Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

[GoBucky36]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

I would bet that it's hard to make many Admirals fans care about the Badgers.

Its even harder to make Badger fans care about the Admirals.

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

Heater to the Wild...***? I actually have to care about an effing team from ratville from time to time???

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

In alumni news......Brian Elloitt to St. Loius, Joudrey to Columbus, Dowell to Dallas.....Good move for Dowell, now I can go back to hating the Hawks 100%. Sorry Hawks fans, we all can't love all the same teams. Conversely, man I hate Dallas, but there's 2Badgers there now, what's a guy to do? Elloitt....I really don't follow the NHL too much, what is their goaltending situation?

I see the UW tweaked their website. The Sr's are off the roster now, but the Fr aren't on yet.

I can't wait to see Rumpel in net. I'm really looking forward to a taller guy (6-3) between the pipes, a little less room up top.

Matt Ford to the Capitals and Joe Piskula signed with the Flames as well.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

Heater to the Wild? Pumped.

Its even harder to make Badger fans care about the Admirals.

They aren't even Milwaukee's team anymore, technically.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

In alumni news......Brian Elloitt to St. Loius, Joudrey to Columbus, Dowell to Dallas.....Good move for Dowell, now I can go back to hating the Hawks 100%. Sorry Hawks fans, we all can't love all the same teams.

Negative rep coming...


JK

[diddlypoo]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

The article says each team was asked to play two Monday games. More than likely meaning one home and one road. Do you seriously think 1 home game on a Monday is going to risk losing the fan base? I highly doubt it and if it does you're a pretty awesome fan.

A lot of people complained about Monday night football too...that seemed to work out ok. Personally I think it will be pretty sweet to have a Monday night or Wednesday night Big 10 game on the BTN to look forward to all season. The more college hockey on television the better.

When you're already dealing with a facility that doesn't come close to selling out for probably 80% of the games, combined with odd day games (Monday, Sunday and Wednesday), taking away the North Dakota series, adding a bevy of lousy preseason non conference games (played during football season), and likely moving the Minnesota-Wisconsin Showdown to a Wednesday night, how could you not think season tickets will be affected? These aren't the days of the Great Dane when the occasional Tuesday night game against Illinois-Chicago was a necessary evil of ensuring tickets for the other games. Add to that the extra licensing fees, and you could very well have a decent portion of the hardcore fanbase looking to save a few bucks, scalp the occasional ticket or walk-up and purchase tix on gameday for the good games.

Your MNF argument is horrific, since you're talking about a sport that sells out virtually every home game (i.e. the terrible time does not impact the gate.)

By the way, I am not in the hate Alvarez and the BTHC camp. I live in Chicago (I gave up on keeping my season tickets years ago because of the commute/weather), and am selfishly looking forward to more games being on TV. That said, I am questioning the assumptions being used to suggest that this will be a financial boon to Wisconsin. And you rip on my credentials as a fan? Really? Nice and classy.

[badger79]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

I'm going to defend Barry. He (with Shalala and Richter) turned around an athletic department that was in tatters. So he pushed for the BTHC. I'm guessing he was frustrated by the crap leadership in the WCHA (remember he also threatened to join the CCHA). And I'm guessing his "I'm not a hockey guy" comment comes from not understanding the sport, not because he hates hockey. Alvarez is a big picture guy; he sees the potential in everything and always wants to bleed more from it. UW hockey makes money, why can't it make more? He raised the funds for the Camp renovation and had the big rededication for the 100th anniversary of the stadium. His thinking is, why can't hockey do the same? What's the holdup?

As for Monday games, every.other.sport bends itself to the will of television. Because television is where money lies. Yes, it's because of greed -- so what? College basketball games are played on every night of the year because of this greed. So too are football games (UW opens on a Thursday night this year in fact). Those fans all deal with it somehow. And these are sports that are way healthier than college hockey, monetarily speaking. Live sports are EXPLODING as a revenue source as TV execs realize how much money they bring in. They're cheap as hell to produce and draw in the young male demographic that doesn't really watch scripted television. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that opportunity to make more money?

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

heater to the wild? Pumped.

Noooooooooooooooooo!

Sure, I just was able to get out of following the Hawks, now I have to follow the Wild. Yuck.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

When you're already dealing with a facility that doesn't come close to selling out for probably 80% of the games, combined with odd day games (Monday, Sunday and Wednesday), taking away the North Dakota series, adding a bevy of lousy preseason non conference games (played during football season), and likely moving the Minnesota-Wisconsin Showdown to a Wednesday night, how could you not think season tickets will be affected? These aren't the days of the Great Dane when the occasional Tuesday night game against Illinois-Chicago was a necessary evil of ensuring tickets for the other games. Add to that the extra licensing fees, and you could very well have a decent portion of the hardcore fanbase looking to save a few bucks, scalp the occasional ticket or walk-up and purchase tix on gameday for the good games.

Your MNF argument is horrific, since you're talking about a sport that sells out virtually every home game (i.e. the terrible time does not impact the gate.)

By the way, I am not in the hate Alvarez and the BTHC camp. I live in Chicago (I gave up on keeping my season tickets years ago because of the commute/weather), and am selfishly looking forward to more games being on TV. That said, I am questioning the assumptions being used to suggest that this will be a financial boon to Wisconsin. And you rip on my credentials as a fan? Really? Nice and classy.

-Again, I'm going to have to repeat myself. Each team will play ONE weekday home game. ONE.
-I can guarantee even with all the BS that we'll still play UND through the WCHA scheduling agreement or some non-conference set up. In the current WCHA schedule we don't play them at home every year anyway.
-Shouldn't the most important conference games be played at the end of the season? Whats the point in playing the most important series the first weekend of the year? As it stands right now we already lead off next season with "lousy preseason non conference games (played during football season)" against Northern Michigan. So whats the difference if we play the RIT series the first week of December or the second week of the season? I honestly don't see the point in getting worked up because you have to watch Mercyhurst 3 weeks into the season instead of over Thanksgiving where it's scheduled now?
-I doubt the Minnesota series will be played on a Wednesday despite Oates nugget that close proximity games COULD be played on a Wednesday night. It's still a four hour bus ride from Madison to Minneapolis, I think they were referring to the hour jaunt from East Lancing to Ann Arbor.
-As for MNF I'm simply stating that it's going to be pretty sweet to get to watch an EXTRA college hockey game on TV every single week that we couldn't watch before because everyone played the exact same day at the exact same time.
-I simply said, if you're going to drop your tickets over 1 Monday game, your a terrible fan. So if that's you, then yes I guess I did.

[diddlypoo]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

-Again, I'm going to have to repeat myself. Each team will play ONE weekday home game. ONE.
-I can guarantee even with all the BS that we'll still play UND through the WCHA scheduling agreement or some non-conference set up. In the current WCHA schedule we don't play them at home every year anyway.
-Shouldn't the most important conference games be played at the end of the season? Whats the point in playing the most important series the first weekend of the year? As it stands right now we already lead off next season with "lousy preseason non conference games (played during football season)" against Northern Michigan. So whats the difference if we play the RIT series the first week of December or the second week of the season? I honestly don't see the point in getting worked up because you have to watch Mercyhurst 3 weeks into the season instead of over Thanksgiving where it's scheduled now?
-I doubt the Minnesota series will be played on a Wednesday despite Oates nugget that close proximity games COULD be played on a Wednesday night. It's still a four hour bus ride from Madison to Minneapolis, I think they were referring to the hour jaunt from East Lancing to Ann Arbor.
-As for MNF I'm simply stating that it's going to be pretty sweet to get to watch an EXTRA college hockey game on TV every single week that we couldn't watch because everyone played the exact same day at the exact same time.
-I simply said, if you're going to drop your tickets over 1 Monday game, your a terrible fan. So if that's you, then yes I guess I did.

- Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday games suck. There will be more of all, all are less desirable, and all will have lower attendance than their Friday and Saturday counterparts.
- Really? A UW rep already has said this is between UND and the NCAA. UW doesn't look to be overly flexible on the issue, and probably prefers the easier schedule anyhow.
- I'm not worked up at all about the timing per se. However, a UND or Minnesota game during football season will still be a near sellout while a game against Alabama Huntsville will be far from it. Packing bad games during the worst time of year is a recipe for particularly bad attendance/ticket sales. Seeing four straight home series that suck will also add to the whole "Why am I even buying season tickets?" question that season ticketholders will ask themselves when they see the bill. It would be exacerbated the following year if the ticket office ever started selling partial (Big Ten) season ticket packages around Christmas.
- UW vs Minnesota is one of the 3 or 4 closest (proximity) matchups of the 15 intraconference possibilities. I find it hard to believe that it would be off the table if every week of the season needed one Wednesday night game.
- Monday TV -- as I mentioned earlier, since I don't reside in Madison, I will enjoy being able to watch more games. My selfish reasons have nothing to do with UW $.
- Doesn't apply to me, but I guess you didn't actually carefully read the initial post. Shocking. Besides, I categorically reject the notion that this is all about 1 Monday game. But keep oversimplifying the issue if you must.

Any one of these factors wouldn't move the dial much on season ticket renewals; dropping them all at one time on a community that isn't wildly happy with the BTHC to begin with + a bad economy + excess capacity could cause an unintended material reduction in season ticket renewals. And history has shown us that hockey games in Madison that are not part of the season ticket package aren't well attended. Also, there is a reason why college hockey isn't overly televised now -- I don't know what is going to magically cause Delany and company to be making "snow angels" in their piles of money unless Minnesota is able to drive a large $ transfer from FSN to BTN, or that the other regional fox sports networks were idiots to not televise a slew of money-printing sporting events available to them. I am skeptical of the entire "boatloads of money" premise, and if we're only talking about marginal bottom line improvements, I ask "Is it worth it?" to mess with the scheduling.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

Noooooooooooooooooo!

Sure, I just was able to get out of following the Hawks, now I have to follow the Wild. Yuck.

Remember that most Wild fans are also Gopher fans, so you'll basically be rooting for Goldie coz when the Wild win, Gopher fans are happy.

Oh yeah, and the Vikings.

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

-Again, I'm going to have to repeat myself. Each team will play ONE weekday home game. ONE.

To begin with. It's hard to say that college hockey will ever fall into the "TV revenue rules the roost" mentality since it currently gets diddly squat in that regard. But if there's ANY indication that there actually is some TV money to be made from this, then it's going to be a very slippery slope. It'll make normal slippery slopes look like ****ing sandpaper. If we're lucky, that wouldn't hurt attendance or atmosphere, but I wouldn't count on it.

-I can guarantee even with all the BS that we'll still play UND through the WCHA scheduling agreement or some non-conference set up. In the current WCHA schedule we don't play them at home every year anyway.

The only (and I mean ONLY) precedent we have is the ongoing basketball series against Marquette, so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

-As for MNF I'm simply stating that it's going to be pretty sweet to get to watch an EXTRA college hockey game on TV every single week that we couldn't watch before because everyone played the exact same day at the exact same time.

How is it extra? We still have the same number of games whether they're on Fridays, Saturdays or ridiculous days. The only difference is for people like you, who live in the media markets of other college hockey teams and can catch their games on TV, or people who pony up the extra money for things like FCS or NHL Network and can actually see other teams' games. For the rest of us? It's still the same pool of 34 games. The market for UW Hockey is limited to Madison as it is. You have no chance of trying to get more Milwaukee/Oshkosh/etc. people involved if they can't go to a weeknight game without a) taking a 1/2 day of vacation the next day or b) getting home insanely late before having to get up early for work. Basketball is lucky to be popular enough that they don't have to deal with that problem, since the Madison market seems to love it enough to sell it out regularly, even on weeknights. Is hockey that lucky?

-I simply said, if you're going to drop your tickets over 1 Monday game, your a terrible fan. So if that's you, then yes I guess I did.

No sense getting catty about that, since I don't think there are a lot of people (certainly not diddlystupidname) that actually believe that it's going to be "1 Monday game".

Remember that most Wild fans are also Gopher fans, so you'll basically be rooting for Goldie coz when the Wild win, Gopher fans are happy.

Oh yeah, and the Vikings.

Lies. Living proof.

[GoBucky36]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

They aren't even Milwaukee's team anymore, technically.

Very true. Theyre nothing more than Nashville's farm team. Hence why I follow the Icehogs. If Im going to follow the AHL, Id rather root for a bunch of my team's prospects.

[solovsfett]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

I'm going to defend Barry. He (with Shalala and Richter) turned around an athletic department that was in tatters. So he pushed for the BTHC. I'm guessing he was frustrated by the crap leadership in the WCHA (remember he also threatened to join the CCHA). And I'm guessing his "I'm not a hockey guy" comment comes from not understanding the sport, not because he hates hockey. Alvarez is a big picture guy; he sees the potential in everything and always wants to bleed more from it. UW hockey makes money, why can't it make more? He raised the funds for the Camp renovation and had the big rededication for the 100th anniversary of the stadium. His thinking is, why can't hockey do the same? What's the holdup?

As for Monday games, every.other.sport bends itself to the will of television. Because television is where money lies. Yes, it's because of greed -- so what? College basketball games are played on every night of the year because of this greed. So too are football games (UW opens on a Thursday night this year in fact). Those fans all deal with it somehow. And these are sports that are way healthier than college hockey, monetarily speaking. Live sports are EXPLODING as a revenue source as TV execs realize how much money they bring in. They're cheap as hell to produce and draw in the young male demographic that doesn't really watch scripted television. Why wouldn't you take advantage of that opportunity to make more money?

I think you misunderstand Barry Alvarez. He may be thinking of wringing more $ out of hockey, but he's attempting to do it as "can we make this more like football/roundball" in terms of scheduling, conferences, etc... which shows just how far he is from the fanbase and his lack of understanding of the game. He'd pipe in jump around every game if he could which...says a lot.

Barry didn't turn around the Athletic Department that was 100% Pat Richter who did the hiring of football and roundball guys that led to this. A winning football program that can draw 77,000 per game always helps but I'm certainly not going to be one of these Alvarez worshipers because of it; prior to football coming back I was perfectly happy watching the Hockey team w/Richter, Mellanby, Granato, Tuttle et al kick some *** and take names annually. Football winning and roundball is icing on the cake, when hockey was #1 I was not crying about 9-9 roundball conference seasons, or don morton.

defend BA all you want but dip****s like him need to actually understand the sport and it's fans over making ignorant comments about it/them and ****ing off NHL alums along the way. It would help his PR

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XVIII - Belief in a Better Tomorrow

Remember that most Wild fans are also Gopher fans, so you'll basically be rooting for Goldie coz when the Wild win, Gopher fans are happy.

Oh yeah, and the Vikings.

Does this mean I have to get rid of the toilet I bought last year with Goldy painted in the "collection" area? I hope not, because I really like it. But if I poop on goldy (good), I'm pooping on Heater (bad), then I'm pooping Bucky (bad), then I'm pooping on Barry (good), so maybe this won't be so bad afterall, since 2 wrongs + 2 rights = obliviousness!

I know my distain of anything and everything related to IL or MN is totally insane, but that's me; you can't change the genetics.