Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Cramped and very uncomfortable bench seating in the upper levels, for starters. Obstructed views in the four upper corners.

We're not talking Fenway Park here. I'm not even sure what you mean by cramped. In the seats? Concourse? I can understand not liking the fact there are no seat backs in the upper level but it's not a "bad" facility.

[Split-N]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Conte a bad facility? In what way?

Cramped and very uncomfortable bench seating in the upper levels, for starters. Obstructed views in the four upper corners.

Also a long walk from the T so you almost have to drive/uber; limited garage parking (last time I was there, garage was full so I had to risk a ticket by parking on a Newton side street many blocks away).

[ericredaxe]

I'm pretty sure if they were given a few years notice that the consolation game was being eliminated they could easily find another game for future schedules. The consolation game positively blows.

Except teams don’t know whether they would be in the consolation game or not until the week before.

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Except teams don’t know whether they would be in the consolation game or not until the week before.

Huh? I'm saying you tell the 4 teams that in 2023 the consolation game is being eliminated. That gives teams a few years to make sure their future schedules are in order.

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Also a long walk from the T so you almost have to drive/uber; limited garage parking (last time I was there, garage was full so I had to risk a ticket by parking on a Newton side street many blocks away).

I believe the Beacon garage requires a parking pass but Comm Ave garage is open to everyone. What time did you get to the game? I've never encountered a full Comm Ave garage but I am usually there by 6:45 to 6:50 at the latest. Maybe there was another event going on at the time as well. I'm not saying the Beanpot should be moved to Conte, but it's not even close to being a bad facility.

[Drew S.]

Also a long walk from the T so you almost have to drive/uber; limited garage parking (last time I was there, garage was full so I had to risk a ticket by parking on a Newton side street many blocks away).

LOL. It’s literally like five minutes.

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Huh? I'm saying you tell the 4 teams that in 2023 the consolation game is being eliminated. That gives teams a few years to make sure their future schedules are in order.

NM, caught myself here. I see what you're saying. I feel like there should be some flexibility in regard to number of games then. The rigidity of the # you can play is the issue then.

[Drew S.]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

How about making it a curtain raiser? If it was the weekend before the Bruins started maybe that would be a good time on the schedule for everyone, especially those itching to see some hockey.

[ericredaxe]

NM, caught myself here. I see what you're saying. I feel like there should be some flexibility in regard to number of games then. The rigidity of the # you can play is the issue then.

Correct. However, while a consolation game is certainly a snoozer as far as atmosphere and fan base, it is actually often a good OC game as far as pairwise implications go.

[J.D.]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Eh not a fan of that idea. I think you have to keep it as a mid to late season event. Would lose its luster even more to have it that early on in the season.

[mookie1995]

Except teams don’t know whether they would be in the consolation game or not until the week before.

And the only other team with an open hole in their schedule is.........

[PPGuru]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Of these ideas, I like the one that moves the Beanpot back to the second and third weeks of February. I'd go one step further. Have it on the last two weeks in February. The first week would be President's Day. That would ease the problem some peole have of getting to the Garden for a 5pm start. Play the title game the next week.

[Friend_of_BU_Hockey]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Despite the dwindling attendance, any of the local teams arenas are too small. As someone mentioned below, if there were a 10-12K arena it might work and put the tickets in high demand again.

Here is the recent attendance history for opening night:

2006-2011: 17,565 (sellout)
2012: 16,005
2013: 17,565
2014: 14,776
2015: 14,520
2016: 14,832
2017: 15,299
2018: 13,576
2019: 12,413

As you might expect the championship game has fared better:

- 2014: Sellout
2015: 14,253
2016: 15,702
2017: 15,941
2018: 17,565 (sellout)

As always, I'm curious about where the attendance figures come from. As we have discussed before, if capacity is 17,565 it is unlikely that every single one of those tickets got used for every one of those games so there has to be some sort of fuzzy math when they are listing the 17,565 figure over and over.

Regarding opening night, there's been a precipitous drop-off since 2013. Interesting to note a direct correlation between the attendance drop-off with Jack Parker's retirement from BU following the 2013 season. Not coincidentally, BU's home attendance has also dipped, precipitously so in the last 2 seasons. Is the decline in the BU fan base a factor behind declining attendance since 2013, and the steep decline the last 2 years?

As for the championship game, 2015 was rescheduled 2 weeks b/c of the snowstorms. Last year's sellout was largely fueled by the surge in NU fans.

[mookie1995]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

NO wonder it took so dam long to.get mookie's cheese burger at McD

[chickod]

Re: Beanpot LXVII: It Never Gets Old!

Playing it on consecutive Saturdays would be nice. At least then no one has to worry about getting out of work, there's no rush hour traffic to beat, no students have class, etc. Only problem would be scheduling the team's other game that weekend and ensuring they don't have to travel far the night before. I suppose doing Friday-Saturday and getting it done in one weekend is an option as well to avoid the scheduling concerns. But I agree with the overall sentiment here that the Monday format is increasingly becoming obsolete.

Agreed. I believe (I could be wrong) that the original intent of that format was it was the only calendar day where there isn't much going on, because it's after football season (even when there was only one week between the conference championships and the Super Bowl) and basketball and hockey tend to not play on Monday nights very often. Also, remember, in "those" days only the LOCAL stuff mattered. So the Garden was empty and this filled the void. And along those same lines, I worry that moving it to the weekend, however, would only bury it MORE beneath the plethora of cable games and other activities that are more prevalent on the weekends. There's no easy solution. It may just be time (unthinkable, I know) to scrap it. The games don't count in the standings anymore anyway...