Re: 10/28-10/29 Michigan Tech vs. Denver - Don't Leave without your Ice Cream
Nice argument except you DEFINITELY don't have years of ticket sale information for Bemidji State...anyway. I can understand that you have no attachment to UAA, BSU, & MSUM but to say that no one cares about Michigan Tech is just absurd. If you don't care about Michigan Tech than some day you won't care about whoever is at the bottom of the NCHC, especially if it's someone like UMD, UNO, or SCSU is there. Michigan Tech used to be a force and I'm sure DU fans cared about that series well into the early 90s. The fact that you're willing to throw that away tells me a lot about DU and their fans. You don't think that can happen with UMD, SCSU, or anyone else that ends up stuck in the bottom is laughable.
It could happen to SCSU, for sure (although most folks still know of St. Cloud, the city, if not the school/team). Miami, even. Duluth I doubt. But it wouldn't change the numbers.
Let's say I demote Miami and SCSU to "Not Interesting" and demote Duluth to "Moderately Interesting." I'd still have more "Interesting" games on that list per season with a 14-game NCHC home schedule than would be in a 10-team WCHA home schedule. That's all that matters.
UMD, and SCSU would be in both. Sure, we'd be trading 2 games against each per year (NCHC) for only 1.5 on average (WCHA). But who would would the extra games be against? It would just as likely be Tech, Bemidji, Mankato, or Anchorage. And like I said before, even if those schools are winning - make them the best in the country - there's still no connection, and the average fan wouldn't care. I'd still rather play more games against UND, and even UNO. You can't have a 4 team league, so there had to be a few others. I can't speak for everybody, but I think for DU and CC, the mix is about as good as we could have gotten.
College hockey is a niche thing, but I think some of you guys greatly overestimate how much of the arena is made up of that niche of regular college hockey followers. I'd bet less than a third of fans at any given game in Colorado - DU, CC, or Air Force - could tell you where Michigan Tech was from, whether they had any history as a good team, even whether they're good that year. Maybe it's different out there, but here, there's a cadre of regulars, but most fans are more of the casual variety. Casual hockey fans generally, who want to check out the college game...DU and CC both get a lot of fans who are maybe Avalanche regulars, very hockey knowledgeable, but may not have a clue about the college game. Those are the ones who are going to be more interested in Duluth (Minnesota in the name), Miami (an actual real D-1 school that some non-hockey people have heard of), North Dakota, or Nebraska-Omaha (neighborly love).
It's hard to choose what to do here. You've got the Avs, college hockey, and
the mountains, just to name a few. Plus actually playing some hockey. And an actual city full of activities, too (I feel sort of guilty that the Colorado Symphony is suffering - but I just can't seem to squeeze in more than a couple concerts per winter). I've been trying for years to get up to a Colorado Eagles (ECHL) game, and I've still never seen one. There's just too much going on every single weekend. Maybe I'll make that happen this season - no ski pass for me, not this year. But welcome to Colorado, the winter wonderland - we can pick and choose our activities, so they'd better be good if you want to draw a crowd.
Anyways, let's get back to talking about the series at hand. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the conferences. I don't think you guys have much of an understanding of hockey/life in Colorado, and why a change might be good in our eyes. We live in different worlds.
