More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is...

[Slap Shot]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

By placing teams in the regions they are closest to. MSU, BU. Miami and Cornell for instance just this season. We don't adhere to a strict bracket integrity, so if we want more people to go, make the regions REGIONAL. You can still have a "1" seed play a "4" we just won't always have the overall "1" play the overall "16." My guess is by placing 3 or 4 or 5 more teams close enough for fans to reasonably drive would make people more likely to go. The distance to Manchester last year was the only reason I didn't got to Notre Dame's regional. Had it been in St Louis (and some thought it might) I would have gone without a doubt. But I, like most people, cannot afford a $700 plane ticket on 3 or 4 days notice.

Don't like that one bit. You don't sacrifice seeding and possibly screw over teams in which one part of the country is top heavy in a given season to try and limit flying. Heck in the one scenario you gave where is it played that reduces fly-time for all 4 fanbases? How do you plan this in advance and hope that you can minimize travel? If DU, CC, UND and UM all make the tournament, where is the game played that at least two groups of fans don't have to fly? What if DU and CC make it but no team from MN does and UW doesn't? It's even worse. Sorry, you can't reasonably take out the flight time often enough to matter, nor in justification of tossing banding completely out the window.

[brassbonanza]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

ancient economic solution. supply vs demand. lower the prices. let kids under 8 in for free. student discount. senior discount. its not rocket science..

Devalues the product too much. These are the most important games of the season, and prices should somewhat reflect that. Student discount and overall lower prices, I agree. I'd add in group ticket rates for groups of 20+. No free tickets, that'd be waiving the white flag again.

[IronRangeHockey]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Not sure what the attendance at the X was for the UND/UM game today but it looked like a sellout, or close.

[huskyfan]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

get the young ones into hockey early. frees parents from babysitter costs. happy family fun time. maybe under 5 in for free?

[HockeyMan2000]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Curious how many (few) people are in Worcester but ESPNU is keeping the camera angles tight so as to not show anything outside the lower bowl.

[davyd83]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

I think that's the point that was being made there. For the local fans of the sport, the local youth leagues, and casual sports fans, the prices make it prohibitive, plus the lack of single day tickets. I'm not as sold on the beer selling and lack of ability to leave between games as being a big factor, I don't think that's more than a minor factor on overall attendance numbers. But definitely lower the prices, or at the very least tier them based on location/offer group rates for bulk purchases. Ironically, the one time they did this for the FFFF, with the $40 weekend books, it seemed to work well. $40 for a weekend ticket for a balcony seat or something would be a great idea.

The problem I see is that the regionals get put in these small cities that, for fans that must fly, the cost is entirely prohibitive because it's a fly and drive deal. Flying into Green Bay, or Grand Rapids, or Toledo is exorbitantly expensive, so you fly to the nearest major city, rent a car, then drive. All too expensive to do that. Are there good sized (~8-10K) rinks in places like Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit? At least there, you have large population bases, more sports fans, more youth leagues, and it's much more accessible for people coming from the east, and the far west. Example - BOS-Green Bay Fri-Sun is $715, BOS-Cleveland same time is $412. Chicago is $290. Eastern sites as they are now are as good as they'll get, Providence is a nice addition. Keep it in population centers, keep it out of these mill town podunk "cities". I would be against playing on home sites, the NCAA tournament should have at least somewhat of a modicum of neutrality. St Paul is fine, hell, if they put it at TD Garden (not going to happen) that'd be fine. But the on-campus thing just won't work for a million reasons. Two super eight team regionals would be worth looking at, though four games in one day would lead to some terrible ice by the end of the day, or two-two-two championships could work if the Friday winners and Saturday winners played each other on Sunday so no one would have a rest advantage. One western site, one eastern. Rotate XCel/Joe and TD/(Providence?).

Also, anyone heard anything else on potential '15 and '16 FF sites, other than the rumored Nashville bid? Hopefully Boston gets off its *** and puts in a legit bid.

For Cornell fans to fly from Syracuse to Green Bay, booking the flight five days out $653, to Minneapolis $681. The bottom line is any flight booked on that short notice will be expensive, no matter where you're going.

[CLS]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

ancient economic solution. supply vs demand. lower the prices. let kids under 8 in for free. student discount. senior discount. its not rocket science..

Not rocket science or good economics either. Maximize revenues and profits, not attendance.

[IronRangeHockey]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Curious how many (few) people are in Worcester but ESPNU is keeping the camera angles tight so as to not show anything outside the lower bowl.

I caught a glimpse of empty corners.

[brassbonanza]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Not sure what the attendance at the X was for the UND/UM game today but it looked like a sellout, or close.

Nowhere near, 10,974.

[Scarlet]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

They did not open the balcony at the X.

[IronRangeHockey]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Nowhere near, 10,974.

Thanks, a bit surprised. Maybe they all filed down closer to the ice, the lower bowl looked alot better than yesterday and the numbers are pretty close right?

[IronRangeHockey]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

They did not open the balcony at the X.

Ahhh, there it is. Makes sense now.

[The Rube]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

They really need tiered pricing, and preferably non-single session tickets. These reasons are the majority of the reasons I didn't buy tickets (especially tough right after the Final Five). Hey, $20 gets me upper deck instead of $50? I'm sold on that.

[Caustic Undertow]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

I think the ticket costs are incidental compared to the overall cost of attending, unless you happen to be very close to a given regional you want to attend. And, by very close, I mean so close that transportation, food and lodging are not cost concerns because you don't have to spend any money on them.

False, unless you're just one person.

My family does not have a lot of money. My wife works, I work full time plus a lot of side work, and we try to save a bit. I believe family is important, and with a busy spring and summer on the horizon I felt that we needed a serious family event to spend time together with our two girls. With Michigan making the Green Bay regional five hours from us, we decided to make a trip for the Friday game only. We were glad it was not in Saint Paul, half the distance but twice the ticket price--that would be unworkable.

Nonetheless, despite needing two tanks of gas for my van, food, and a hotel room for the night, the only thing that made me hesitate was when I had to pull the trigger on buying four one-day tickets at the cheap regional for $167. That's One Hundred Sixty Seven Dollars for a family of long-distance Michigan fans to attend One game at a regional that did not sell half its seats. Again, this was the "cheap" regional.

If it hadn't been a unique chance to spend family time and take my girls to their first-ever Michigan game there's no way I would've bothered, for ticket cost as much as anything else.

It's good to know that the X drew, for a huge playoff game between two fanbases within good driving distance, an attendance that is less than or equal to the capacity of each participant.

Nickname issues aside, they would've sold out the Ralph, assuming any reasonable adjustment to the price. And if the nickname issue had prevented it, they would've sold out Mariucci and delivered the ultimate message to North Dakota regarding their nickname.

Neutral sites are not the answer. Not anymore.

[amherstblackbear]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Neutral sites aren't really a problem, either. Except out West.

So doesn't this leave us back where we were 10 years ago? Campus regionals in the West and neutral regionals in the East?

Campus sites for all games fixes something (lower seed hosting) that's really only a problem in the West. I can see the rationale, from a Western perspective. From an Eastern perspective, I just think "Why on earth do we want to go from a flawed system to a seriously flawed system?"

Before making major changes, I'd still be in favor of adjusting prices. A price cut and and a recovering economy might be all the "fix" the problem needs.

The thing about neutral site regionals is that they smooth out the edges of a very imperfect ranking system. Pairwise is crap. We deal with it only out of necessity. Putting all games on campus gives too much importance to an extremely arbitrary, and volatile system.