UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

[ClOuD 9]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

When I picked up my tickets on Tuesday I was told that the $32 student packages were sold out which made me happy to think that there would be a decent number of students at the game, but student tickets were scattered throughout the building, and I have a feeling that there weren't many student tickets to begin with or that the box office converted the remaining student tickets left on Monday night to adult packages to make more money. There were at one point in the sale process student tickets set aside, they easily could have put all the students in a single section (or several neighboring sections) which I think would have definitely added to the atmosphere, even if the attendance was still the same.

This suggestion was brought up at the Spirit Focus group in '05, it took 6 years, but I believe this year was the first time that there was a student section at the Garden. Seems pretty common sense to me, and as noted in an earlier post in this thread, something that other schools do regularly.

[ClOuD 9]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

Cloud, buddy, I think you need a hobby or something if you're still caught up on this, but let me play along for a minute. You DO realize that there's another D-1 school even closer to the DCU center than BU, right?

Holy Cross

Its about a mile west of BU, on the way to the DCU (I'll let run the #'s to the first or second decimal). That school is Boston College, ergo by your criteria you couldn't expect BU to match that, given the extra distance...

BU & BC have footprints that overlap, in Rover-land are those larger or smaller than UMass and it's 49 miles of territory?

Now, what D-1 schools are between UNH and the Verizon Center that would compete with the school for fans' affections and support?

Both UML & Merrimack are closer travel distances to the Verizon Wireless than UNH, though the latter is by such a slim margin that it is basically even. I suspect that the Monarchs "compete with the school for fans' affections and support" more than either of those schools.

Had they kicked *** in the HE tourney, perhaps their fans would have felt better about traveling the < 40 miles to the arena that Cloud seems to think is akin to a pilgrimage across the Sahara desert.

Except that I never said that, I said that UNH -> Verizon Wireless & BU -> DCU Center are nearly equidistant - this is a true statement; now you're trying to twist that statement to imply I said something different.

[jml42691]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

The NCAA/UNH/VWA would rather sell full price than $32 student packages. Financially they don't care how many people are actually in the building they want to sell as many seats as possible for the highest possible cost.

Yes and no. If they knew that they were going to sell > 90% of the tickets then it makes sense to sell them all at the greatest price possible, but Sunday night's game was only at 59% capacity and they had to have known that this was going to be the case beforehand. Sure this was the second game of a two-game package so that accounts for the lower attendance, but from my feeling they would have made more money (and filled more seats) by making more tickets available to students (or even just lower-priced tickets in general). Selling more tickets at a lower price would have led to a much better atmosphere for that game and in the end would have made them just as much money. I'm sure UNH/NCAA/VWA would much rather had those empty seats filled for $32/seat than left empty for $77/seat that they were never going to see.

[WildShawn]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

That's my point. A crappy venue in the $#!tiest city in the country and it still drew 35 thousand fans. That surprised me to no end, as I thought the only way to get even close to that would be if Michigan or Michigan St made it. If even that place can sell tickets, than anywhere (not named Cincinnatti) can.

So, the FF is now on solid footing IMHO. Its taken awhile, but look at the event over the last 20 years. Its undoubtably grown and doesn't have to be held in the same 4 cities (Milwaukee, Minny/St Paul, Boston or Detroit) to sell out. By and large I think the conference tournaments are also doing well, meaning HE, WCHA, and CCHA. That just leaves the regionals in some question. My belief/hope is that these will also grow in popularity and should be given an opportunity to do so with some sensible changes such as dropping ticket prices, etc.

The FF may not be on as solid footing as it was 9 years ago. The FF in St. Paul was solid out well in advance. This one there were PLENTY of tickets available before the regionals (not including the participating teams)..

Honestly even the conference championships (at least out here in HEA) don't draw as much as they did a decade ago. You'd regularly get 16-17k, and I think this year it was like 15 and 12k but I'm not sure offhand. I just don't see it as growing. I don't care too much as I enjoy going wherever it is, whenever I can.

The Detroit thing was a gimmick. They were selling wicked cheap tickets and the actual attendance was nowhere NEAR the announced attendance (I read numbers closer to 20k) That's not a good indicator, its a gimmick, period, lots of true college hockey fans who go to the FF every (other) year didn't go, and the NCAA acknowledged the ridiculousness by not punnishing anyone in their priority standing.

edit: I guess, looking back to 1999, the conference championships have been pretty consitent in hockey east anyway...

[Rover]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

The Detroit Frozen Four was a joke and a mockery of our sport. Aside for BC fans seeing their team win, name one thing positive about that joke of a tournament? The awful temporary rink, the 35k seats sold 32k of which couldn't see anything going on on the awful temporary rink. Absolute joke and I hope to never see that.

That's my point. A crappy venue in the $#!tiest city in the country and it still drew 35 thousand fans. That surprised me to no end, as I thought the only way to get even close to that would be if Michigan or Michigan St made it. If even that place can sell tickets, than anywhere (not named Cincinnatti) can.

So, the FF is now on solid footing IMHO. Its taken awhile, but look at the event over the last 20 years. Its undoubtably grown and doesn't have to be held in the same 4 cities (Milwaukee, Minny/St Paul, Boston or Detroit) to sell out. By and large I think the conference tournaments are also doing well, meaning HE, WCHA, and CCHA. That just leaves the regionals in some question. My belief/hope is that these will also grow in popularity and should be given an opportunity to do so with some sensible changes such as dropping ticket prices, etc.

[UNHhockey29]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

Wait... do you not have a ticket?

No I don't

[WildShawn]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

Right on the money Shawn, the only silver lining in the cloud that was the loss to RIT was not having to participate in that fiasco.

Amen to that, I would have probably gone if UNH made it (though with how they played against wisco earlier that year ). Silver lining indeed!
This year, I would have been HAPPY to drop some dough to see them in St. Paul again, THAT'S a hockey venue, not a dang football stadium

[pgv]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

The Detroit Frozen Four was a joke and a mockery of our sport. Aside for BC fans seeing their team win, name one thing positive about that joke of a tournament? The awful temporary rink, the 35k seats sold 32k of which couldn't see anything going on on the awful temporary rink. Absolute joke and I hope to never see that.

Right on the money Shawn, the only silver lining in the cloud that was the loss to RIT was not having to participate in that fiasco.

[WildShawn]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

I don't think attendance will be a problem at the FF after Detroit drew 35K for non-Michigan teams to play.

The Detroit Frozen Four was a joke and a mockery of our sport. Aside for BC fans seeing their team win, name one thing positive about that joke of a tournament? The awful temporary rink, the 35k seats sold 32k of which couldn't see anything going on on the awful temporary rink. Absolute joke and I hope to never see that.

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

The NCAA/UNH/VWA would rather sell full price than $32 student packages. Financially they don't care how many people are actually in the building they want to sell as many seats as possible for the highest possible cost.

[jml42691]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

...I believe the discussion, however, was about the regionals, and it was 1/2 full Sunday night in Manchester for the regional final with the host school participating! That shows a lot of things, including the total apathy and indifference of the UNH fan base, which is really sad.

I know people have said in years past that fan busses from Durham weren't used much, but I think one of the bigger aspects of the lack of student turnouts was the lack of advertising about the regionals games. I'm an RA in one of the building on campus and hung up flyers around my building to try to get people to the games and at the very least let people know that the games were on TV. Most people seemed to not even know that UNH advanced to NCAAs, yet alone that they were playing in Manchester.

When I picked up my tickets on Tuesday I was told that the $32 student packages were sold out which made me happy to think that there would be a decent number of students at the game, but student tickets were scattered throughout the building, and I have a feeling that there weren't many student tickets to begin with or that the box office converted the remaining student tickets left on Monday night to adult packages to make more money. There were at one point in the sale process student tickets set aside, they easily could have put all the students in a single section (or several neighboring sections) which I think would have definitely added to the atmosphere, even if the attendance was still the same.

The school NEEDED to do a better job letting students know about the game, hanging up a banner at the Whitt and making an announcement or two over the PA system (which you can't even hear if you're in the lower half of the student section) were not enough. There are plenty of things they could have done to pack students into the Verizon, none of which were taken advantage of. The dining halls all have flat screen TVs at the entrances that departments can put ads on, there are "table tents" at every table in the dining hall that most people read, giving out index card sized ads with all student tickets picked up for the games in the second half of the semester would have worked as well, distributing flyers to all of the dorms on campus. If these simple steps were taken plus supplying a fan bus (for free or a couple bucks) and sitting the students together, there would have been many more students at those games and the atmosphere would have been much greater.

I know that the school says that there wasn't much interest in the past, but 1/2 of the student population here now weren't UNH students at the last Manchester Regional. I feel as if the school dropped the ball big time with this one.

[Nifty16]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

Was that after Cornell lost the 1st day? Their fans were more or less local and bailed.

For game 2 Manch I suspect ticket sales were higher than attendees as almost all Miami fans and many Merrimack fans with tickets did not attend.

Yes it was, I sold the 2 extra tickets I had to a Cornell fan on line for full price, they ended up selling the tickets for teh Migh-Minn game for about $20 and the finals for about the same.

[Rover]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

I don't think attendance will be a problem at the FF after Detroit drew 35K for non-Michigan teams to play. Aside from a return to Cincinnatti, I can't see a worse place to be although Philly will be close. Its not too surprising that there's tickets available until after the regionals get decided. That could also be a function of the economy. Its an awful lot to spend and then find out 4 teams you don't care about or can't stand are in it.

UNH fans are most likely beaten down by years of disappointment, plus the team flamed out early in the HE tourament. Had they kicked *** in the HE tourney, perhaps their fans would have felt better about traveling the < 40 miles to the arena that Cloud seems to think is akin to a pilgrimage across the Sahara desert.

[Darius]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

...I was in Buffalo in 03 and could get tickets outside for half the face value...

Was that after Cornell lost the 1st day? Their fans were more or less local and bailed.

For game 2 Manch I suspect ticket sales were higher than attendees as almost all Miami fans and many Merrimack fans with tickets did not attend.

[Nifty16]

Re: UNH Wildcats - 2011 Playoff Quest

I WAS talking about the regionals... unless you think the FF packages are $80.

Although I will say that this bad locations and continually raising prices for the FF has also created a situation in which the chickens have come home to roost. Too bad the NCAA got bailed out by getting a MN team and ND in there. They ticked off a lot of people with the Detroit FF last year (Columbus in 2005 was a disaster as well and you couldn't give tickets away). Almost no one got rejected for tix this year and they still had tix on sale on ticketmaster a week or two ago.

They were adverting tix during the regional's. I was in Buffalo in 03 and could get tickets outside for half the face value. Lets see what happens next year in Tampa, I am sure that will not be pretty at all. Philly and Pitt might not be to bad.
Agree on the regional's, should make it 2 separate days, don't even bother with the packages. Also set up so groups like local youth hockey groups can get discounted prices.