Attendance at Pittsburgh

[mookie1995]

Priceless, what do you mean? (I'm sincere.) Do you know who he is? Or is there a meeting where you can pitch ideas at the Philly people? Or?

They have a table set up to create buzz. While priceless may talk him to death I doubt they have much say

[matt]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Correct on all counts. Will be interesting to see if any of them show up for the all-Connecticut final. It's embarrassing.

Give the corporate sponsors seats in the corner and let the real fans sit in the middle. I sat in the corner and thought the seats were awesome. I hope the guy from Philadelphia's Frozen Four committee is paying attention. He'll get an earful from me on Saturday.

On the plus side, during the break between games yesterday I was able to pick up prime tickets for the final at the box office so I could bring my kids tomorrow (yeah, I'm sure I could have picked up UML tickets cheap, but still...).

I was in 110 with the Yale people last night, and while the seats were excellent for our side of the ice -- and especially the winning goal -- the angles to the far end of the rink were pretty bad. Lots of folks near me were watching the live action on the scoreboard rather than trying to see through the plexi-glass. And a lot of these people were family and friends of the players on the ice.

[matt]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Note that there is a display with all 58 jersies. You can play "jersey bingo" and see how many of the jersies you see. Bonus if you see a jersey of a team that doesn't exist any more, like Findlay.

That's an amazing display, one of the best things in the arena.

[Priceless]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

They have a table set up to create buzz. While priceless may talk him to death I doubt they have much say

Correct. But the guy who I saw was chatting with arena personnel and the fans and taking pretty good notes. In the end he may have no input, and of course the NCAA is going to want prime seats, but it won't do any harm to vent to the guy from Philly.

[matt]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Unfortunate that the place looked empty, because it wasn't. Too bad the sparsely populated sections are the sections that show up a lot on TV. The upper bowl was filled. Good for you locals, casual fans, and low priority lottery entrants. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the crowd, except for the NCAA bigwig and corporate sponsor sections. Happy that I like sitting in the end (and we were lucky -- 8 out of 10 goals were scored in our end), but if I really liked sitting on the side, I would have been more upset than I was last night.

Agreed. We left after the first game -- were there for Yale, and had a 5 hour drive after and so staying wasn't an option -- but the upper deck was pretty much packed. Only seats really that were empty in significant amounts were the sponsor areas and the fan seats of the two schools playing the other game. Even then, I saw plenty of Quinnipiac people at the first game (I'm sure there were more than a few St. Cloud people as well, they just weren't in my line of sight).

[alfablue]

As priceless typed, those buying in the lottery (lower bowl corners-behind nets & entire upper level) are full. It's the seats not offered to lottery buyers that are empty

Fair enough, but I will still gripe at the lottery buyers who didn't show- we want isle seats, and there were a lot of those in our section who didn't show. The upper bowl was filled nicely until the third period.

[Stripes55]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Out of curiosity, were Penguins season ticket holders given the opportunity to purchase Frozen Four tickets, or can that only be done through the lottery (or by getting a handout & then not showing up)?

[Rover]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Watching it on TV I had a similar impression. At first I thought nobody was there because the corporate stiff seats were empty behind the bench, but once the camera scanned the whole crowd I was pleasantly surprised.

Look, the event is hampered by 1) upsets galore so a lot of people who were expecting to go most likely bagged it, 2) being held in a boring city, and 3) the teams that did make it don't have huge fan bases and aren't nearby (although perhaps the drive from CT isn't that bad. I do know going across NY or PA seems longer than it is as there's nothing in the middle of both states).

Back in 09 when I went I could see a good attendance happening even though there were relatively small schools aside from BU there because DC was an interesting place to go and you probably made the trip even if your school didn't make it. Pittsburgh and to a greater extent Philly (which is a sh ! thole) are a bigger test of whether the event can draw no matter what. Personally I think it can.

[WiscDC]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Unfortunate that the place looked empty, because it wasn't. Too bad the sparsely populated sections are the sections that show up a lot on TV. The upper bowl was filled. Good for you locals, casual fans, and low priority lottery entrants. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the crowd, except for the NCAA bigwig and corporate sponsor sections. Happy that I like sitting in the end (and we were lucky -- 8 out of 10 goals were scored in our end), but if I really liked sitting on the side, I would have been more upset than I was last night.

That's good to hear. The Frozen Four packs NHL arenas every year (and that one with over 37,000 in Detroit), and it was disappointing to see the empty seats on TV. I'm glad they still got the building pretty full. I like seeing teams with both big and small fan bases do well. It makes it more interesting from a neutral perspective. It's nice to see variety, and as someone who doesn't root for any of this year's Frozen Four teams, I thought it was awesome to see these teams all make it, but I knew it would result in lower ticket demand. Hopefully those seats that were empty get filled for the championship game.

[mookie1995]

Out of curiosity, were Penguins season ticket holders given the opportunity to purchase .....

No. I have friends who are STH and was on them a year ago to get if available and I'd take them. There was never any block for sale.

[Quinn57]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Watching it on TV I had a similar impression. At first I thought nobody was there because the corporate stiff seats were empty behind the bench, but once the camera scanned the whole crowd I was pleasantly surprised.

Look, the event is hampered by 1) upsets galore so a lot of people who were expecting to go most likely bagged it, 2) being held in a boring city, and 3) the teams that did make it don't have huge fan bases and aren't nearby (although perhaps the drive from CT isn't that bad. I do know going across NY or PA seems longer than it is as there's nothing in the middle of both states).

Back in 09 when I went I could see a good attendance happening even though there were relatively small schools aside from BU there because DC was an interesting place to go and you probably made the trip even if your school didn't make it. Pittsburgh and to a greater extent Philly (which is a sh ! thole) are a bigger test of whether the event can draw no matter what. Personally I think it can.

You think Philly is bad? Venture out of Kensington next time sir.

Think it'll be great next year. Really accessible compared with Pittsburgh.

[billmich88888]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

How can any city ever be worse than Detroit?

As far as top 30 metro areas go, Detroit is by far the worst central city in North America....

Pittsburgh is a "clean" "safe" city by comparison

[COHockey]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Empty NCAA and sponsor seats have always been a problem, but I don't remember being so obvious until this year. Other than moving them to the corners, what other viable options are really possible? Can I email the sponsors next and beg for seats?

[MarkEagleUSA]

Re: Attendance at Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is a "clean" "safe" city by comparison

We did a lot of walking around yesterday, even crossed the river to see PNC Park. I was amazed at how clean and un-congested the area was. Mid-day traffic was mild and there weren't throngs of people milling around, even during lunch hour. I also never saw any "shady" characters or felt nervous. We even had some folks come up to us while we were eating lunch to wish us well in the final. They asked us how we were enjoying our stay and thanked us for coming to Pittsburgh. There was also a doorman in front of the Fairmont hotel that spent several minutes explaining various sights to see and where all the best food was (his ultimate suggestion being Primanti's). Plus, the area has a unique beauty with the mix of old and new architecture and it's narrow hilly streets.

On the attendance issue, I'm not sure what kind of numbers were affected but heard that many people who were flying never made it to town on time Thursday due to weather delays and cancellations around the country. One couple we were talking to didn't arrive until Friday morning.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the weekend thus far and have been more than impressed by my first Frozen Four, in and out of the arena.

[romo]

We did a lot of walking around yesterday, even crossed the river to see PNC Park. I was amazed at how clean and un-congested the area was. Mid-day traffic was mild and there weren't throngs of people milling around, even during lunch hour. I also never saw any "shady" characters or felt nervous. We even had some folks come up to us while we were eating lunch to wish us well in the final. They asked us how we were enjoying our stay and thanked us for coming to Pittsburgh. There was also a doorman in front of the Fairmont hotel that spent several minutes explaining various sights to see and where all the best food was (his ultimate suggestion being Primanti's). Plus, the area has a unique beauty with the mix of old and new architecture and it's narrow hilly streets.

On the attendance issue, I'm not sure what kind of numbers were affected but heard that many people who were flying never made it to town on time Thursday due to weather delays and cancellations around the country. One couple we were talking to didn't arrive until Friday morning.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the weekend thus far and have been more than impressed by my first Frozen Four, in and out of the arena.

Hi
You and i touched bases when Q played RMU .
I wish you all the best in your final against Yale.
RMU hosting the Frozen Four is really a big
deal for them. I hope they do a good job and the
Console center is jammed with supporters for your
final-----Good Luck