Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

You just want your Final 5 seats for a Wild game!

I would not mind shouting obscenities to Sidney Crosby so that he could hear them.

[RedFreak]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

I agree, the only thing that makes sense is to make only open seats available to the Final 5 goers. But sense and WCHA don't always go hand in hand.

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

There's no way they could do that. What do you do with people who have F5 tickets in other Wild season ticket holder's seats? If they make it part of the package who gets the seat and what do you do with the other person who wants to attend the game?

You just want your Final 5 seats for a Wild game!

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

One thing I haven't seen explained, yet. I hope the league is not planning on including the Wild game in the tournament package.

There's no way they could do that. What do you do with people who have F5 tickets in other Wild season ticket holder's seats? If they make it part of the package who gets the seat and what do you do with the other person who wants to attend the game?

[bigblue_dl]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

One thing I haven't seen explained, yet. I hope the league is not planning on including the Wild game in the tournament package.

I don't think the Wild would do that to their season ticket holders. They will get their normal tickets and anyone that is at the Final 5 and wants to go to the Wild game would have to buy single game tickets.

How is this going to affect parking? How many people tailgating/drinking will the Final 5 attract next year, and is it enough to cause a parking shortage for a packed Wild game?

[RedFreak]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

One thing I haven't seen explained, yet. I hope the league is not planning on including the Wild game in the tournament package.

[Runninwiththedogs]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Plus with 5 Minnesota based teams going forward, you would think the attendance will still be good as the local teams and alumni show up.

I'm unsure of these local teams to which you are referring. I've got UMTC, yes, and then... is Augsburg D-1 now? or St. Thomas?

His point is a valid one, though. If you travel to the regional, you are running the risk of seeing your team lose on the first day. If that happens, do you just say * it and leave? Or do you go to the other game(s)?

But the point is the regional and the Final Five are different things. We are talking about going from a Final Five with two guaranteed games to a Final Five without two guaranteed games. We are talking about a dropoff in attendance because of this change in the Final Five. The regional has nothing to do with it.

The consolation game is a meaningless game because neither team wins anything. When you play in the regulation, you play for a shot at the NCAA tournament, when you play in the Quarterfinals, you win a shot at the Final Five, when you play in the Play-In game, you win a shot at the Semifinals, when you play in the Semis, you win a chance at the title, and when you play in the Finals you win a chance at the Trophy.

However, you win nothing in the 3rd place game other than an unwarranted chance to boost your PWR standing. You didn't earn that shot to boost your PWR standing, so why should you get it?

Last year, UW winning the 3rd place game meant UMTC was knocked out of the NCAA tournament, so we all won that day.

This format sucks. The only solution I like is dumping Buttmidji and UNO out of the conference again.

[pyhtboss]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

Sorry for the new thread....thought this was important

http://www.startribune.com/sports/go...Unciaec8O7EyUr

highlights -
6 teams get in. 3-6 and 4-5 play Thursday. Winners play the 1st and 2nd seeds on Friday. Championship game on Saturday night.

NO THIRD PLACE GAME!

Xcel is working on scheduling a Wild game on Saturday afternoon as a warm up for the championship game...wondering how this will work ticket-wise?

The name will stay the same and refer to the number of games instead of the number of teams.

I wish the WCHA had kept the same ten-team tournament & five-team finals format as before, just drop the #11 and #12 teams from the post-season tournament. If you are a team in the basement of the regular season you don't deserve to compete in the post-season.

[RedFreak]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

The consolation game is a meaningless game because neither team wins anything. When you play in the regulation, you play for a shot at the NCAA tournament, when you play in the Quarterfinals, you win a shot at the Final Five, when you play in the Play-In game, you win a shot at the Semifinals, when you play in the Semis, you win a chance at the title, and when you play in the Finals you win a chance at the Trophy.

However, you win nothing in the 3rd place game other than an unwarranted chance to boost your PWR standing. You didn't earn that shot to boost your PWR standing, so why should you get it?

Well, if you don't get it, I can't explain it to you.

[aparch]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

However, you win nothing in the 3rd place game other than an unwarranted chance to boost your PWR standing. You didn't earn that shot to boost your PWR standing, so why should you get it?

That "unwarranted chance to boost your PWR" are all some teams have while being a bubble team. While that "throw away" game may not mean much to a Wisconsin or Denver, Ferris State needed to win their third place game for a shot at making it.

Hell, had UMD beat UND, and lost in the semi-finals, they definitely could have used the third place game to posture themselves to not fall from the PWR.

Or Notre-Dame/Northern Michigan two years ago in the third place game, where a win or loss by Notre Dame put them into the Tourney. A tie to NMU would have eliminated ND.


If third place games are that useless, let's also eliminate them from holiday tournaments. They're also just "unwarranted chances at boosting your PWR" because you're not playing for a holiday tourney trophy.

[Eaglefan06]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

There is an aspect to this concept of a "meaningless" game that I find disturbing. No game in which your team is playing is meaningless.

While the goal of each team is to win a championship, it is not the point to playing the game.

The consolation game is a meaningless game because neither team wins anything. When you play in the regulation, you play for a shot at the NCAA tournament, when you play in the Quarterfinals, you win a shot at the Final Five, when you play in the Play-In game, you win a shot at the Semifinals, when you play in the Semis, you win a chance at the title, and when you play in the Finals you win a chance at the Trophy.

However, you win nothing in the 3rd place game other than an unwarranted chance to boost your PWR standing. You didn't earn that shot to boost your PWR standing, so why should you get it?

[RedFreak]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

There is an aspect to this concept of a "meaningless" game that I find disturbing. No game in which your team is playing is meaningless.

While the goal of each team is to win a championship, it is not the point to playing the game.

[motox]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

His point is a valid one, though. If you travel to the regional, you are running the risk of seeing your team lose on the first day. If that happens, do you just say * it and leave? Or do you go to the other game(s)?

The 3rd place game is typically not well-attended, the atmosphere is generally dead, and more often than not, one or both teams involved aren't exactly bringing their A game. It's rather anti-climactic when compared to all the other games played in the tournament.

I like the new format and agree that the 3rd place game is meaningless, but I can see the travelers argument for the guaranteed two games. To that point, maybe that's a reason why not as many fans travel to the Regionals when their team could be one and done (insert SCSU joke here.) Fortunately for us Minnesotans we have the X in our backyard.

[pgrass01]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

From what I read in the Strib, Thursday's games will be a single session with the first game at 4pm and the 2nd game at 7:30. At least that is what the WCHA is considering.

They will have to bump up the Thursday's ticket price to make up for having two games in one session. Then again, teams 3-6 play on Thursday. Better chance that the big draw teams (Gophers, Sioux) will have to play on Thursday, helping attendance.

I am looking forward to the change.

[Bakunin]

Re: Format for 2011 WCHA final Five

So you only went to the very first game of your regular season this year?

Based on how the team played, that one appeared to be meaningless too.

And I don't attend Gopher games - it's far too expensive, and the experience of watching them on a big screen tv at home trumps going to the arena and dealing with being surrounded by uptight d-bag fans (corpie sections) or drunken clueless frat morons in / near the student sections. After seeing how various people get treated over the years, I've concluded that I generally hate a significant portion of my own team's fanbase.