl Hagelin and RW Andreas Thuresson.

The following day (October 8) Stockholm, Sweden will host another regular-season game, with the Ducks vs. the Rangers; while the Sabres and the Kings will play in Berlin, Germany [this will the first-ever regular-season-NHL-game in Germany]. Buffalo has 2 German players on their current roster – D Christian Ehrhoff (ex-Vancouver Canuck), and assistant-captain and 8-season-Sabres’-veteran, the Left Winger Jochen Hecht.

Granted, team rosters are preseason-bloated and have not been pared down, but I think you get the idea. There are an awful lot of European players playing in the National Hockey League these days. And that brings us to my segue… the North American teams that were the trailblazers in utilizing European-born and European-raised talent. Sure, the New York Rangers had the first European-born-and-raised NHL player, Swedish 1964 Olympic Silver Medalist Ulf Sterner, who played 4 games for the New York Rangers in 1964-1965. But the first two major-league hockey teams in North America who played European players on a regular basis were the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Winnipeg Jets of the World Hockey Association. In 1973-1974, with the Swedes Borje Salming (D), and Inge Hammarström (LW), the Maple Leafs blazed the trail {here is the Hockey Hall of Fame site’s page on Borje Salming; here is an article on Borje Salming’s impact on the game in North America from Greatest Hockey Legends.com}. The following season, 1974-1975, the Winnipeg Jets signed three other Swedes, two of whom would go on to have a huge impact on the offensive style of ice hockey in North America. Those two players were Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, who, when teamed with legendary Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, formed the “Hot Line’” [Note: the third Swedish-born player who also played on the Jets back then was Defenseman Lars-Erik Sjöberg (1974-80 on Winnipeg), and Sjöberg usually played on the same shift with the Hull/Hedbergh/Nilsson line].

The two Swedes on Toronto, and Borje Salming in particular, showed that Europeans could hack it in major-league North American hockey. But the two Swedes who began playing for Winnipeg a year later would go on to prove that Europeans could win titles in North America. The trio of Nilsson (C), Hull (LW), and Hedberg (RW) played a swift, inter-weaving style of ice hockey that threw away the notion that wingers must stay in their channels. With their puck-handling skills and speed, they were able to control the flow of the game. On counter-attacks, when they switched positions as the need arose, they were swift and deadly.
From Rebel League - The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association, by Ed Willes (McLellan & Stewart, Toronto, 2004) -
{excerpt…”You could argue whether the Hull-Hedberg-Nilsson line – the Hot Line – was the best line in the game’s history, but they were inarguably the most influential. They played together for just four years, but when they were done practically every NHL team was trying to capture the magical combination of speed, skill, and creativity the line possessed. Glen Sather built his Edmonton Oilers dynasty on the Jets model. The modern transition game was pioneered by Hull and his colleagues, as was the practice of interchanging forward roles on the rush. The numbers they accumulated in their four seasons together are staggering, but they played in a league without a television contract, which means most of their legacy is anecdotal and almost mythic. In the end it only seems to add to their aura. And if the NHL never saw the best of Hedberg and Nilsson, in much the same way the NBA never saw the best of Julius Erving, it makes their four years in Winnipeg that much more memorable.
“They revolutionized the game,” says André Lacroix, the seven-year WHA veteran. “They said, Just because you play left wing doesn’t mean you have to go up and down your wing like a robot. You can use the whole ice. It was exciting”.
“…end of excerpt}

Hull, Hedberg, and Nilsson skated circles around the opposition and revolutionized the game in North America, and led Winnipeg to the first 2 of the team’s 3 WHA titles. Here’s a few numbers …in 1974-75, in their first season together, Ulf Nilsson had an astounding 94 assists (for 120 points). In 1977-78, en route to the second of Winnipeg’s 3 WHA titles, Anders Hedberg scored 76 goals in an 81-game season (and became the first-ever to score 50 goals in 50 games), and between the three of them the Hot Line amassed 365 points that season. This sort of offensive domination kick-started a scramble amongst other teams to get some European players of their own. The other WHA teams, and, more importantly, other NHL teams, soon began to dip into the vast European talent pool, to the point where, some 37 years later, roughly 25 to 30 percent of NHL players are European.
From en.wikipedia.org, ‘List of NHL statistical leaders by country‘.

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Lack-of-new-content disclaimer…This map, which you can see by clicking on the image at the top of this post, and which I originally posted around 3 years ago {here} is basically an excuse to show off the new Winnipeg Jets (II), whose franchise moved from Atlanta, Georgia, USA to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada in June 2011, returning NHL hockey to Manitoba and the Canadian prairies after a 15-year absence. Thank you Gods of Hockey, for relocating a team, for once, in the proper direction. When a new NHL team comes to the Sunbelt, the collective response there is “Meh”. When a new NHL team comes to a Canadian city, the collective response there is to sell out the entire allotment of season tickets in a matter of minutes. From The Winnipeg Free Press, from June 4, 2011, by Ed Tait “Season ticket wait list capped at 8,000 following 17-minute sellout‘.
Thanks to the Canadians who got this team out of the Deep South and into the frozen North, where major league hockey teams belong. You’re next, Phoenix.

Photo credit – shop.nhl.com

‘Winnipeg Jets‘ at en.wikipedia.org.
Jets.nhl.com

Winnipeg Jets (I), 1972-1973 to 1995-1996.
7 seasons in WHA, 3 Avco Cup titles. 17 seasons in NHL.

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Photo of Stanley Cup from Photobucket.com.
Photo credits (pucks) – ClassicAuctions.net (1930s) . ClassicAuctions.net (ca. late 1950s/early 1960s) . ClassicAuctions.net (“Original Six teams [on reverse of puck]). ClassicAuctions.net , here (ca. 1960s) . GasolinAlleyAntiques.com , here (ca. 1970s) . GasolineAlleyAntiques.com (1974-1983) .PittsburghHockey.net [75th] . GasolineAlley.com (ca. 1995-2008) Collectible-Supplies.com (2011 Stanley Cup Finlas puck).Amazon.com [Boston Bruins, who were 2010-11 NHL champions] .

Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘National Hockey League‘.
Thanks to ESPN for 2010-11 NHL attendances, here.
Thanks to RoadTraficSigns.com, for the arrow-sign.
Thanks to Ed Willes, for his book on the WHA…‘Rebel League, the short and unruly life of the World Hockey Association’, published by McLelland & Stewart, Toronto, 2004 {at Amazon, here}.

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September 20, 2011

Croatia: 1.HNL (the Croatian First Division).

Filed under: Croatia — admin @ 9:51 pm

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Soccerway.com/1.HNL – Results, fixtures, table

Croatia is a crescent-shaped nation of around 4.29 million {2011 census figure} that has an area of 56,594 square km. (21,851 sq. mi.), which makes Croatia slightly smaller in area than the state of West Virginia, and slightly smaller in area than the nation of Latvia. Croatia is situated in Central Europe at the northern end of the Balkan Peninsula and the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The Croatian first division is currently [Sept.2011] ranked #20 by UEFA for play in Europen competitions (up 2 places from #22) {UEFA league coefficients}. Croatia’s relatively high UEFA league coefficient is the result of decent performances in Europe these past few years by the two biggest Croatian clubs – Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split. Hajduk Split qualified for last season’s [2010-11] Europa League Group Stage, and Dinamo Zagreb have qualified for this season’s [2011-12] Champions League Group Stage {my 2011-12 UEFA CL Group Stage map, here}.

Croatia became independent in 1991, leaving the Second Yugoslavia (the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which existed from 1945 to 1992). {The 6 republics of the former SFR Yugoslavia can be seen here}). A bloody and wrenching conflict with the rump-state of Yugoslavia [which was by then effectively controlled by Serbia], and conflict also with militarized ethnic Serbians within Croatia, preceded and followed Croatia’s independence, and is known as the Croatian War of Independence (1991-95).
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In the Croatian language, Croatia is known as Hrvatska. The Croatian first division is called the Prva HNL (Prva Hrvatska Nogometna Liga), or 1.HNL [Nogometna means 'Football' in Croatian]. There are 16 clubs in 1.HNL (up from 12 clubs after 2008-09). However, the Croatian Football Federation has decided to reverse this, and so 5 clubs will be relegated (and 1 club promoted up from the second division) at the end of the 2011-12 season, so as to return the 1.HNL to a more realistic 12-team league. I say more realistic, because a glance at the 2010-11 average attendance figures in Croatia (which you can see on the map page) will tell you that there are some pretty tiny clubs making up the numbers in top flight Croatian football – last season 3 clubs in 1.HNL did not even draw 1,000 per game on average, and only 5 clubs drew above 2,000 per game. The best-drawing club in Croatia is Hajduk Split, who drew 6,933 per game in 2010-11. Dinamo Zagreb drew second-best in 2010-11, averaging 3,560 per game – a figure that is pretty low for a 6-time-straight champion. Dinamo Zagreb has recently drawn as high as 11,156 per game (in 2005-06). But Dinamo Zagreb has seen an attendance drop in recent seasons that is partly explained by the fact that a considerable segment of their supporters have been boycotting games because of a feud with the club’s executive vice-president. Also, because the Croatian top flight has become such a two-horse race, many fans of the 2 top clubs have been turned off to the domestic competition. Their focus is on Europe. Here are some recent examples… Hajduk Split averaged 27,333 per game in their 3 Europa League home matches in 2010. Dinamo Zagreb drew 30,065 for their Champions League Play-off round tie in August 2011 versus Malmö FF (which Dinamo won 4-1 en route to a 4-3 aggregate victory); and Dinamo drew close to a full house, with a 34,847 turnstile count, in their 14th September 2011 Champions League match versus Real Madrid (which they lost 0-1) {Report on that match, with illustrations incl. an aerial view of the Stadion Maksimir that night, here (from CroatianSoccerReport.com}.

The Prva HNL was formed in 1991 [the Yugoslav First League lasted one more season before being dissolved in 1992]. The Prva HNL began it’s first, truncated season in Feb.1992. The 1.HNL runs from August to May, with an 8-week winter hiatus from late December to early February. All teams currently play each other twice, for a 30-game season. Last place finisher in 1.HNL is automatically relegated to the Druga HNL (aka 2.HNL), while the 15th place finisher must play the 2nd place finisher in 2.HNL in a promotion/relegation play-off.

There will obviously be a different arrangement next season [2012-13], with a 12-team/33-game/3-times-versus-other-teams format the most likely arrangement.
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As alluded to earlier, the Croatian first division is dominated by two clubs – Dinamo Zagreb, and Hajduk Split. These 2 clubs have won 19 of the 20 Croatian titles. The remaining title, from 2001-02, was won by the tiny west-Zagreb-based NK Zagreb (more on them further down).

Dinamo Zagreb are from the largest and capital-city of Croatia. Zagreb’s metro-area population is around 1.28 million {2011 figure}. [Dinamo Zagreb are one of 4 clubs from the capital that are currently in the Croatian top flight, the other 3 being: Lokomotiva, the newly-promoted NK Lučko, and the aforementioned NK Zagreb.] Dinamo Zagreb play in the city-owned Stadion Maksimir, which was opened in 1912, and renovated and expanded to a 38,923-capacity in 1997. The stadium, which takes it’s name from the Maksimir neighborhood on the east-side of Zagreb, is often home to the Croatian national football team. Dinamo Zagreb were formed in 1945, but it’s roots are in a club called Gradanski Zagreb.

Image credits – http://zagrebsblues.webs.com/2.htm

Gradanski Zagreb were formed in 1911, when Croatia was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Gradanski became the football club for working-class fans in Zagreb (as opposed to their major city-rivals HASK, which were the club of the upper-class and were affiliated with the University of Zagreb and it’s students). Gradanski won 5 Kingdom of Yugoslavia First League titles, with their last national title in 1939-40, which was the last season of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia phase (1923-40) of the Yugoslav First League. Gradanski Zagreb, along with 2 other Zagreb-based clubs – Concordia and HASK – were disbanded by the Yugoslav Communist Party immediately after the end of World War II, primarily for playing in the pro league of the short-lived Nazi-puppet-state called the Independent State of Croatia (1941-45).

Dinamo Zagreb became a charter member of the second-phase of the Yugoslav First League (which ran from 1946-47 to 1991-92). They won 4 Yugoslav titles during this phase. However, they had not won a title for 10 years when the Croatian clubs in the Yugoslav league system departed for the new Croatian league system in 1991. Of course, once the Croatian top flight was established, Dinamo Zagreb became, along with Hajduk Split, the dominant powers in Croatian football. Counting their entire existence in both Yugoslav and Croatian football, Dinamo Zagreb have never been relegated (1945-46 to 2011-12). Currently, Dinamo Zagreb are on a 6-season title-streak, having won every 1.HNL title since 2005-06, and again, Dinamo Zagreb sit atop the 1.HNL table [with a 5-point lead over Hajduk Split as of 20 Sept.2011].
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Hajduk Split were, like Gradanski Zagreb, also formed in 1911 (so 2011 is Hajduk Split’s Centenary Year). Split is a very old city, around 1,700 years old. Split has a city population of around 178,000 {2011 census figure}. ‘Hajduk’ is a term that refers to outlaws, freedom-fighters or guerrillas – sort of like a Balkan Robin Hood-figure. In Balkan folklore, the Hajduci (plural) were romanticized heroes who stole from, and battled against, the Ottoman authorities. This concept was especially resonant in Split circa 1911. That is because Split, as part of the Dalmatia region on the Adriatic coast, was prevented by their Austo-Hungarian rulers back then from being unified with the inland sections of land on the Balkan Peninsula historically populated by Croats.

Photo from Hajduk.hr via Skyscrapercity.com, here.

Hajduk Split won 2 Yugoslav First League titles pre-WWII (in 1927 and 1929), and, impressively for a club representing such a medium-sized city, Hajduk Split won 7 Yugoslav First League titles during the Communist era – their first title from this era was in 1949-50, and their last Yugoslav title was in 1978-79. So, just like Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Spit had not won a title in over decade when the Croatian league was started in 1992. Hajduk Split have won 6 Prva HNL titles, with their last in 2004-05 (Split finished second in 2006-07, 08/09, 09/10, and 10/11; while eastern Croatian side Slaven [Koprivnica] were runners-up in 2007-08, and north-western Croatian side Rijeka were runners-up in 2005-06). Like Dinamo Zagreb, Hajduk Split have never been relegated, which puts Hajduk Split as having played in the first division since 1923.
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Finally, the only other Croatian champion besides Dinamo Zagreb and Hajduk Split needs mentioning. NK Zagreb is a club that plays in another municipally-owned stadium in Zagreb, Stadion Kranjčevićeva, which has a 8,850 capacity, and is located in Trešnjevka, Zagreb. Trešnjevka is a large neighborhood in the western part of the city [note: just-promoted side NK Lučko are also playing there this season]. NK Zagreb have played in all 20 seasons of the Croatian top flight, as well as 19 seasons in the old Yugoslav First League. NK Zagreb uses the city of Zagreb’s coat of arms as it’s crest, and the fact that one of the design elements in that coat of arms is a Muslin crescent-moon is appropriate, because NK Zagreb is a club that is opposed to all forms of discrimination (be it ethnic, religious, or otherwise). The club also has a strong anti-hooliganism policy. As to the question of how NK Zagreb, a club that is hard-pressed to draw 1,000 per game these days, could have won the 2001-02 Croatian title, well, take a look at the numbers that Ivica Olić had that season. Ivica Olić is a Croatia international striker who currently plays for Bayern Munich. Olić famously scored the winning goal at Wembley that saw England eliminated from qualifying for Euro 2008. In 2001-02, as part of the NK Zagreb squad, Olić scored 21 goals in 28 matches (in a 30-game season). Also, NK Zagreb benefited that season from the experienced leadership of the much-travelled manager Zlatko Kranjčar (who is a former coach of the Croatia national team; a title-winning manager with Dinamo Zagreb in 1996 and 1998; and is the father of Tottenham midfielder Niko Kranjčar). NK Zagreb drew 3,387 per game in their championship-winning season of 2001-02, but last season [2010-11], they drew only 980 per game.
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Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘Prva HNL’.
Thanks to European-Football-Statistics.co.uk, for attendance data.
Thanks to Demis.nl, for the base map – Demis Web Map Server.

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September 14, 2011

2011-12 UEFA Europa League, Group Stage – attendance map (with attendance data from 2010-2011 domestic leagues, home matches).

Filed under: UEFA Cup / Europa League — admin @ 9:43 pm

First matches are on 15 September {uefa.com/Europa League matches}.
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Click on the following Category, UEFA – clubs that qualified for Europe, to see club profiles/stadium photos of clubs in this competition that are from UEFA’s top 5-rated national leagues (of England, Spain, Italy, France and Germany). From the 5 posts, you can see 12 teams in the 2011-12 Europa League Group Stage (4 from England, 2 from Spain, 2 from Italy, 2 from Germany, and 2 from France).
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Thanks to European-Football-Statistics.co.uk, for attendance data.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2011–12 UEFA Europa League‘.
Thanks to free-football.tv, for the photo of the Europa League football.

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September 7, 2011

NCAA Division I FBS: Pac-12 Conference, 2011 season – attendance map (2010 figures) / Plus modern-era helmet history chart of Pac-12 teams / Plus maps of each of the two Pac-12 football divisions: the North Division and the South Division.

Filed under: NCAA Gridiron Football,NCAA/fb>Helmet History,NCAA/fb-Pac 10 & Pac-12 — admin @ 9:16 pm

Pac-12 Attendance map (2010 figures)

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This post has 5 gifs. The first gif, which you can see by clicking on the image above, is an attendance map of Pac-12 football teams, using 2010 home average attendances. Locations of the teams’ home stadiums are shown. Each team’s helmet (current home-uniform or base-uniform helmet) is shown, and is sized to reflect 2010 average attendance – the higher the average attendance, the larger the helmet. For gate figures, I used info from this pdf (from NCAA.com) – pdf, 2010 NCAA Division I FBS Attendance. The list in the upper-middle of the map page shows the teams’ 2010 average attendances, as well as percent-change from the 2009 season. Below that is a list of all-time titles for the Conference (PCC/AAWU/Pac-8/Pac-10/Pac-12, from 1916 to 2010). Years spent in the conference by each team is also noted. At the bottom, I have included the titles won from the 2 new teams’ previous conferences (Colorado coming over from the Big 12 Conference, and Utah coming over from the Mountain West Conference).
A brief history of the Pac-12 Conference and it’s previous permutations can be found 4 paragraphs down.
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The second gif (click on image below) is a chart of the modern-era helmet histories of the 12 teams in the Pac-12. By “modern-era” I mean the era of plastic composite football helmets, which began from the time right after World War II to the mid-1950s. During this 1946-to-circa-1955 time period, some college football programs took longer than others to stop using the decidedly less-safe leather helmets. I am pretty sure this chart is not 100% comprehensive, because I suspect a couple teams (Arizona and Oregon State) had earlier helmet designs at the start of the plastic composite helmet era (circa 1950-59), but I could not find confirmation of that. I pinned down helmet designs, helmet design changes, and dates the helmet designs were used mainly through two excellent sites – The Helmet Project (at National Champs.net), and the brilliant Helmet Hut.com. I can’t thank the people who run these sites enough. I don’t know the Helmet Hut guys’ names, but the Helmet Project site is the work of Charles Arey, so thanks very much, Charles.

One new aspect of the layout of the helmet history chart – the current [2011] helmet(s) of each Pac-12 team can be found in the gray-shaded section at the far right of the chart page. First, the large illustrations of each team’s primary helmet are displayed (these illustrations are from the excellent site called MG’s Helmets). Then there are small side-view & front-views of all the teams’ current helmets shown (these illustrations are from each team’s Wikipedia page [which, in their original form include the full uniforms], and were drawn by Wikipedia-user Kevin W). {All of Kevin W.’s college football teams’ uniforms illustrations can be found at a spot in Wikipedia, here}. So thanks very much to MG down there in Birmingham, AL; and thanks to Kevin W.
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A brief history of the college football conference now known as the Pac-12

The conference that is now named the Pacific-12 (Pac-12) was formed in 1959. It’s roots are in the Pacific Coast Conference, which began play for football in 1916, and existed from 1915 to 1959. Founding schools in the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) were California (of Berkeley, CA), Washington (of Seattle, WA), Oregon (of Salem, OR), and Oregon State (of Corvallis, OR). The following year, 1917, Washington State (of Pullman, WA) joined. Stanford (of Palo Alto, CA) joined the next year, 1918. In 1922, the conference expanded to 8 teams with the addition of Southern California [ie, USC] (of Los Angeles, CA), and Idaho (of Moscow, ID). Montana (of Missoula, MT) joined in 1924. The PCC swelled to 10 teams when UCLA (of Los Angeles, CA) joined in 1928. Montana left the PCC in 1950, to join the Mountain States Conference. The dominant schools in Pacific Coast Conference football were the four California schools. UCLA won 12 Conference titles, both USC and California won 11 titles, and Stanford won 8 titles. The 6 other schools won a total of 14 titles, with the highest being Oregon with 5 titles. The two Rocky Mountain schools, Idaho and Montana, never won a football title.

The divide between the 4 California schools and the other 6 schools was also evident in another way. Many university leaders in the California schools considered the Northwest schools academically inferior, and advocated a split to form a separate California conference, for schools that held a higher standard of the student athlete.

So it is ironic that the split-up of the Pacific Coast Conference came about after a scandal involving illegal payments to players on the UCLA and USC teams. UCLA officials and coaches eventually admitted to widespread payments to players, and in turn blew the whistle on phony USC programs that paid players. 3 of the 4 California schools (but not Stanford), as well as Washington, were eventually implicated in the pay-for-play scandal, and the PCC disbanded in 1959.

In July, 1959, the Athletic Association of Western Universities was formed, comprising California, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington. This in spite of the fact that many at Stanford had wanted UCLA to be expelled for their part in the pay-for-play/ slush fund scandal. For it’s first few years, 1960-’62, the AAWU was popularly known as the Big Five. The Northwest schools were initially blocked from joining, but Washington State was able to join in 1962, and it became known as the Big Six. Oregon and Oregon State were finally able to join in 1964. Idaho was never invited, and stayed independent until joining the Big Sky Conference in 1963.

In 1968, the AAWU changed it’s name to the Pacific 8 Conference, aka the Pac-8.
In 1978, the conference added two schools from the Western Athletic conference: Arizona State (Tempe, AZ), and Arizona (Tuscon, AZ), and changed it’s name to the Pacific-10 Conference, aka the Pac-10.

In 2011, the conference added two schools, one who left the the Big 12 Conference – Colorado (Boulder, CO); and one who left the Mountain West Conference – Utah (Salt Lake City, UT). The conference changed it’s name to the Pacific-12 Conference, aka the Pac-12. The football conference branch of the larger all-sports Pac-12 changed the structure of it’s competition by instituting a 2-division format (North and South Division), with a Pac-12 football championship final to be played each December (at the home field of the divisional finalist with the best record).
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The 3rd gif and the 4th gif show the new breakdown of teams by division in Pac-12 football (North Division and South Division).

The crucial detail is that all 4 California teams – 2 in the North Division (Cal and Stanford) and 2 in the South Division (UCLA and Southern Cal) – will be playing each other every season. That and other details concerning the new divisional structure are shown in the center of both divisional maps here via a screenshot I took from en.wikipedia’s page on the subject {the link for that page is at the very bottom of this post}.
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Below is the 5th gif, the 2011 Maryland Terrapins’ new alternate helmet and new alternate uniforms -

From HuffingtonPost.com, from 5 September 2011,’University Of Maryland Football Uniforms By Under Armour Create Buzz On Twitter (PHOTOS/TWEETS)‘.
http://www.nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/
From PalmBeachPost.com, ‘Maryland Terrapins’ new uniforms elicit a storm of fashion criticism‘. [Note: you can also see the new alternate helmets and new alternate uniforms of Georgia and Boise State at this link.]
From Washingtonpost.com, ‘University of Maryland football defeats Miami in season opener [w/ gallery]‘.
From SBnation.com/NCAA-football, ‘PHOTO: Maryland’s New Helmets…‘.
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Credits for Pac-12 Helmet History Chart -
Thanks to http://www.sports-logos-screensavers.com/NationalCollegiateAthleticsAssociation.html .
Thanks to Helmet Hut/College helmets.
Thanks to the Helmet Project page at http://nationalchamps.net/Helmet_Project/pac10.htm
Thanks to MG’s Helmets, for current [2011] Pac 12 football helmets.
Thanks to jennypenny1 at this address at E-Bay – http://stores.ebay.com/The-Football-Helmet-Store/NCAA-Game-Used-Helmets-/_i.html?rt=nc&_fsub=289111719&_sid=877628519&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1513&_pgn=2
Thanks to Amazon.com for the photo of the circa 1960 Oregon State helmet.
Thanks to MonsterMarketplace.com for the Cal 1987-2007 helmet photo, here.
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Credits for Pac-12 Attendance Map (2010 figures) -
Thanks to these sites for the helmet photos…
Arizona new white helmet (white, with asymmetrical red/white/navy stripes, and with white face mask), from the Arizona Wildcats official site’s gallery page, here.
Arizona State new home helmet (sunflower yellow, new pitchfork logo, with maroon face mask), from an article at the EastValleyTribune.com site, here.
Cal helmet from Fathead.com, here.
Colorado helmet from Fan’sEdge.com, here.
Oregon helmet (primary-uniform helmet) from Wallpaperborders.org, here.
Oregon State helmet from SportsBlink.com, here.
Stanford helmet from OmniSports.com [link was broken], here.
UCLA helmet from Fathead.com, here.
USC helmet from SportsCrack.comhere.
Utah helmet from SportsCrack.com, here.
Washington University helmet fromFathead.com, here.
Washington helmet from Fathead.com, here.
Washington State new home helmet (with grey, not maroon, face mask), here [link was broken to Cougars team shop, here].
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Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2011 Pacific-12 Conference football season‘.
Thanks to NCAA.com, for attendance figures.

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September 1, 2011

2011-12 UEFA Champions League, Group Stage – attendance map (with attendance data from 2010-2011 domestic leagues, home matches).

Filed under: UEFA Champions League — admin @ 8:14 pm

2011-12 UEFA Champions League Group Stage attendance map

First matchday for the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League Group Stage is 13 and 14 September to see fixtures click on the following link –
{uefa.com/Champions League schedule}.
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The map on the map page shows the locations all 32 clubs in the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League Group Stage. Club crests are sized to reflect average attendance from 2010-2011 domestic leagues (home matches). At the left of the map and map segments are all the clubs listed by average attendance last season, along with attendance change versus 2009-2010 gate figures.
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If you missed it thus summer, I have charts with stadium photos of clubs playing in Europe in 2011-12 from these countries – England, Spain, Italy, Germany, and France. Click on the following category – UEFA: Clubs that qualified for Europe – to see those 5 posts featuring 17 football clubs in the 2011-12 UEFA CL Group Stage [4 clubs from England; 4 clubs from Spain; 3 clubs from Italy; 3 clubs from Germany; 3 clubs from France].
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Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendance data.
Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedia.org, ‘2011-12 UEFA Champions League‘.

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