Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

[Drew S.]

My bigger fear is does this lead to another WCHA situation where a group of schools say "F-you" to the others and just branch off. You need six but BC, BU, PC, UConn, NU and UMass are "power" schools (in terms of HE) and that's 6 right there.

I think they would want Maine and UNH too.

Anyone know what the league budget is? I can’t imagine it’s more than a half a million dollars and when you divide that 11 ways it doesn’t move the needle much for each school.

It’s sad the situation with college sports in New England now versus 20 years ago. Other than Merrimack and Lowell it seems like all the other schools have moved backwards.

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

As a fan, I don't need a huge national TV deal like the NCHC has. I am perfectly fine with what they are doing this year. The # of games on TV has been a massive step forward.

[brassbonanza]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

My guess - mainly the 3 Hockey East schools north of Massachusetts.....

What makes little sense here is that if the 4 AE schools pushed this and the other 7 didn't want to do this, that group could break off and reform their own conference with little effort. Or, if the top programs of those 7 wanted to go to an existing conference, they'd have a new home in about 15 minutes.

This appears to be an incredibly risky move for those 4 schools with very little potential return.

[UVM Cat in Texas]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

My guess - mainly the 3 Hockey East schools north of Massachusetts.....

Agree, it would be an upgrade for UVM. I think America East is fine for UVM, except in basketball, where I wish they were in a better conference. Frankly, I don't see this happening, so it's gonna be a moot point shortly.

[Groot]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

My bigger fear is does this lead to another WCHA situation where a group of schools say "F-you" to the others and just branch off. You need six but BC, BU, PC, UConn, NU and UMass are "power" schools (in terms of HE) and that's 6 right there.

[Groot]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

My guess - mainly the 3 Hockey East schools north of Massachusetts.....

I have to assume the 4 schools who are currently in America East would all be in favor. UNH UVM Maine and UML. I could see it getting support from Merrimack too. But the other six I don't think would be in favor of this, especially not BU who had a messy divorce with America East.

[chrisP]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

That's why I think if these rumors are true it's being driven by a woe is me we can't compete with the big boys mentality. Would be nice to know who is pushing this.

My guess - mainly the 3 Hockey East schools north of Massachusetts.....

[AMC]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

I think they tend to put the cart before the horse. Your post mentions a lot of the symptoms these types create.

As you said, "chasing dollars"... these people are constantly looking to increase revenue, create revenue streams, project revenue streams to make their power points presentations look good. Numbers, numbers, metrics, metrics, etc. How can I make our annual report look good?! Milk ever last dollar out that they can... it alienates the fans and in our case, we're talking about a small but rabid base in a niche sport. But these types are doing this stuff all over the place and the results are generally very sad.

Let the NCHC do their thing. Let the B1G do their thing. Let's keep doing our thing - we have a great league of New England schools in a good/solid recruiting area for the sport, all fairly close as a "bus league" compared to other leagues, and a nice central location for our conference tournament annually (and generally speaking even great locations for our schools in the regionals most years!). If there is a small way to improve it - provided it is feasible and the rising tide lifts all boats, then go for it. Otherwise, nothing is broken here and there is nothing to fix.

See I think it is the opposite. I think they realize there isn't a big money cannon out there. No big TV deal is coming for Hockey East. The rights fees for online broadcasts aren't going to break the bank. And, if Hockey East is going to bring in not much money for its product, why does it make sense to pay for a separate administration of Hockey East when there's already an administration set up for America East?

I look at this as a cost-saving move, and not a move intended to raise revenues.

[Snively65]

While I don’t think it changes your argument, only UNH was a founding member of Hockey East. Maine and UML were the first 2 schools to accept invitations to join the league.

Sean

Chuck Murray began a "founding of HEA" thread, imaybe in hibernation on page 2? :-)

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

Ya Notre Dame is a different animal. They are in the ACC for basketball and have a scheduling agreement with the ACC for football but are not actually a conference member in football.

Even if I grant you that example I still couldn't fathom BC wanting to go this America East route. I would think they are happy with how things are structured right now. In fact, York was quoted in that article talking about Sacred Heart as a potential 12th team for the league.

[Split-N]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

...As you said, "chasing dollars"... these people are constantly looking to increase revenue, create revenue streams, project revenue streams to make their power point presentations look good. Numbers, numbers, metrics, metrics, etc...Milk ever last dollar out that they can... it alienates the fans and in our case, we're talking about a small but rabid base in a niche sport...we have a great league of New England schools in a good/solid recruiting area for the sport...and a nice central location for our conference tournament annually...nothing is broken here and there is nothing to fix.

THIS!! ALL OF IT! Except I'd home in on marketing types as the ones screwing things up rather than broad brush MBAs generally. As for the departing commissioner, he may not have been perfect in all respects but he's the reason "nothing is broken here and there is nothing to fix."

[kdiff77]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

But I would be curious how the ACC would feel about BC associating its hockey team with a different all sport league. There's no reason a school like BC would want this. The current Hockey East landscape is just fine.

It's a little different because of the football situation (not to mention geographic location), but the ACC is apparently okay with Notre Dame joining the B1G for hockey only. Still think it would be incredibly stupid to follow suit, but it wouldn't be unprecedented for an ACC school to join another Power 5 conference for a single sport.

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

That's why I think if these rumors are true it's being driven by a woe is me we can't compete with the big boys mentality. Would be nice to know who is pushing this.

[Nick Papagiorgio]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

Not sure an MBA is the problem. MBAs understand supply and demand and falling demand.

I think they tend to put the cart before the horse. Your post mentions a lot of the symptoms these types create.

As you said, "chasing dollars"... these people are constantly looking to increase revenue, create revenue streams, project revenue streams to make their power points presentations look good. Numbers, numbers, metrics, metrics, etc. How can I make our annual report look good?! Milk ever last dollar out that they can... it alienates the fans and in our case, we're talking about a small but rabid base in a niche sport. But these types are doing this stuff all over the place and the results are generally very sad.

Let the NCHC do their thing. Let the B1G do their thing. Let's keep doing our thing - we have a great league of New England schools in a good/solid recruiting area for the sport, all fairly close as a "bus league" compared to other leagues, and a nice central location for our conference tournament annually (and generally speaking even great locations for our schools in the regionals most years!). If there is a small way to improve it - provided it is feasible and the rising tide lifts all boats, then go for it. Otherwise, nothing is broken here and there is nothing to fix.

[AMC]

Re: Hockey East: 2019/20 season is Joe Bertagna's last as commish

Hockey East shared a commissioner with America East from 1988-1993. Hockey East's stated reason for hiring a new commissioner was that Stuart Haskell resigned as HE commissioner to devote all his time and attention to America East. If the America East commissioner had no time in 1993 for hockey why would they have time now?

Sean

Maybe without Delaware, Hofstra, Drexel, Towson, BU, etc. there is a lot less going on in the America East offices?

It does seem like there may be some administrative overlap that could be combined between the league offices. Have some "Deputy Commissioner" in the America East whose sole remit is hockey, and hire one or two more staffers for the league office and you can probably do what two completely separate league offices are doing now at a much lower cost.