Will QMJHL reduce its schedule?

MONCTON - For one reason or another, I am on the Charlottetown Islanders mailing list. My inbox received an interesting email on Thursday, asking fans to complete a survey regarding the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's schedule.

Here's what the survey started with:

The QMJHL commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to assist it in its consideration of potentially reducing the schedule. 

This survey will explore in depth the different impacts this change may have on the regular season. Thank you for taking the time to answer this survey: the information that will be collected is fundamental and crucial to the success of this study. 

Please note that all results are confidential.

There has been talk over the past few years about the QMJHL shortening its current 68-game schedule, which would be the first decrease in quite a while. The Sea Dogs played a 70-game schedule in their first three seasons in the QMJHL.

Reducing the league's schedule makes sense for a lot of reasons. A major issue seems to be revenue - will teams lose out on ticket sales by playing fewer games or will it be offset by those fans just choosing to attend other games on the schedule instead?

The survey asked fans what their ideal game schedule would consist of:

The survey also asked several questions about games on television and webcast, and whether they impact a fan's decision to attend more or less games. This is an interesting question given that the QMJHL appears destined to change webcast providers next season.

Predictably, the survey also asked for fan feedback on how the current game schedule impacts player performance - both on the ice and in the classroom.

We'll probable never see the results of this survey, but some of these questions do get you thinking. Obviously, the league is taking the future of its game schedule quite seriously. 

On top of all of these questions, the survey asked for a lot of feedback on the overall game experience at QMJHL games. It'll be interesting to see how the league may change things up - both in terms of marketing and in arenas - in the near future. With the exception of a few cities, attendance around the league isn't looking too great this year.