billsportsmaps.com

February 26, 2024

CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2023-24 location-map of the 60 teams (22 WHL teams, 20 OHL teams, 18 QMJHL teams), plus chart: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (to 2023)./+New team in the WHL for 2023-24…the Wenatchee Wild (of Wenatchee, Washington, USA).

chl_canadian-hockey-league_2023-24_location-map_60-teams_whl_ohl_qmjhl_w-2023-attendances_post_c_.gif
CHL (Canadian Hockey League): 2023-24 location-map of the 60 teams, plus chart: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (to 2023)



By Bill Turianski on the 26th of February 2024; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.

Links…
-chl.ca.
-ontariohockeyleague.com.
-theqmjhl.ca. lhjmq.qc.ca (Fr).
-whl.ca.

Canadian Hockey League (CHL): the umbrella-organization for the 3 leagues of Major Junior Hockey in Canada. The 3 leagues are: the Western Hockey League (WHL, est. 1966), the Ontario Hockey League (OHL, est. 1933), and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL/ LMJHQ in French, est. 1969). 60 teams: in the CHL-system, there are 51 teams from Canada (from 9 Canadian provinces), and there are 9 teams from the USA (from 4 American states). The CHL as the umbrella-organization was established in 1975, but as mentioned, the three individual leagues were established earlier; see league side-bars on the upper-part of the map for more info. Also, see this…Quebec Major Junior Hockey League changes name to better represent its 6 Maritime teams (cbc.ca/sports, from 14 Dec. 2023).

CHL teams are for players aged 16-20. Two non-North-American-born players are allowed per team; overage, and underage player-waivers are sometimes allowed. Players receive stipend & board, and believe it or not, this actually qualifies as pay in the NCAA’s monopolistic view, so players who commit to an OHL or QMJHL or WHL team in the CHL-system become ineligible to play later on in the USA in the NCAA-system. Whereas around 30% of NHL players have had a US-collegiate career prior to signing in the NHL, a larger percentage – of around 47-to-48% – of all NHL players originally played in Canadian Major Junior hockey {see this, from the Washington Post}.

The winners of the 3 leagues each season contest the Memorial Cup Tournament (est. 1919), which is usually played in the month of May. The Memorial Cup is a 4-team round-robin competition, which comprises the WHL champion, the OHL champion, the QMJHL champion, plus the host team.

The map is a location-map with the three league’s areas tinted.
The chart on the far-left-hand-side shows: Memorial Cup Tournament Appearances & Titles by current CHL teams (to 2023), and lists 2 things for each team…
-Number of Memorial Cup titles (host-team status noted by italics).
-Number of Memorial Cup tournament appearances (host-team status noted by italics).

26 of the 60 current CHL teams have won a Memorial Cup title.
The reigning champions are the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, who won their third Memorial Cup title on the 4th of June 2023 in Kamloops, British Columbia, beating the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL 5-0. {See this, Quebec Remparts win 2023 Memorial Cup (globalnews.ca/news).} It was the Quebec Remparts’ 3rd Memorial Cup title. The most titles won by a current CHL team is the 5 titles won by the OHL’s Oshawa Generals (who last won it in 2015). The most Memorial Cup tournament appearances is 16 appearances, by the oldest Major Junior hockey team, the WHL’s Regina St. Pats (established in 1917, in Regina, Saskatchewan).

The 2023-24 CHL season, with about 80-to-85% of the season played [as of the 27th of February 2024]…
- QMJHL. chl.ca/lhjmq/en. Standings with avg. attendances: hockeydb.com/[QMJHL].
(Reigning champions: Quebec Remparts.)
The top 3 teams in the QMJHL currently are: Baie-Comeau Drakkar, Drummondville Voltigeurs, and Victoriaville Tigres.
Top attendance draws in QMJHL currently are: Quebec Remparts (at 9.5-K-per-game), Halifax Mooseheads (at 8.2-K-per-game), and Moncton Wildcats (at 4.5-K-per-game).

-OHL. chl.ca/ohl. Standings with avg. attendances: hockeydb.com/[OHL].
(Reigning champions: Peterborough Petes.)
The top 3 teams in the OHL currently are: London Knights, Saginaw Spirit, and Soo Greyhounds.
Top attendance draws in OHL currently are: London Knights (at 9.0-K-per-game), Kitchener Rangers (at 6.4-K-per-game), and Oshawa Generals (4.9-K-per-game).

-WHL. chl.ca/whl. Standings with avg. attendances: hockeydb.com/[WHL].
(Reigning champions: Seattle Thunderbirds.)
The top 3 teams in the WHL currently are: Saskatoon Blades, Prince George Cougars, and Portland Winterhawks.
Top attendance draws in WHL currently are: Edmonton Oil Kings (at 6.6-K-per-game), Everett Silvertips (at 5.8-K-per-game), and Saskatoon Blades (at 4.9-K-per-game).




The 2024 Memorial Cup tournament will be hosted by the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL, at the 5,500-capacity Dow Event Center in Saginaw, Michigan, USA in late May/early June. This will be the 5th time that an American-based team will host the Memorial Cup tournament, and the first time in 26 years. (Years that American-based teams that have previously hosted the Memorial Cup tournament…1983 and 1986: Portland Winterhawks [WHL] of Portland, Oregon; 1992: Seattle Thunderbirds [WHL] of Seattle, Washington; 1998: Spokane Chiefs [WHL] of Spokane, Washington. Of those four tournaments, the host-team, Portland, won it their first time in 1983. The other 3 times the host-team didn’t win. Although in 1998, Spokane hosted it, but Portland, that season’s WHL champion, won it. The Portland Winterhawks have won 2 Memorial Cup titles (1983, 1998); the Spokane Chiefs also have won 2 Memorial Cup titles (1991, 2008). Those 4 titles are the only Memorial Cup titles won by American-based teams, although there have been 4 other times an American-based team was a finalist… the Detroit Junior Red Wings [ex-OHL] in 1985, the Portland Winterhawks again in 2013, the Erie Otters [OHL] in 2017, and the Seattle Thunderbirds [WHL] last season in 2023.

    2 new teams in the CHL for 2023-24: Brantford Bulldogs [OHL]; Wenatchee Wild [WHL]

Temporary new team in the OHL for 2023-24…the Brantford Bulldogs (of Brantford, Ontario).
From 2023-24 to 2025-26 for 3 seasons, due to renovations to the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, the Hamilton Bulldogs will be playing in Brantford, ON as the Brantford Bulldogs. They will play at the Brantford Civic Centre. Brantford, ON is located, by road, 38 km (24 mi) WSW of Hamilton, ON. I have shown both locations on the map. The team has moved from an 17.3-K-capacity venue to a 2.9-K-capacity venue. But the Bulldogs only drew 3.7-K-per-game in Hamilton last season anyway, despite recent success (as 2022 Memorial Cup finalist).

New team in the WHL for 2023-24…the Wenatchee Wild (of Wenatchee, Washington, USA).
WHL Franchise shift…The Winnipeg Ice franchise moved from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Wenatchee, Washington, USA…becoming the Wenatchee Wild. Wenatchee, WA is located, by road, 238 km (148 mi) E of Seattle, WA. After 57 games [up to the 27th of February], Wenatchee have 64 points and are in 3rd in the WHL American division. The Wild are drawing 2.9-K-per-game at their 4.3-K-capacity venue. In the captions below you can see the team’s franchise history, which includes a 2002 Memorial Cup title, when the franchise was located in Cranbrook, British Columbia, and were called the Kootenay Ice.

wenatchee-wild_new_whl-team-2023-24_town-toyota-center_wenatchee-washington_f_.gif"
Photo credits above – Wenatchee, WA (taken from East Wenatchee), photo by Jakekoner at reddit.com/r/Washington. Aerial shot of Town Toyota Center, unattributed at in.daotaonec.edu.vn. Street-side shot of venue, unattributed at wenatcheevalleysports.com.

___
Thanks to all at the following…
-Canadian Hockey League (en.wikipedia.org).
-Photo of Memorial Cup (CHL), unattributed at hhof.com.
-Hockey ice photo from dreamstime.com.

February 1, 2024

2024 Copa Libertadores Map (47 teams) with Club Histories (Libertadores appearances & titles listed) + Population-chart of Cities with Teams in the 2024 Libertadores.

Filed under: Copa Libertadores — admin @ 2:01 pm

conmebol_copa-libertadores_2024_location-map_47-teams_post_f_.gif
2024 Copa Libertadores: location-map for the 47-team tournament, with Club Histories (total Libertadores appearances & titles listed)




By Bill Turianski on 1 February 2024; twitter.com/billsportsmaps.
Links…
-2024 Copa Libertadores (en.wikipedia.org).
-Summary: results, fixtures, standings (flashscore.co.uk).
-espn.com/[Libertadores].

This is the 65th edition of the Copa Libertadores, the most prestigious football tournament in South America. The 2024 tournament is the 8th since it was expanded in 2017, from 38 to 47 teams. Since then, no team from a country other than Brazil or Argentina has won the title (Brazilian teams have won it 6 times since the tournament-expansion, and an Argentinian team has won it once since then). And Brazilian sides have won the last five titles. (Copa Libertadores winner in 2023 was Fluminense, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; it was the club’s first Libertadores title. Copa Sudamericana winner in 2023 was LDU Quito, of Quito, Ecuador.)

This map includes the Preliminary-Stage teams:
There are 19 preliminary-stage teams…and only four of those 19 teams advance to the Group Stage. (Note: on the map-page, on the teams-by-country lists that flank the map, the 19 preliminary clubs are shown in italics, accented by a light tan-color.)

Schedule
-The first of three Preliminary stages starts on 6-to-8 February {2024 Copa Libertadores Qualifying stages}.
-The Group Stage starts on 2-to-4 April. The draw for the Group Stage is on the 22nd of March.

Qualified teams by country:
•Brazil has 8 teams (7 + Copa Libertadores holder).
•Argentina has 6 teams.
•Ecuador has 5 teams (4 + Copa Sudamericana holder).
•The seven other countries all have 4 teams each (Uruguay, Colombia, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela).



Cities with teams in the 2024 Copa Libertadores
On the map, next to each team’s name, is the name of the city the team is located in. The text-size for the city-names gradually gets smaller for the smaller cities. Populations can be seen in the chart at the top-centre of the map-page. {Or see the chart below.} The chart includes the ten largest metropolitan areas in South America (nine of which have teams in the 2023 Copa Libertadores). Then the list shows all the other top-50-largest metro-areas in South America with Libertadores teams this year. And then the list shows the other metro-areas with Libertadores teams this year. Smallest city to be hosting a Copa Libertadores team this year is El Salvador, Atacama, Chile, the copper mining town in the Atacama Desert, where CD Cobresal are from. Cobresal were the 2023 Chilean Primera División second-place-finishers. El Salvador has a population of around 7,000.

conmebol_copa-libertadores_2024_chart_cities-in-tournament_w-populations_b_.gif
{Populations…Cities with teams in 2022 Copa Libertadores: Metropolitan-area figures for 50 largest South American cities from, 2015 at: List of South American metropolitan areas by population (en.wikipedia.org); & Population figures for other cities with teams in tournament at: each city’s en.wikipedia page.}




___
Thanks to all at the links below
-Globe-map of South America by Luan at File:South America (orthographic projection).svg (en.wikipedia.org/[South America]).
-Blank map of South America by Anbans 585 at File:CONMEBOL laea location map without rivers.svg (en.wikipedia.org/[2018 Copa Libertadores]).
-2023 Copa Libertadores (en.wikipedia.org).
-Copa Libertadores 1960-2019 Club Histories (rsssf.com).
-Libertadores titles list {en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copa_Libertadores#Performances_by_club}.

Powered by WordPress