Saturday, January 31, 2015

2030 Winter Olympics - Finland

As I mentioned before, I had a plan for Finland. Their blue is on the verge of royal, and light. To add a bit of color, I went straight light blue. Paired with navy, I thought it was really unique in the hockey world. The crest is a modified version of their coat of arms, geared toward tying it all together.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

2030 Winter Olympics - Denmark

I loved the Finnish cross used in the last Olympic games. I had a plan for Finland though, so I had the idea to push it off to Denmark. One problem I ran into was that there were so many red teams, I had to be creative when I made them. That's part of the reason I didn't do Austria. I did the cross, and knew I could throw in colors using the crest they have. So I put that in the middle, then as a focal point to the white version. I used black to add to the bland red look, that Switzerland had first.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

2030 Winter Olympics - Czech Republic

Hard to believe this is toned down for the Czechs, but I went modern and colorful for them. There's only so much I can do with Red, blue,and white. So I decided to keep them unique, with a lot of both. The white borders the top, middle, and bottom of the jerseys, with red and blue halves. I tried to make sure there was an obvious light and dark version. So I simplified their crest, and tried to make sense of an ambitious design. The white is pretty toned down in comparison, despite alternating colors.

And no, Jagr is still not playing in 2030.

Monday, January 26, 2015

2030 Winter Olympics - Croatia

Croatia was a team I wated to do because of how unique of design they have. Checkered everything. This spurred from Dylan suggesting that the World Juniors be in Slovenia/Croatia. I thought it'd be cool because they COULD grow in 15 years, so who knows. I wanted a mix of modern with diagnal stripes, but with a classical look mixed in. Add a little table cloth, and that's the concept! I thought the white version was better than red, so decided to make that the home jersey.

2030 Winter Olympics - Canada

It's really easy to do Canadian concepts. You need red, black, and white, with a maple leaf somewhere. 15 years from now, I feel like modern, with a traditional spin would be the way to go. I went with a Habs stripe across the chest, and the silouette of a maple leaf cut out of the band. I feel like that's all the jerseys need, because it's a recognizable look. Originally there was gonna be no white at all, but I ended up including it with the numbers. The roads are a white version of the home.

Friday, January 23, 2015

2030 Winter Olympics - Belarus

This concept is carried over from a sim hockey league I wanted to start up, but ended up failing. Belarus has a cool patterned stripe on their flag, and I thought that it’d be cool to see on a jersey. I could’ve gone modern, but I went with a traditional look, just because it’s a juxtaposition to the crazy pattern. The colors are unique too, how often do you see red and green on a jersey? It’s a big difference from the red and blue teams you’ll see later. The front has Belarus running down it, because it has to be somewhat simplistic for the Olympics.

WIHF - 2030 Bozeman Olympics

The 2022 Winter Olympic bids came down to Beijing and Astana, Kazakhstan. Voting occurred in 2015, and Beijing won the bid due to infrastructure and previous Olympic structures. The Russian team geared up and won the gold over Canada with help from KHL stars. The Winter Olympics returned to Europe in 2026. After voting was held in 2019, Dresden, Germany won over Quebec City, and Barcelona. The Germans were great hosts, and provided the stage for one of the best Winter Olympics in recent history. The Fins won their first gold medal in their history over the Americans.

At our time in history, North America hasn’t hosted the event since 2010. So the bidding process naturally came down to an American and Canadian city. Edmonton was selected to host the event for Canada. They had the Eskimos stadium, a new NHL rink, and mountains readily available. The American bid was more interesting. The smaller city of Bozeman, Montana wanted the games. Before you call out my bull shit, let me explain. Bozeman’s Metropolitan Area’s population had passed 250,000 people due to a technology boom, and natural wonder. The mountain views, and new airport gave the city some nice pros. It was a college town, which meant that there were facilities available to use. The Bobcats began upgrading their football, and basketball facilities when they leaped to FBS with Montana, joining the Mountain West. The Montana Tourist Board, and USOC teamed up to bring the games to Montana, since the bid for the 2022 games were too soon. Probably the biggest thing is the 50th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, also held at a small town in the US.

The bid had modern amenities with plans that could be used after the Olympics are over. Bobcat Stadium expanded to 40,000 seats with the division jump. With help from alumni donations, Montana State would build a new 10,000 seat indoor arena would be built on campus for indoor sports. Current basketball arena, Worthington Arena, was 7,000 seats and would be used for curling and speed skating, and eventually demolished after the games. A 15,000 seat arena would be built near downtown by the city. They promised an AHL team would be playing in the arena by 2030. Improved ski facilities would help the tourism of an already world class resort. The Olympic village would be built next to Montana State, with the building going to the college for student housing after the games.

The voting took place in the summer of 2023. That year, the people of Edmonton protested the cost of the games. The city also had record snow fall the week the Olympics would be hosted if there was a 2023 edition of the games. The news came from Switzerland that the small mountain town would host the games, and construction started.



The United States lost to defending champion Finland, but then won the last 2 of their group games to advance as the runner up of group A. The Swedes, Russians, and Canadians all breezed by their groups. The Americans beat the Swedes in the first knockout game. That set up a match against Russia in a rematch of that game 50 years ago. Ironically, the Americans won 4-3 in 2030, wearing throwbacks reminiscent of the 1980 jerseys. Canada had beaten up on Slovenia, and Finland. This set up for a border war of epic proportions. The US scored with 4 minutes to go in a 1-1 game, ultimately sealing the gold medal.

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I saw Bozeman’s name on the list of Olympic bids in 2022, and I thought the games there would be funny since it would have to beat out world cities. I had an idea for a logo. It’s a silhouette of a mountain, in the shape of an M. Pretty simple, but I thought it fell under the style of Olympic logos.

I'm gonna release the jerseys in alphabetical order

Thursday, January 22, 2015

WIHF - Talviklassikko

Our friend Dylan from Dbrodesigns posted the Finnish Winter Classic concept!

Ok, so Mr. Raysox has given me the responsibility of posting our concept for the 2030 Talviklassikko, or Winter Classic, taking place in the SM Liiga. Now that the leagues have been realigned, and Jokerit is back in the Liiga, this outdoor game between Jokerit and HIFK can resume.


Though both teams' identities and logos are pretty simple, they have been stripped down slightly.

The Jokerit logo' black outlines have been swapped to blue as to fit with the jersey better, which features the three primary colors featured so minimally so not to clash with each other at all.

The HIFK shield lost it's silver and second outline. The jersey features bold simple striping and a white yolk. The TV numbers have been placed in the white yolk while the 4-point star featured in the logo goes onto the sleeves, as well as the pants.

Friday, January 16, 2015

WIHF - Heritage Classic

I used the previous Heritage Classic logo template for this one. I changed the words and sky line to match the date and location. I changed the colors to match the home team. I used navy, yellow, and orange as the team colors of the Halifax Voyageurs. It was the colors I used for my Halifax concept of my US Soccer 2030 series. The yoke stripes look like Dylan’s Sarnia Sting alternate jersey that he won a contest for. The H logo is based on the numbers the Sabres alternates a few years back. I originally was going to make a new St. John’s team. But the Ice Caps exist and I mentioned the Canadian AHL teams were absorbed into the CDC, I thought it’d be better for consistency purposes. The striped design is a look I wanted to do because the other concept I did like this is one of my favorites. The white, navy, and royal blue stands out enough to differentiate from the non-white Halifax concept.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

WIHF - Winter Classic

I took some inspiration with the Winter Classic logo. I used the previous MLB All-Star game, and other Winter Classics as inspiration. The trees make a pattern where the negative space makes the same shape as the tree. I put some snowflakes, and a frozen pond on it because the State of Hockey is the land of 10,000 lakes. Striped sleeves are such an underrated hockey design. I love throwback uniforms like that. I wanted to do a faux back for the Wild because the color scheme is so unique. I went red tops with heavy green accents. The Wild’s script is based after all those hockey teams in the states with a cursive font. The Stars look is an off white, with a lot of black. Off white is very underrated, and when used right it’s absolutely great. I threw in the kelly green to add some color to the look. I wanted a classic look that could be an everyday uniform.

WIHF - Outdoor Games


The game of hockey was first played on frozen ponds. 150 years after that tradition began, the best leagues in the world continue to host a yearly outdoor game. The Outdoor games were often the first games back from international break, and started the New Year off right. 

The NHL’s Winter Classic is probably the most anticipated regular season game year after year. The tradition continued through the turmoil of the league in the early 2020s. The Stadium Series games were cancelled due to poor attendance. But the Winter Classic constantly drew big attendances. The game rotated between the cities of the northern US. Hosted by traditional hockey powers in Boston, New York, Pennsylvania, and Chicago. Every once in a while, an outlier would host it. A 12 round shoot out thriller in St. Louis’ Busch Stadium between Detroit and the Blues remains one of the best Winter Classics ever. At the 2029 edition of the game, the Blue Jackets hosted the Predators at Ohio Stadium, marking the 2nd highest attended game in the history of the event. During the 2nd intermission, the league announced that 2030 would take place at Target Field in Minnesota, between the Wild and Stars. 

The Heritage Classic has a more turbulent history. It only took place every couple years, due to how cold it was in Canada, and how favored the US teams were. Only 2 Canadian teams ever played in the Winter Classic. The Leafs in 2014, and the Habs against Boston in 2019. When the Canadian Dominion Cup was formed, they brought with them the rights to host the outdoor event. The CFL stadiums in major Canadian cities hosted the game the first 4 years under CDC reign. The 2030 edition was announced, and given to the city of Halifax for the first time. The Voyageurs would play the St. John’s Ice Caps in Maritime edition of the Heritage Classic. The new Canadian Football stadium in the city would host the 35,000 fans wanting to see hockey outdoors. 

The Talviklassikko literally means “Winter Classic” in Finnish. This event was held for a few seasons between Helsinki rivals Jokerit and HIFK. But then Jokerit followed the money to the KHL, and the game was put on hiatus. When the WIHF realigned the leagues, the Liiga schedule makers made sure the first meeting between the clubs were on New Year’s in front of as many people as possible.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

WIHF - World Juniors

The World Juniors are one of the most prestigious tournament in international hockey. This remained to be held every year during the rough IIHF times in the early 2020s. The IIHF dropped the tournament for a short 2 year period in 2024 and 2025. Then when the Canadian teams split from the NHL, the commissioner of that league resurrected the tournament. Canada would host the tournament, starting 2 weeks before New Year’s. The Molson’s Youth Hockey Cup became the only yearly event of international hockey. When the WIHF was first announced, former hockey goalie Dylan Alexander expressed his interest in bringing back the tournament to its former glory. The Canadian league sold the rights to the WIHF. The World Juniors would take place in the international break before New Year’s, allowing players to leave their teams and return without games being missed. The first order of business was to figure out the host of the tournament.

Montreal/Quebec City put in a joint bid, but Alexander didn’t want a 5th straight Canadian tournament. His home town Chicago was ruled out, due to Chicago winning the rights to host the Super 10. Their focus moved to Europe. The goal was to find 2 big arenas, close by, to host the tournament. Traditional powers like Stockholm and Moscow wanted the bid, but ultimately, Alexander decided on a new local.

With the success of Zagreb in the KHL, and Olimpija Ljubljana in the Austrian league, their national programs were improving. Anze Kopitar was a firm believer that the two Balkan nations could host the tournament. After a trip there, WIHF officials awarded the World Juniors to Croatia and Slovenia. Qualifying began, and weirdly enough, the 16 teams that qualified, qualified for the Olympics (which is when you’ll see what the teams wore).



The teams hit the halfway point. The best teams were gearing up for a playoff run. The best start of any league was the Canucks, who didn’t lose their first 20 games, and recorded 15 wins in that span. The Winnipeg Jets finally knocked off the best team, and led to a downward slump. The NHL was hotly contested between the 4 divisions. The Lightning and Penguins led the east, and the Blackhawks and Ducks led the west. The European leagues were shaping up as usual, one or two teams distanced themselves from the field.

The 2 week international break was nice for the players that weren’t on National Teams. But for the stars, they had to play as hard as ever. The top 16 teams qualified for the Olympic Games, and this break was the last chance to make a case. The biggest result of the break was the upstart Latvian team beating the Russians in St. Petersburg. The countries jockeyed for rankings going into the Olympics, and when it was all done, the traditional hockey powers won. Aided by bad losses to Germany and Denmark, Austria fell out of the top 16. South Korea had been building up playing Asian teams, and traveled west to beat the Brits and Croatians. With momentum from the 2018 Winter Games, South Korea was emerging as a future hockey competitor.

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I wanted to represent both countries as best as I could. They’re both mountainous, so the tops and bottoms of the logo reflect that. The green slice is Slovenia, with the star pattern from their crest. The red bit is Croatia, with a checkered pattern for theirs. This is the first logo I’ve posted using the template-y bottom part. My goal is to have an abstract and meaningful top, with a similar thing to show that it’s a part of WIHF.