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  • Re: Attendance at Regionals

    Even though more air travel might be required, and extra work and expenses for host schools might be involved (like whitewashing boards at host arenas), has consideration been given to (a) having the round of sixteen games played at the home rinks of the top eight seeds, with four games on Saturday and four on Sunday; (b) then having the top four remaining seeds host quarterfinal games the following weekend, with two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday; and (c) then having the Frozen Four played in or near a major metropolitan area, alternating between eastern and western hosts, with preferences given to cities where hockey would be considered a good attraction?

    I realize that from year to year, it would be hard to predict the total capacity of the home rinks of the top eight seeds, and that it’s conceivable (though probably not likely) that there would be a year when the top eight seeds would be schools with small home rinks. However, if the total attendance at this year’s regionals (twelve games) was 37,321, that represents about 70% of the total capacity of the home rinks of this year’s top eight seeds (52,915). If you were to add four quarterfinal games played at home rinks, then the four highest ranked seeds that advanced to this year’s quarterfinals would’ve had total capacity of 26,561.

    Take total capacity of 79,476 for twelve games, and if there were an average of 50% turnout for each of those games, you might’ve had 39,738 in attendance. But let’s say that you could’ve attracted 70% capacity or more by using home rinks for the first two rounds, then you might’ve drawn at least 55,633 to those twelve games, or roughly one and a half times as many in attendance as those who actually attended this year’s regionals.

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    • Re: Attendance at Regionals

      Originally posted by chickod View Post
      Huh?? Did I miss something here? Concerts??? ("Playoffs?" - Jim Mora) Um....I would say the number of people who would go to a concert is about 1000 times that who would go to a college hockey game. I appreciate your passion - all of us have it or else we wouldn't be discussing things on here - but what does that have to do with anything???

      In order to draw crowds, you have to have a POPULATION BASE to draw from. We're not picking on Maine. I'd say the same thing if it were Vermont. There AREN'T ENOUGH PEOPLE there. Nobody is saying anything about whether they're "good" fans or not. It's the same reason they don't have the American Dental Association (or fill in some major event here) Convention in Old Town. Conversely, it's the same reason whey they have conventions every WEEK in Boston. You live in a RURAL area. Not enough people are going to go there!!!!!
      Huh??? Don't you need a population base with $$$ to pack a concert venue in Bangor, Maine with 10-15K about a dozen times per summer??? Are you saying that college hockey fans are less passionate than concert fans??? You DO realize that Maine was drawing 5.5K sellouts for 2 decades in Orono-freakin-Maine before they started sucking, right?

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      • Re: Attendance at Regionals

        Originally posted by chatster View Post
        Even though more air travel might be required, and extra work and expenses for host schools might be involved (like whitewashing boards at host arenas), has consideration been given to (a) having the round of sixteen games played at the home rinks of the top eight seeds, with four games on Saturday and four on Sunday; (b) then having the top four remaining seeds host quarterfinal games the following weekend, with two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday; and (c) then having the Frozen Four played in or near a major metropolitan area, alternating between eastern and western hosts, with preferences given to cities where hockey would be considered a good attraction?

        I realize that from year to year, it would be hard to predict the total capacity of the home rinks of the top eight seeds, and that it’s conceivable (though probably not likely) that there would be a year when the top eight seeds would be schools with small home rinks. However, if the total attendance at this year’s regionals (twelve games) was 37,321, that represents about 70% of the total capacity of the home rinks of this year’s top eight seeds (52,915). If you were to add four quarterfinal games played at home rinks, then the four highest ranked seeds that advanced to this year’s quarterfinals would’ve had total capacity of 26,561.

        Take total capacity of 79,476 for twelve games, and if there were an average of 50% turnout for each of those games, you might’ve had 39,738 in attendance. But let’s say that you could’ve attracted 70% capacity or more by using home rinks for the first two rounds, then you might’ve drawn at least 55,633 to those twelve games, or roughly one and a half times as many in attendance as those who actually attended this year’s regionals.
        Now I do like the math you have done here. Don't know if I'm totally on board with your suggestion for where you host the quarterfinals but it's an interesting thought. Big problem in my opinion is hosting the regionals in cities that are non-major metros. Flights to Toledo were either impossible or insanely priced and then combine that with challenging start times, just leads to a big struggle in getting fans in the seats. I'm guessing it was the same for UND and MN going into Grand Rapids. If those two programs can't deliver solid attendance then you know something is clearly wrong with the choice of locations. Well add a pretty steep game ticket and then require a package purchase and all this leads to extremely empty buildings with just a horrid playoff atmosphere. The kids deserve way more than that.

        Would love to see them find a way to fix the overall issue but at a minimum, put the regionals in major metropolitan areas every year.

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        • Re: Attendance at Regionals

          Originally posted by sandiegoblkbr View Post
          Are you saying that college hockey fans are less passionate than concert fans???
          NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But there aren't as many people who like college hockey as there are who like music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's funny you brought this up...I was talking to a guy at work the week before the regionals (and I'm not just telling this story to substantiate my point). I told him that I was going to the playoffs (blah blah blah) and how much the tickets were. He said, "Wow!! That's expensive!" And I said, "I don't know...it's only once a year and I enjoy going. Why...you wouldn't pay that?" He replied, "I'd pay it if I were going to see a CONCERT, but not for a HOCKEY GAME!"

          MOST people feel the same way. Sorry...that's just the way it is. I know it's tough for us on this board to hear, but college hockey is a NICHE sport with a SMALL (albeit passionate) fan base. You can't presume attendance will be in a similar range as the "norms" for attendance for more "mainstream" events, regardless of where it is. It's a numbers game. Since the percentage of the "general population" that will go to a college hockey game is much smaller than will go to other things, you have to START with more people. You know, like 1% of 200,000 is less than 1% of 2,000,000. Hockey is hockey. But I could choose from Aerosmith (or as they say down here, "ARROWsmith") to Tony Bennett to Sting to Michael Buble to 'Lil Wayne to Lady Gaga to Chicago to the Boston Symphony to Wynton Marsalis and each get totally DIFFERENT crowds with almost no overlap. There's a type of concert for virtually everyone. You can't even compare the two!!!

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          • Re: Attendance at Regionals

            Originally posted by SCSU BlackandRed View Post
            Would love to see them find a way to fix the overall issue but at a minimum, put the regionals in major metropolitan areas every year.
            Yes. And congratulations, by the way.

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            • Re: Attendance at Regionals

              Originally posted by chickod View Post
              NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But there aren't as many people who like college hockey as there are who like music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's funny you brought this up...I was talking to a guy at work the week before the regionals (and I'm not just telling this story to substantiate my point). I told him that I was going to the playoffs (blah blah blah) and how much the tickets were. He said, "Wow!! That's expensive!" And I said, "I don't know...it's only once a year and I enjoy going. Why...you wouldn't pay that?" He replied, "I'd pay it if I were going to see a CONCERT, but not for a HOCKEY GAME!"

              MOST people feel the same way. Sorry...that's just the way it is. I know it's tough for us on this board to hear, but college hockey is a NICHE sport with a SMALL (albeit passionate) fan base. You can't presume attendance will be in a similar range as the "norms" for attendance for more "mainstream" events, regardless of where it is. It's a numbers game. Since the percentage of the "general population" that will go to a college hockey game is much smaller than will go to other things, you have to START with more people. You know, like 1% of 200,000 is less than 1% of 2,000,000. Hockey is hockey. But I could choose from Aerosmith (or as they say down here, "ARROWsmith") to Tony Bennett to Sting to Michael Buble to 'Lil Wayne to Lady Gaga to Chicago to the Boston Symphony to Wynton Marsalis and each get totally DIFFERENT crowds with almost no overlap. There's a type of concert for virtually everyone. You can't even compare the two!!!
              We're going to have to agree to disagree on if Bangor and/or Portland would be successful or not. Bangor will never happen because of the facility design (thanks City of Bangor!) and Portland is unlikely to happen anytime soon.........although I see more events making their way to Portland in the future.

              Comment


              • For what it's worth, the band phish is opening up their summer tour in Bangor, they have some of the most passionate, dedicated, ridiculous fans on the planet, and the tour opener is usually a big deal... Many of the other summer shows have already sold out but many tickets remain for the tour opener in Bangor

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                • Re: Attendance at Regionals

                  Originally posted by WildShawn View Post
                  For what it's worth, the band phish is opening up their summer tour in Bangor, they have some of the most passionate, dedicated, ridiculous fans on the planet, and the tour opener is usually a big deal... Many of the other summer shows have already sold out but many tickets remain for the tour opener in Bangor
                  If Phish can get 70,000 to Loring I'm pretty sure Bangor will sell out.
                  I swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell.

                  Maine Hockey Love it or Leave it

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                  • Re: Attendance at Regionals

                    Originally posted by WildShawn View Post
                    For what it's worth, the band phish is opening up their summer tour in Bangor, they have some of the most passionate, dedicated, ridiculous fans on the planet, and the tour opener is usually a big deal... Many of the other summer shows have already sold out but many tickets remain for the tour opener in Bangor
                    The general admission capacity for this show is 16K.........the concert will be sold out by July 3.........over 3 months away.

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                    • Re: Attendance at Regionals

                      Originally posted by walrus View Post
                      If Phish can get 70,000 to Loring I'm pretty sure Bangor will sell out.
                      Exactly.

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                      • Originally posted by sandiegoblkbr View Post
                        The general admission capacity for this show is 16K.........the concert will be sold out by July 3.........over 3 months away.
                        They sold out other venues of the same size already, venues having three shows in a row....

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                        • Re: Attendance at Regionals

                          Originally posted by WildShawn View Post
                          They sold out other venues of the same size already, venues having three shows in a row....
                          Before you start spreading lies, only 6 out of 25 shows are sold out........and only 1 on the East Coast.

                          Here's the official site link to put this one to bed:

                          http://phish.com/#/tours/summer-2013

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by sandiegoblkbr View Post
                            Before you start spreading lies, only 6 out of 25 shows are sold out........and only 1 on the East Coast.

                            Here's the official site link to put this one to bed:

                            http://phish.com/#/tours/summer-2013
                            My apologies, I was going by the ticketmaster pages for the Saratoga shows and how there are only lawn tickets available for the three night run (and had read earlier that they were close to gone on a phish message board), touché I was still expecting it to be a tough ticket since its their only New England show, and the opener, and it's not.

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                            • Re: Attendance at Regionals

                              Seating capacities at sold out shows:

                              Jones Beach (NYC) - 15K

                              Stateline, NV (Lake Tahoe) - 7K (2 S/O shows)

                              Bill Graham Auditorium (San Francisco) - 7K (3 S/O shows)


                              Any other false claims, WildShawn???

                              Comment


                              • Re: Attendance at Regionals

                                Getting back to boosting Regionals attendance, here's an idea: Serve beer!

                                If a key to solid attendance as some have said is to get the casual unalligned hockey fans to go, those folks expect to be able to swill a few while watching the game. I drink beer at UML games at the Tsongas, I drank beer at Boston Garden for HEA Championship, why can't I drink at Regionals? Now my team was playing Saturday night so I would have went anyway but if the game had been Wisconsin - Denver instead, between the ticket price and the no beer policy I would have watched it on TV. If I, as a dedicated college hockey fan, felt this way, how can the NCAA expect an average casual hockey fan to attend?

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