Hello to all GMs, Commissioners, Players and Fans of the FHL.

The Commission comes to you today in hopes of a vote to help with a issue that came up this season. As many of you know, the number of players has exceeded standard starting capacity for teams. While for the most part people have been able to get good playing time, there have been small issues at times with reduced play time, and the commission can see that the issue will only get worse as new players come in.

After some early discussions on the matter, it has been decided that the best solution is to expand to 18 teams. Thus, we come to you today to vote on whether or not to go forward with the expansion.

Expansion would work as follows:

LEAGUE STRUCTURE:
-Each Conference would expand by one team, which means one team would be added to the Eastern, and one team would be added to the Western, location of which selected by the GM with guidance by the commission.

-To make all divisions equal, each Conference would move from 2 Divisions to three, with three teams in each division.

-The Season would still run over 44 game nights, thought there will be changes in the number of times each team faces off.

PLAYOFFS:
-Playoffs would be expanded to 5 teams per conference, with the three divisional winners getting in, plus the two 2nd place teams with the best records.

-In the first round, the #2 and #3 teams would play each other, and the two wild cards would face off in a “Wild Card Series” Best of 3, of which the winner of would play the #1 seed in the next round.

-Playoffs from there would continue as before.

EXPANSION DRAFT, RETENTION, AND DRAFT
-After EXP Spending has been completed this offseason, there will be a Expansion Draft, so as to setup the expansion teams into a Retention state before Draft time.

-Each team must send in a protection list, listing up to 3 players with no CGP limit, or any number of players totaling up to 50% of the Team Average CGP.

-Once the deadline has passed, the Draft will occur. The two expansion teams will draft back and forth, picking up unprotected players from teams, until they have reached standard retention limits. However, each team can only have a player taken by an expansion team once.

-Once the expansion has been completed, standard retention would follow for all other teams.

-At the draft, the two expansion teams will be slotted in as the lowest ranked teams, and the draft would function as before with the exception of being 18 picks a round.

-Before the Expansion draft, the expansion team with the first pick will be determined, and the team that picks second will be granted first pick in the normal draft.

-Draft limits will be in effect, and depending on number of players available at the time of the draft, may be reduced to 9 Skaters and 2 Goalies until all teams have reached that point.

TEAM PLAYER COVERAGE
-At the current time, should expansion go though, we are several players short of full teams. To help promote the growth required, the league during the off-season will open a player drive, in which the two players with the highest referrals will be awarded EXP.

-Should we reach the draft, and still do not have enough players to cover all teams, Teams will be allowed to create a player to cover the space until a rookie is available.

-Created players for that purpose will be built on 14 skill points, will not gain experience and must be released once the space can be filled.

With all that in mind, please vote below for or against expansion. Questions and comments are also welcome, and we will take any suggestions into account. Voting will close on March 9th 2018 at 11:59pm Eastern. With that, good luck to all teams hoping to make the playoffs at the end of the season, and we hope to see you in the next!