UNH 2020 Off-Season Thread: That Rinky-Shrinky Thang And Other Lively Banter :D

[Dan]

Chuck & Norbert -

Any discussion of this topic has to be viewed through a lens of reality - and the fact of the matter is that in the current environment no fans in the stands is simply the cost of having a season at all. You won't be in the building whether games are played or canceled, so I'd appreciate the fact they're trying to play. No fans is the protocol at every college hockey arena in the country (at least for now). Debating the semantics under which you would feel safe, or believe fans could be allowed in the building, is pointless. Targeting UNH for a decision that has been made across the country even more so...

Who cares what led to more HE games on NESN - I'm just thankful that they've seen an opportunity and taken advantage of it. They didn't have to increase the number of televised games, just like they didn't have to offer a free stream of the remaining contests. Maybe they shouldn't be offering a free stream ($$) - but the decision is obviously not based entirely on revenue. It's actually a pretty solid gesture, streaming the games free of charge for fans upset about not being able to attend. There will be a lot of empty basketball arena's soon, with games played by conferences/schools/tournaments eagerly charging fans to watch the games online...

The cardboard cutouts are NOT expected to generate revenue to fund the athletic department. The hope is they (along with other marketing and fundraising initiatives) can generate ENOUGH revenue to allow the department to survive the downturn without harming any major stakeholders. I would be willing to bet there are AT LEAST ten employees in the UNH athletic department making 35,000/Year or less (Chuck's example of a fully cardboard Whitt could cover those salaries for a year). If the cutout revenue only covers those salaries for the next few months and prevents the firing or furloughing of those employees (who are already underpaid and living paycheck to paycheck) is it a gimmick you can live with? Perhaps the revenue generated from the cutouts and other initiatives will allow UNH to avoid slashing scholarship budgets across multiple sports? If a student-athlete can keep their scholarship - and UNH doesn't fall (further) behind the competition - is that worth the gimmick? Or is it all still just follow the leader? You don't have to like the idea, but maybe, just maybe, it isn't about either of you...

You want to get back in the building? There is one way to make that happen - and it isn't defiance or denial...

[Chuck Murray]

Any discussion of this topic has to be viewed through a lens of reality - and the fact of the matter is that in the current environment no fans in the stands is simply the cost of having a season at all. You won't be in the building whether games are played or canceled, so I'd appreciate the fact they're trying to play. No fans is the protocol at every college hockey arena in the country (at least for now). Debating the semantics under which you would feel safe, or believe fans could be allowed in the building, is pointless. Targeting UNH for a decision that has been made across the country even more so...

I'll repeat what I posted the other day ...

There's ample cover to be had when you run with the herd, precious little when you go on your own.

If BS35+infinity and UNH wanted to truly show some vision or leadership on the issue, they could pick up the phone and call the Governor to see if they could work something out at The Whitt initially ... and then IF failing at that, what prevents them from proposing the idea of playing hockey "Winter Classic" style across the street in Wildcat Stadium this Winter? You're no longer indoors, you don't have to sweat the concerns about the faulty compressor etc. at The Whitt for another season, you get more flexibility on distancing, AND you generate a ton of publicity not only with your own fan base, but suddenly your home games become a unique viewing experience for your opponents' fan base as well - not to mention dragging in a few "casuals" and potentially converting them to UNH fans for the long term. It would be a PR bonanza for the State and UNH.

So probably the Governor doesn't play along ... but maybe he does? It's an opportunity for him to reach out to UNH and try to improve relations between UNH and Concord in a time of need ... and the last time I checked, the Governor (who won a 3rd term in a landslide 3 weeks ago) has dozens of folks camped out across from his home on weekends protesting his latest mandates, and it's starting to generate unwanted media attention (plus his neighbors are irked). UNH needs the Governor, and the Governor could use a distraction to show everyone else he's not a bad guy after all. If you ask me, worth a call. If Sununu says no, then hey, at the very least, there's a story showing UNH tried to reach out, and got shot down. I'd even give the AD a positive name-check for giving it a shot. What's the harm in asking?

Or you can just try to sell the cardboard cut-outs at $50 a pop, like everyone else.

Seeing those results elsewhere, the best you could reasonably hope for is a couple hundred (maybe $10,000) in the student section, or across from the cameras. Do you swing for the fences and risk a strikeout (Winter Classic style across the street) ... or do you take a two-out walk with the pitcher's slot up next (sell a few dozen cardboard cut-outs)? Ten years from now, will we be talking about cardboard pictures, or hockey under the stars? Easy call for me.

The cardboard cutouts are NOT expected to generate revenue to fund the athletic department. The hope is they (along with other marketing and fundraising initiatives) can generate ENOUGH revenue to allow the department to survive the downturn without harming any major stakeholders. I would be willing to bet there are AT LEAST ten employees in the UNH athletic department making 35,000/Year or less (Chuck's example of a fully cardboard Whitt could cover those salaries for a year). If the cutout revenue only covers those salaries for the next few months and prevents the firing or furloughing of those employees (who are already underpaid and living paycheck to paycheck) is it a gimmick you can live with? Perhaps the revenue generated from the cutouts and other initiatives will allow UNH to avoid slashing scholarship budgets across multiple sports? If a student-athlete can keep their scholarship - and UNH doesn't fall (further) behind the competition - is that worth the gimmick? Or is it all still just follow the leader? You don't have to like the idea, but maybe, just maybe, it isn't about either of you...

If they could generate that kind of revenue, gimmick or not, then I'd totally understand and support it. But that's just not going to happen with the cardboard cut-outs, Dan. You know it, I know it, we all know it. It didn't help that in putting the idea out there, it only got into the seacoastonline.com newsfeed, but I didn't see anything on it in the Union Leader, WMUR, or anywhere else. Maybe I missed it, but if not, just another example of the closed-minded "bubble" think we see too often at UNH, and in academia in general. Too bad.

Until someone starts acting like a leader over there, then sadly it is indeed all about "follow the leader", and the ample cover provided for those who run with the herd.

If Walshy were still with us ... does anyone seriously doubt he'd have floated the "Winter Classic" approach to the powers-that-be in Orono, with front page BDN and PPH coverage?

[norbert]

Chuck & Norbert -

Any discussion of this topic has to be viewed through a lens of reality - and the fact of the matter is that in the current environment no fans in the stands is simply the cost of having a season at all. You won't be in the building whether games are played or canceled, so I'd appreciate the fact they're trying to play. No fans is the protocol at every college hockey arena in the country (at least for now). Debating the semantics under which you would feel safe, or believe fans could be allowed in the building, is pointless. Targeting UNH for a decision that has been made across the country even more so...

Who cares what led to more HE games on NESN - I'm just thankful that they've seen an opportunity and taken advantage of it. They didn't have to increase the number of televised games, just like they didn't have to offer a free stream of the remaining contests. Maybe they shouldn't be offering a free stream ($$) - but the decision is obviously not based entirely on revenue. It's actually a pretty solid gesture, streaming the games free of charge for fans upset about not being able to attend. There will be a lot of empty basketball arena's soon, with games played by conferences/schools/tournaments eagerly charging fans to watch the games online...

The cardboard cutouts are NOT expected to generate revenue to fund the athletic department. The hope is they (along with other marketing and fundraising initiatives) can generate ENOUGH revenue to allow the department to survive the downturn without harming any major stakeholders. I would be willing to bet there are AT LEAST ten employees in the UNH athletic department making 35,000/Year or less (Chuck's example of a fully cardboard Whitt could cover those salaries for a year). If the cutout revenue only covers those salaries for the next few months and prevents the firing or furloughing of those employees (who are already underpaid and living paycheck to paycheck) is it a gimmick you can live with? Perhaps the revenue generated from the cutouts and other initiatives will allow UNH to avoid slashing scholarship budgets across multiple sports? If a student-athlete can keep their scholarship - and UNH doesn't fall (further) behind the competition - is that worth the gimmick? Or is it all still just follow the leader? You don't have to like the idea, but maybe, just maybe, it isn't about either of you...

You want to get back in the building? There is one way to make that happen - and it isn't defiance or denial...

UNH had nothing to do with the television schedule or the amount of games. NESN has an opportunity for live programming and took it. As for streaming I think it’s the way it should be done to potentially create new fans. I would have like WMUR to somehow get involved but my guess is TV rights issues with NESN are in play.

just because others do not allow fans doesn’t mean you can’t have a different decision. Though now that the governor has essentially locked everyone down it wouldn’t work. Unless the liquor store mentality is applied and self serving rules are used.

[Darius]

I am totally with Chuck. Season ticket priority picks for certain games and allow all of us to go to a couple games. Between Durham, UNH, and the Governor it’s 3 authorities of extremism.

Give us the choice to go. I say the same with everything. Open up. You are worried? Stay home

There are ways to get ST holders in and students and keep things safe and distant.

Though since no games have played as somehow last minute there was a positive this is all for nothing

How did they miss this option when smoking in bars and restaurants was banned? Don't want cancer, emphysema? Stay home.

[Chuck Murray]

How did they miss this option when smoking in bars and restaurants was banned? Don't want cancer, emphysema? Stay home.

The difference being, of course, that once restaurants discovered that more folks would come to restaurants with their young families when smoking was gradually eliminated (remember the "non-smoking" sections transition in the interim?), it had little to do with "saving" folks from the dangers of second-hand smoke, and much more to do with increasing overall revenues. Bars came last afterwards, since they weren't seen as family-friendly, and bar owners had much more cause for concern with losing their customers with a smoking ban than seeing the net gain restaurants did.

Why not transition hockey attendance with willing STH's who will sit three seats apart, starting at the top rows of the arena, and leaving a few rows closer to the ice empty as a "buffer" for teams/officials?

The Premier League and the Football League (sub-Premier) in England is planning to start opening their stadiums to fans in early December with a partial approach, hopefully to gradually expand over the following weeks/months. Is it so horrific that we consider doing the same here to "test the waters" when there are folks who are more than willing "guinea pigs"?

I might even buy a ST and start calling the AD by his Christian name again if they did this ...

[Darius]

Ahh. Hindsight.

[Chuck Murray]

So ... dare I ask if UNH will actually be playing hockey this weekend, home-and-home with UMass?

[Scott]

So ... dare I ask if UNH will actually be playing hockey this weekend, home-and-home with UMass?

Nope....not according to WMUR this morning, they're still under quarantine and both UMass games have been postponed (i.e., cancelled). Interestingly, nothing but "crickets" from the UNH website and from the Hockey East website.

If this is true....then as far as I'm concerned, just cancel the season now. Maine is on the schedule next weekend in Orono, I would be willing to bet that those games get postponed (cancelled) too.

[msprice]

the UNH site does show that both games are postponed.

[Nifty16]

No mentions of UNH just that Umass is playing the Mack. Can’t even mention games that have been cancelled?
http://hockeyeastonline.com/articles...mvgfg4Ep_kNkhI

[theprofromdover]

I am totally with Chuck.

Do you wear a t-shirt that says I'm With Stupid?

[Chuck Murray]

Do you wear a t-shirt that says I'm With Stupid?

You had to dig pretty deep to get in a petty little shot, didn't you Jack?

How very, very small of you. Fitting, though.

[norbert]

Do you wear a t-shirt that says I'm With Stupid?

It’s like I’ve entered a 4th grade message board

[Chuck Murray]

It's like I've entered a 4th grade message board

The saddest thing about it Norbert, is the "4th grader" in question is probably about 75 years old, and is still fighting battles in his mind that probably date back close to 20 years now.

I've pretty much made my peace with 99% of the BC folks on this board over the last decade or so. The UNH-BC "thing" that used to exist is dead and buried, under the weight of four (4) NC's by Coach York against zero (0) NC's by Coach Umile. They won, we lost, it's obvious, and the old "thing" (can't say "rivalry" when you rarely if ever win the biggest games) died a long time ago. It was fun while BC was suffering with the "1949" taunt on title deprivation like UNH was/still is experiencing, but even if it still persisted after their 2001 title - since UNH was still threatening in their ultimately Sisyphean efforts to finally scale that peak - then BC's 3 more titles out of 5 seasons a decade ago (and UNH's slide into mediocrity) killed it stone dead.

But Jack still festers over the fact that once upon a time, I used to make fun of Coach York by pointing out how Jerry's speech sounded a lot like Elmer Fudd's (it did then, and FWIW it still does). Throw in some silly jokes about Father Monan (RIP) that were directed at BC alums WAY more than they were ever directed at Monan, and lots of other things that have long ago lost their context, and there was never going to be a road back into Jack's good graces for yours truly. Being a humorless git, on top of that very long memory, is not helping him, either.

It's almost like Jack is that proverbial Japanese soldier on some remote Pacific Island who hasn't gotten the memo yet that the war is over, and has been over for a long LONG time.

Figured I owed you an explanation on why he chose to seize on your post. Collateral damage. :-)

[Darius]

To each his own.

BC sucks! Sieve.