Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

Without looking, I suspect declines in attendance is widespread across college hockey. Some B1G teams have also seen attendance drops.

Which is one of the reasons I have compiled the attendance figures for the past 15 (or more) seasons. Between 2014-15 and last season 28 schools saw an increase in average attendance and 31 schools saw a decline in average attendance. Between 2012-13 and last season 25 schools saw their average attendance increase and 34 saw it decline. When comparing each school's average for last season to their average for the last 15 seasons (or less for newer programs) 29 were above it, 29 were below it and one was at it.

As for the B1G schools, 3 saw declines between 2012-13 and last season and 3 increases. When comparing each school's average for last season to their average for the last 15 seasons (or less for PSU) 2 were above it and 4 were below it. Last season PSU had their all-time highest average attendance, UW had their lowest in 15 seasons and the other four were in between, although Minnesota was on the lower end. None have had three straight seasons of declining average attendance, although Michigan has seen declines the past two seasons. On the other hand OSU has seen three straight seasons of increases in average attendance.

Sean

[Slap Shot]

UAH had an on-campus hockey arena on the five-year capital plan six years ago, and as I remember it, every other major project on the plan was built. Of course, that was a plan developed by the guy who got fired, who was replaced by the guy who nearly killed our program, so, yolo.

Point is: plans change. Are they less likely to change at a large university like ASU? Yes, but cost is a huge factor (see why UAH hasn't built that rink).

GFM

You somewhat allude to this but I don't think you credit the disparity enough - UAH and ASU are apples to oranges on this front.

[Slap Shot]

Which is one of the reasons I have compiled the attendance figures for the past 15 (or more) seasons. Between 2014-15 and last season 28 schools saw an increase in average attendance and 31 schools saw a decline in average attendance. Between 2012-13 and last season 25 schools saw their average attendance increase and 34 saw it decline. When comparing each school's average for last season to their average for the last 15 seasons (or less for newer programs) 29 were above it, 29 were below it and one was at it.

As for the B1G schools, 3 saw declines between 2012-13 and last season and 3 increases. When comparing each school's average for last season to their average for the last 15 seasons (or less for PSU) 2 were above it and 4 were below it. Last season PSU had their all-time highest average attendance, UW had their lowest in 15 seasons and the other four were in between, although Minnesota was on the lower end. None have had three straight seasons of declining average attendance, although Michigan has seen declines the past two seasons. On the other hand OSU has seen three straight seasons of increases in average attendance.

Sean

But they're the NATIONAL.

[Jockstock]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

Can I have a cookie? Oatmeal raisin please.

[Dirty]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

Can I have a cookie? Oatmeal raisin please.

Sorry, I only have oatmeal chocolate chip and peanut butter.

[Squarebanks]

Sorry, I only have oatmeal chocolate chip and peanut butter.

You don't have toll house chocolate chip? Effing lame.

[SJHovey]

Which is one of the reasons I have compiled the attendance figures for the past 15 (or more) seasons. Between 2014-15 and last season 28 schools saw an increase in average attendance and 31 schools saw a decline in average attendance. Between 2012-13 and last season 25 schools saw their average attendance increase and 34 saw it decline. When comparing each school's average for last season to their average for the last 15 seasons (or less for newer programs) 29 were above it, 29 were below it and one was at it.

As for the B1G schools, 3 saw declines between 2012-13 and last season and 3 increases. When comparing each school's average for last season to their average for the last 15 seasons (or less for PSU) 2 were above it and 4 were below it. Last season PSU had their all-time highest average attendance, UW had their lowest in 15 seasons and the other four were in between, although Minnesota was on the lower end. None have had three straight seasons of declining average attendance, although Michigan has seen declines the past two seasons. On the other hand OSU has seen three straight seasons of increases in average attendance.

Sean

Were the outdoor games factored in? A one time game with 40,000 fans can mask average game attendance declines.

[AKSWF]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

You don't have toll house chocolate chip? Effing lame.

Simple man wants a sugar cookie.

[davyd83]

The WCHA's "footprint" was an absolute mess with or without St. Cloud. It's telling how badly realignment went that even the better option has been a financial disaster for them, but it would have been even worse if they stayed in the WCHA. Can't blame them for taking the lesser of two evils.

With St Cloud, the WCHA was set to be St Cloud, Bemidji, Mankato, Michigan Tech, NMU and UAA. Other than the flight to UAA, it was all bus travel with the 9 hour NMU/Mankato trip being the longest. That footprint is hardly a mess.

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

Yup, SCSU chased the dollars. Most teams in their situation would have as well. What else were they going to say when they weren't receiving an NCHC invitation, pout about it?

Isn't that basically what Potter did at first? Recall the howling he did about not caring that they weren't invited.

[BigAl]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

A conference better take them soon. The thing I'm worried is, how likely are other teams to start programs, if ASU cant get into one. Someone needs to step up. And don't use travel expenses as an excuse. It's ONCE a year.

[joecct]

A conference better take them soon. The thing I'm worried is, how likely are other teams to start programs, if ASU cant get into one. Someone needs to step up. And don't use travel expenses as an excuse. It's ONCE a year.

Nachos.

@chnews: BREAKING: Arizona State Finalizing Deal to Join NCHC - http://collegehockeynews.com/news/2016/04/29_arizona_state_finalizing_deal.php

[gfmorris]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

You somewhat allude to this but I don't think you credit the disparity enough - UAH and ASU are apples to oranges on this front.

Mostly, yes, but UAH actually has a varsity hockey tradition from 1983 forward, so we're a bit more invested. Also, I expect that ASU would want a bigger building than UAH would, and there are questions about whether a UAH building would be hockey-only (probably not, as they'd want it as a convocation with hockey as a primary opponent, a practice rink, and the ability to use it for concerts, graduations, etc.). But I'd also to like that nearly everything else of major import on that five-year plan has been done. A hockey rink, however, is the expensive outlier. University budgets are still tough.

GFM <— saw here where state money provides 21% of the UAH budget; it was 42% 15 years ago when I was SGA EVP and almost got arrested for protesting our Governor

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

Were the outdoor games factored in? A one time game with 40,000 fans can mask average game attendance declines.

If the outdoor games were on or near the team's home arena why should they not be counted as home attendance? Gimmick or not, outdoor games might get more fans to attend indoor games on a regular basis. That is why I would prefer to use the median attendance and not the average; one game with attendance of 40,000 is not going to affect the median very much. However, to obtain the median requires much more work as the attendance for every home game is required since USCHO only gives total attendance, games played and average attendance. I am doing that for all Hockey East teams and I am only halfway through checking box scores for the past 16 seasons.

That said, for my purposes I generally don't want outdoor games as part of my research, so I do check to make sure they are not counted or I exclude them*. Most of the outdoor games have either been marked as neutral ice games or were excluded from the attendance totals on USCHO when I checked. For the few remaining games that were counted as home attendance I removed them from my data (with one exception)*, so the averages I am using reflect attendance at each team's home arena.

I also have found in my Hockey East research that sometimes no attendance has been reported on official box scores. However, USCHO still counts it as a home game with zero attendance and will show a lower then actual average attendance for that season. I have corrected that by not including such games when I total up the seasonal attendance and get the averages for my HE research.

Sean

* I have included an outdoor game played between UND at UNO at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha during the 2012-13 season because: 1) The park is next to the CenturyLink Center, which was the home of UNO at the time; 2) the attendance was below the capacity of the CenturyLink Center; 3) UNO occasionally had equivalent or higher attendance at the CenturyLink Center.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Sources: Arizona State Hockey Won’t Join Big Ten

Nachos.

@chnews: BREAKING: Arizona State Finalizing Deal to Join NCHC - http://collegehockeynews.com/news/20...izing_deal.php

It was really the only natural outcome, when you think of it. Practically a foregone conclusion once we knew the B7G was out of the picture.