Originally posted by Sean Pickett
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Regarding the Patty Center, something to remember is it is a practice rink in every sense of the word. It isn't going to draw people in.
There are some rumblings going around that the Carlson Center has a new ticket counting system that is thwarting the attendance numbers. I can certainly attest that when we played UAA a couple weeks ago, the Saturday attendance was listed as under 2,000 but I'd be shocked if it was actually that low.
But there is no doubt that the WCHA move has impacted our attendance. In the old CCHA days we always had big crowds for UM/MSU, Ohio State, and Notre Dame. Without those big draws attendance has crumbled, and it is complicated by the fact that we have been lousy at home the last two seasons.
The other issue is we tend to get stuck with crappy home weekends (I.e. Thanksgiving weekend, Finals weekend, etc.) followed by being on the road the month of January. There is no doubt the scheduling was more advantageous in the CCHA. Not having a home game for six weeks in the middle of the season isn't advantageous for branding.
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