Regionals attendance

[LTsatch]

Re: Regionals attendance

I bought my tickets online Sunday about 2 hrs after the selection show. The Webster Bank Arena site redirected me to Ticketmaster. IIRC, the TM fee was $10.90 and there was a "facility charge" of $4.50 per ticket. On top of that there was an "order processing fee" on the entire order. Four tickets came to a total of 324.80.

I wanted to make sure I got tickets so was willing to pay the TM ransom. I could have bought through QU later in that week for the $65.00 but didn't want to wait.

It's really bad that online purchasing is so expensive. Not a single human was involved in my transaction as it was all done online... even used the print at home option.

And the ******** at the arena charged $20 to park in the official lot and garage. Drive two blocks away, and it was free. I do not think the local AHL affiliate charges to park on the surface lot, talk about gouging.

[Hux]

And the ******** at the arena charged $20 to park in the official lot and garage. Drive two blocks away, and it was free. I do not think the local AHL affiliate charges to park on the surface lot, talk about gouging.

Could have been worse. I went with a buddy to a LA Kings game at the old Forum. We were directed into a lot across the street from the arena lot. We pull in and my buddy forks over $20 and we park in one of the last spots. By the time we get out to the street the last spot has been taken and the guy who was directing traffic has yanked up his signs and is walking off.

I did a double take and noticed that his signs had covered up the sign for the building next to the lot...which was a branch of the public library. I pointed it out to my buddy but he was in a rush to get into the game and shrugged it off. When we came out we found that all the cars had been towed and it ended up costing my buddy over a $100 bucks for the ticket, towing and cab fare to get us to the tow lot.

Gotta love entrepreneurial spirit.

[TheEagle]

Re: Regionals attendance

Interesting article on the regional attendance problem (specifically, the West and Midwest regions).

http://www.uscho.com/2014/04/05/comm...something-new/

The only three regionals to draw more than 20,000 since 2003 included both North Dakota and Minnesota. They were in Grand Forks, Denver, and St. Paul (Grand Forks, an on campus site, being the highest drawing regional since 2003). Attendance in the West and Midwest regions has fallen off dramatically in recent years. Unless the NCAA clones Minnesota and North Dakota, moving back to a mix of on and off campus sites seems like the best solution to fix West and Midwest regional attendance problem (lowering ticket prices would help also). Or the NCAA could add another weekend of playoff hockey and have the higher seed host the first round of the tournament.

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Regionals attendance

I think it is telling that the high point for attendance was 2006. Two factors drove the numbers down initially in the immediate couple of years after, and a couple more have continued to keep crowds down. In March 2006 gas prices were averaging just under $2.20 per gallon but in 2007 that shot up to nearly $3.00. Gas spikes always decrease driving, drastic spikes having a drastic effect. In time, old habits are returned to even if the price stabilizes at that higher level, barring some other factor that would hurt attendance. By the time the 2008 tourney rolled around, gas prices were still high, but much of the country, especially much of the midwest was in the throes of the worst economic downturn in nearly 80 years. One of the reasons gas prices had plunged to levels not seen since the 20th century by the time the 2009 tourney rolled around was that much of the country, and again much of the midwest where 99% of your potential audience is for the two western regionals, was still reeling econmically. Now the economy is stronger than it was 4, 5 or 6 years ago, but habits have changed. People did without because the didn't have the disposable income. Now that some do again have the means, they learned to live without it. More and more people have big screen TVs and we expect the tournament to basically be available live for every game. In addition, all over the place live sports are a much less popular choice for people's entertainment dollar, especially for consumers under 30. The game, literally, has change immensely over the last 7 or 8 years and I see no evidence that we'll return to the types of growth we saw in the early years of the 16 team tourney.

[CLS]

Re: Regionals attendance

...Two factors drove the numbers down initially in the immediate couple of years after, and a couple more have continued to keep crowds down. ....

Spot on.

Interesting article on the regional attendance problem (specifically, the West and Midwest regions).

http://www.uscho.com/2014/04/05/comm...something-new/

The only three regionals to draw more than 20,000 since 2003 included both North Dakota and Minnesota. They were in Grand Forks, Denver, and St. Paul (Grand Forks, an on campus site, being the highest drawing regional since 2003). ...

Yes, but note that in all thee cases, the "home" team was there. In 2009, Mariucci hosted without UMTC present, and drew only 14k+, even with Minnesota-Duluth present. So the UMTC’s presence would appear to make a roughly 7k difference. You can’t guarantee that the home team will be there. Minnesota’s been a safe bet in recent years, but North Dakota, their subsequent success notwithstanding, barely made the tournament this year. I would suggest that without UND present at a Grand Forks regional, attendance would be significantly less.

I also have a question with Englestad. Isn’t it still unacceptable as a venue because of all the embedded logos? I’m not arguing whether the propriety or fairness of the ban, just whether it exists.

Also, one can look at data and interpret it many ways. For example, according to the numbers on the chart, 2014 was the fifth highest out of 12 years recorded, only 1222 (2.2%) short of being the fourth highest and 1443 (2.6%) of being the third highest. That’s actually pretty impressive, considering that the current third and fourth highest were pre-recession and pre-widespread HDTV broadcast days.

I was also curious about a statement in the article

Even if ticket prices remain a hindrance to attendance, telling arenas to lower them is an untenable solution. If they can’t make money, they can’t bid on the events, further complicating matters.

Cincinnati is the most notable example of a cheap ticket strategy. Are the financial results known yet? Was Cincinnati profitable? I don’t know, and quite frankly, I doubt if the author knows either. And if it was successful, you wouldn't be "telling" the arenas to lower them. You'd be pointing out to them that lowering ticket prices is sound marketing strategy.

[thebrain]

Re: Regionals attendance

Stop having regionals in cities like Toledo, St. Louis, and Grand Rapids.

Rotate in the west between Denver, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Fargo.

Rotate in the midwest between Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit.

No live TV unless the regional is sold out, if you want to watch it live, go to the arena.

Maybe when UNO gets their new arena they can host at the Century Link Center.

Or, have east and west divisions with Atlantic Hockey, ECAC, and Hockey East in the east. The WCHA, NCHC, and BigTen in the west with each team getting one autobid and the remaining remaining spots will be decided by the pairwise rankings in their division. Then you'd have only an east and west regional with the final four or two teams going to the championship where east meets west.

[Jesus of Suburbia]

Re: Regionals attendance

Stop having regionals in cities like Toledo, St. Louis, and Grand Rapids.

Rotate in the west between Denver, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Fargo.

Rotate in the midwest between Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit.

No live TV unless the regional is sold out, if you want to watch it live, go to the arena.

Maybe when UNO gets their new arena they can host at the Century Link Center.

Or, have east and west divisions with Atlantic Hockey, ECAC, and Hockey East in the east. The WCHA, NCHC, and BigTen in the west with each team getting one autobid and the remaining remaining spots will be decided by the pairwise rankings in their division. Then you'd have only an east and west regional with the final four or two teams going to the championship where east meets west.

Why Minneapolis? Xcel is far better than the Target Center. St. Paul. Grand Folks, and Denver could be used for the west. I agree with Midwest cities and not using cities wherre there no schools near by.
Live TV should happen not everybody has the money to travel and buy tickets plus food hotel. Remember NCAA is about college so college students do not have all this money sitting around to spend. Make the games cheaper to buy. Cut the ticket prices in half.

[thebrain]

Re: Regionals attendance

Why Minneapolis? Xcel is far better than the Target Center. St. Paul. Grand Folks, and Denver could be used for the west. I agree with Midwest cities and not using cities wherre there no schools near by.
Live TV should happen not everybody has the money to travel and buy tickets plus food hotel. Remember NCAA is about college so college students do not have all this money sitting around to spend. Make the games cheaper to buy. Cut the ticket prices in half.

NCHC can host at Target Center with SCSU or UMD being the host school since they're already working together on the conference tournament.

I like watching the games live too and ticket prices have been pretty high. Black it out if you don't have enough seats sold, the NFL way.

[Jesus of Suburbia]

Re: Regionals attendance

NCHC can host at Target Center with SCSU or UMD being the host school since they're already working together on the conference tournament.

I like watching the games live too and ticket prices have been pretty high. Black it out if you don't have enough seats sold, the NFL way.

NCAA is not NFL. So it not really option and plus NCAA wants to grow college hockey where as NFL is so popular that blackouts are not problem.
I can why NCHC would try to host it but they should focus on North Dakota and Denver/CC as host for regionals.

[LTsatch]

Re: Regionals attendance

A $220 value single seat for all sessions on the glass in the corner behind the net just went for $112.50 on Ebay.