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2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Not worth making a game thread for this week so I'll ask it here. Any hope that BSU splits or gets a point this weekend? Sounds like they stunk in Mankato.

Not sure what to think right now.... If the team that played at Mankato last weekend shows up, UMD will have an easy time of it. If the team that took three of four points at UNO shows up, then it will be a good series and BSU could get a point or two.

Going into the streatch of games that BSU had on the schedule this last month (Michigan Tech at home, Alaska-Anchorage at home, Mankato on the road and Duluth on the road), I think BSU and their fans were looking at this as an opportunity to make a move, especially after taking three points at UNO and playing CC tough in the Springs. 16 points on the line against teams that were even in the standings or below them at that time. They have managed to get three out of the 12 points so far and now sit just a point above UAA for last place. Like they say, you don't win the WCHA before Christmas, but you can sure lose it, and BSU has taken themselves from being a home ice contender to possibly being content with playing a spoiler roll after the holidays. After the holidays, they are at Tech, home with UNO, home with SCSU, at Wisconsin, home with UMD, at UND, home with Minnesota. Not the easiest stretch to close out the year.

Goaltending and Defense, two of Bemidji's usual stongsuits, have been hurting this year, giving up the second amount of goals in WCHA games. The Beavers also have seemed to have found the path to the penalty box a lot, something that has been uncharateristic in the past. Because of that, the penalty kill numbers have not been up to BSU standards.

Right now, I would say this is a rebuilding year for the Beavers. There is some talent there in the freshman class, but they are freshmen. BSU has always had strong goaltending, but right now, sophomore Andrew Walsh has struggled and senior Mathieu Dugas is showing his lack of playing time. Offensively, it seems to be hit or miss, the Beavers either put up 4-5 goals, or they put up 0-1.

Ughhhhh.......
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Not sure what to think right now.... If the team that played at Mankato last weekend shows up, UMD will have an easy time of it. If the team that took three of four points at UNO shows up, then it will be a good series and BSU could get a point or two.

Going into the streatch of games that BSU had on the schedule this last month (Michigan Tech at home, Alaska-Anchorage at home, Mankato on the road and Duluth on the road), I think BSU and their fans were looking at this as an opportunity to make a move, especially after taking three points at UNO and playing CC tough in the Springs. 16 points on the line against teams that were even in the standings or below them at that time. They have managed to get three out of the 12 points so far and now sit just a point above UAA for last place. Like they say, you don't win the WCHA before Christmas, but you can sure lose it, and BSU has taken themselves from being a home ice contender to possibly being content with playing a spoiler roll after the holidays. After the holidays, they are at Tech, home with UNO, home with SCSU, at Wisconsin, home with UMD, at UND, home with Minnesota. Not the easiest stretch to close out the year.

Goaltending and Defense, two of Bemidji's usual stongsuits, have been hurting this year, giving up the second amount of goals in WCHA games. The Beavers also have seemed to have found the path to the penalty box a lot, something that has been uncharateristic in the past. Because of that, the penalty kill numbers have not been up to BSU standards.

Right now, I would say this is a rebuilding year for the Beavers. There is some talent there in the freshman class, but they are freshmen. BSU has always had strong goaltending, but right now, sophomore Andrew Walsh has struggled and senior Mathieu Dugas is showing his lack of playing time. Offensively, it seems to be hit or miss, the Beavers either put up 4-5 goals, or they put up 0-1.

Ughhhhh.......
I'm feeling pretty confident from the new line combinations and the weekend at Michigan Tech. Plus with the way BSU has been playing UMD should get their first sweep of the year.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

This may arguably be my favorite home series of the year. This is sort of a rebuilding year for both teams, but with them playing every year since '99 i believe, they've built up quite a little rivalry. Look for a good series this weekend. BSU fans are always friendly, and I love watching Serratore's teams each year as they play the game the way it should be played. BSU is going to come out really wanting to show something, and UMD is going to have to match that intensity. If they do, I think it could be a sweep for UMD. If they don't, well we could be in for a long weekend.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

This may arguably be my favorite home series of the year. This is sort of a rebuilding year for both teams, but with them playing every year since '99 i believe, they've built up quite a little rivalry. Look for a good series this weekend. BSU fans are always friendly, and I love watching Serratore's teams each year as they play the game the way it should be played. BSU is going to come out really wanting to show something, and UMD is going to have to match that intensity. If they do, I think it could be a sweep for UMD. If they don't, well we could be in for a long weekend.
Serratore's teams always have an intensity that UMD has had trouble matching. Kinda surprising that we are not playing next year. We will see how much we play in the future. Scheduling is different now that BSU is in a league with more league games than the CHA.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Serratore's teams always have an intensity that UMD has had trouble matching. Kinda surprising that we are not playing next year. We will see how much we play in the future. Scheduling is different now that BSU is in a league with more league games than the CHA.

Wonder who we are getting next year for non-conference games? I know North Dakota is a home and home series, and we get the Goofers in Bemidji (since we are the odd one out of the Walleye Cup or whaterver it is being called). That leaves two to four games to fill, depending on the Alaska trip(s).

I have always had a good time with Duluth fans as well, hopefully the series can start up again. It is a nice, easy trip for both teams and their fan bases.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Being a Bemidji to twin cities transplant, I was happy to find out a business trip to Duluth coincided with the Beaver-Dogs weekend last year. I was able to slip away and take in an evening at Amsoil arena. Very nice with some great Duluth fans around. Turns out the fan next to me was involved with the cement work at the Bemidji arena. Anyway, except for the outcome, I had a great time for going single. The only negative was when I asked for a cold beer... are they serving the common folk now?
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Wonder who we are getting next year for non-conference games? I know North Dakota is a home and home series, and we get the Goofers in Bemidji (since we are the odd one out of the Walleye Cup or whaterver it is being called). That leaves two to four games to fill, depending on the Alaska trip(s).

I have always had a good time with Duluth fans as well, hopefully the series can start up again. It is a nice, easy trip for both teams and their fan bases.
Meh, the only reason I want to play BSU is I still have not road tripped to Bemidji and see their new arena. Which I might do in February. It is nice having a team that is so close that saves on travel.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

Okay, my thoughts and ideas:

1. Winning. As the Beavers proved in the Glas with the CHA teams, it doesn't really matter who you are playing, consistent winning will put butts in the seats. The average sports fans are fickle and want to watch winners. Us diehards will show up no matter what, but bottom lines are determined by the average or casual fans.

2. Ticket prices. Had BSU priced themselves out of the market? I could argue yes. If you look at Michigan Tech and Lake State, their tickets for the non-big boy games are around $12-$15. And if you go online and try to buy, Ticketbastard throw almost another $10 at you in fees. Those of us that are not in the Bemidji area, that makes it tough on the old pocketbook and the number of games they may attend.

3. Creativity in ticket plans. We had to let our season tickets go this year as Fridays just got to rushed trying to make it up to Bemidji from the Alexandria area. We are just making up to Bemidji for Saturday games now. Take a look at Lake State, they have a Friday season ticket, a Saturday season ticket, a full season ticket and a "Snowbird" plan (Home games through December 15).

I know part of the plan with the Sanford Center and the WCHA was that there would be big names schools coming to Bemidji on a regular basis. And in defense of the powers that be, that was true in 2009-10. No one could have forsaw that Penn State was going to start up hockey, Barry Alverez was going to throw his weight around the Big Ten Offices and force the six members into a Big Ten League, and then the NCHC would break out on their own. We will still get North Dakota for one home game a year, at least in the near future, and the Gophers will be in Bemidji once every few years with the agreement regarding the Minnesota Cup.

But now is the time to start making the changes. With the revamped WCHA coming into play, would it be better to lower ticket prices and have a better chance at filling the place?
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

I think it is time to get creative on not only ticket pricing, and season packages, but marketing as well. I think that a half full arena of $30 seats is long term worse than a full arena of $15 seats (this is just a thought, I have no idea what the average ticket price is there right now for any given opponent), A full arena would help with atmosphere and buzz with the program. I like the idea of splitting the season package. I live out of town, and would like to get a saturday night games package like they do in other cities and teams. I thnk now is the time to start making this happen because I have a feeling next year tickets will be easier yet to come by at the current price and packaging. As for marketing, do they do youth teams packages? Why not sell a block of tickets for each home game to one of the local teams from squirts thru bantams, let them bring there parents and players at a discounted rate, get the young fans hooked and hopefully they will talk their parents into a return trip.

My opinion, I think what will help not only BSU but other teams in the nWCHA with ticket sales would be to decrease the conference schedule down from 28 to at most 24. This would enable us to continue to schedule games against the other MN teams on rotating basis. We may not get say UMD and SCSU every year, but even one of them once a year will draw better than say UAA. I'm sure it makes it tougher in some years to fill the schedule, but if we could fill out our schedule during the CHA days, we can do it now with our new arena.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

I'm generally a fan of the cut prices to an extent, then boil the frog approach. You can't slash or zero costs: there has to be some perceived value involved. But if $12-15 tickets are a problem, then $10 ones might not be. My theory is that you want lots of people in and used to coming to your games—essentially, the situation that you had in the Glas. It would be important to look at what changed. As you noted, Millsy, winning is a part of it. Don't I know it.

GFM
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

On the whole "financial" thing.....

One thing we need to remember right now is that the Mens team is in year three of having to pay WCHA admission fees (I believe they were spread out over three years) and during that time, they do NOT get a cut of WCHA tournament revenue, which typically runs 6 figures. That is hurting the bottom line as well. Now next year, those admission fess will be gone, but so will be the WCHA Tournament and the money it generates as we know it.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

On the whole "financial" thing.....

One thing we need to remember right now is that the Mens team is in year three of having to pay WCHA admission fees (I believe they were spread out over three years) and during that time, they do NOT get a cut of WCHA tournament revenue, which typically runs 6 figures. That is hurting the bottom line as well. Now next year, those admission fess will be gone, but so will be the WCHA Tournament and the money it generates as we know it.
So with those numbers you might not have these articles written.
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

As of 12/12/12

FORMER BEAVERS

-Andrew Murray-Peoria Rivermen (AHL) 11 GP, 4G-3A-7 Pts., 4 PIM, -2
-Matt Read- Sodertalje (Allsvenskan) 20 GP, 6G-18A-24 Pts., 12 PIM
-Matt Francis-Nottingham Panthers (English ELITE League) 27 GP, 13G-17A-30 Pts., 41 PIM
-Brendan Cook-Fischtown Pinguins (Germany2) 23 GP, 19G-14A-33 Pts, 16 PIM
-Tyler Scofield-Klagenfurter AC (Austria) 15 GP, 3G-5A-8 Pts, 18 PIM, -8
-Mikka Lindholm-HKC (Finland2) 10 GP, 1G-1A-2 Pts., 0 PIM
-Matt Dalton-Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (KHL) 22 GP, 8W-7L-5SOL, 92.6 Save %, 2.34 GAA, 2 Shutout, 2 PIM
-Emil Billberg-Sodertalje (Allsvenskan) 27 GP, 5G-1A-6 Pts., 6 PIM
-Rob Sirianni-Valpelice (Italy) 23 GP, 17G-23A-40 Pts., 75 PIM
-Matt Climie-Chicago (AHL) 10 GP, 3W-7L-OSOL, 91.1 Save %, 2.68 GAA, 2 PIM, 0 Assists, 0 Shutout
-Ian Lowe- Wichita Thunder (CHL) 23 GP, 10G-11A-21 Pts., 6 PIM, -1
-Matt Pope-Hershey Bears (AHL) 14 GP, 1G-2A-3 Pts., 6 PIM, -5
-Daryl Bat-Tyringe SoSS (Sweden2) 17 GP, 7G-10A-17 Pts., 8 PIM
-Riley Weselowski-Rapid City (CHL) 23 GP, 2G-10A-12 Pts., 8 PIM, +3
-Brandon Marino-Fort Wayne Komets (ECHL) 21 GP, 9G-19A-28 Pts., 16 PIM, +6
-Andrew Martens-Wichita Thunder (CHL) 23 GP, 1G-6A-7 Pts., 8 PIM, +5
-Ryan Cramer-Tulsa Oilers (CHL) 24 GP, 6G-6A-12 Pts., 12 PIM, -14
-Brad Hunt-Chicago Wolves (AHL) 17 GP, 1G-7A-8 Pts., 4 PIM, +4
-Drew Fisher-Tulsa Oilers (CHL) 24 GP, 2G-6A-8 Pts., 12 PIM, -8
-Darcy Findlay-Cornwall Riverkings (LNAH) 3 GP, 1G-1A-2 Pts., 0 PIM
-Dan Bakala-Tulsa Oilers (CHL) 10 GP, 2W-3L-2SOL, 86.6 Save %, 3.71 GAA, 2 PIM, 1 Assists, 0 Shutout (RELEASED)
-Chris McKelvie-Trenton Titans (ECHL) 2 GP, 1G-1A-2 Pts., 2 PIM, +1
*********Albany Devils (AHL) 3 GP, 0G-0A-0 Pts., 5 PIM, +0
-Jamie MacQueen-Denver Cutthroats (CHL) 23 GP, 6G-5A-11 Pts., 10 PIM, +2
*********Lake Erie Monster (AHL) 0 GP, 0G-0A-0 Pts., 0 PIM, +0
-Mark Soares-EC Kassel Huskies (Germany3) 0 GP, 0G-0A-0 Pts., 0 PIM, +0 (Injured)

BEAVER RECRUITS

-Brendan Harms (Signed) Fargo Force (USHL) 23 GP, 6G-21A-27 Pts., 14 PIM, +13
-Bob Kinne (Signed)-Bismarck Bobcats (NAHL) 26 GP, 4G-6A-10 Pts., 20 PIM, -4
-Corey Petrash (2013 or 2014)-Cedar Rapids Roughriders (USHL) 21 GP, 4G-6A-10 Pts., 22 PIM, +3
-Carter Struthers (2013)-Weyburn Red Wings (SJHL) 13 GP, 4G-5A-9 Pts., 10 PIM
-Mike Soucier (2014 or 2015)-Wellington Dukes (OJHL) 27 GP, 5G-8A-13 Pts., 12 PIM
*********Canada East U19 (Junior A Challenge) 5 GP, 0G-1A-1 Pts., 2 PIM
-Phillip Marinaccio (Signed)-Chicago Steel (USHL) 14 GP, 6G-3A-9 Pts., 6 PIM, -2
*********Cedar Rapids Roughriders (USHL) 7 GP, 2G-4A-6 Pts., 6 PIM, -3
-Charlie O’Connor (Signed)-Chicago Steel (USHL) 15 GP, 3G-5A-8 Pts., 16 PIM, +1
-Brady Riesgraf (2013)-Coulee Region Chill (NAHL) 24 GP, 0G-5A-5 Pts., 28 PIM, -10
-Michael Bitzer (Signed) Lincoln Stars (USHL) 9 GP, 6W-2L-1 OTL, 1.99 GAA, 91.9 Sv%
*********USA U19 (Junior A Challenge) 1 GP, 0W-0L-0T, 9.00 GAA, 75.0 Sv%
-Brett Beauvais (2013 or 2014) Kalamazoo Jr. K-Wings (NAHL) 25 GP, 2G-15A-17 Pts., 24 PIM, +5
-Jason Ford (2014 or 2015) Janesville Jets (NAHL) 29 GP, 11G-9A-20 Pts., 8 PIM, +2
-Reid Mimmack (Jan. 2013) Jamestown Ironmen (NAHL) 19 GP, 14W-4L-1 OTL, 2.35 GAA, 91.5 Sv%, 2 SO
 
Re: 2012-2013 Bemidji State Beavers: We Are Staying Put

So with those numbers you might not have these articles written.

No, I think the articles needed to be written, especially for the D-II NSIC sports and the fact that there were a lot of questions once it was announced that the AD was being replaced. And it is a good eye opener for the BSU fans as to where the programs sit financially.

But all the naysayers from Bemidji are going to be pointing at the numbers quoted on the hockey side of things ($200,000-$300,000 loss on the mens side, $800,000-$900,000 loss on the womens side) and say the arena never should have been built, never should have went D-I, etc., etc. But you take the fact that, if I recall correctly, that BSU has to pay $200,000 a year for three years in admit fees to the mens WCHA, plus the fact that they don't get a cut of the mens WCHA Tournament revenue (lets say $100,000 since all I have really ever heard is six figures), that makes the mens team balance neutral.

That still doesn't help the fact that the women's team still has $800,000 + that needs to be covered PLUS that BSU needs to find a way to fund 18 more D-II scholarships just to be NSIC Average. That is $1 Million + that needs to come from somewhere. Not sure where that is going to come from.....

It would be nice to see a third article in the series that breaks down the D-II sports.
 
No, I think the articles needed to be written, especially for the D-II NSIC sports and the fact that there were a lot of questions once it was announced that the AD was being replaced. And it is a good eye opener for the BSU fans as to where the programs sit financially.

But all the naysayers from Bemidji are going to be pointing at the numbers quoted on the hockey side of things ($200,000-$300,000 loss on the mens side, $800,000-$900,000 loss on the womens side) and say the arena never should have been built, never should have went D-I, etc., etc. But you take the fact that, if I recall correctly, that BSU has to pay $200,000 a year for three years in admit fees to the mens WCHA, plus the fact that they don't get a cut of the mens WCHA Tournament revenue (lets say $100,000 since all I have really ever heard is six figures), that makes the mens team balance neutral.

That still doesn't help the fact that the women's team still has $800,000 + that needs to be covered PLUS that BSU needs to find a way to fund 18 more D-II scholarships just to be NSIC Average. That is $1 Million + that needs to come from somewhere. Not sure where that is going to come from.....

It would be nice to see a third article in the series that breaks down the D-II sports.

My .02 worth.

Another item that was not included in these articles is the pull factor. On game day/weekends what kind of impact does the hockey program and the new arena have in the Bemidji community on a economic scale?

The pull factor will not show up in the financials of the University but it certainly should be used it determining the impact of the new arena.

If I had to guess I would say that the money coming into the community would correlate in a similar fashion to the trend in season ticket sales.

Bottom line, the shake up in conference alignment impacted numerous programs and universities. Given all the hoops BSU had to jump through to get into the WCHA they have to be near the top of the list in regards to getting "the shaft". BSU and the nWCHA need to deal with the changes in the D1 landscape and their goal is to find viable solutions in making it work.

Winning will cure many ailments and BSU has a proven track record to back that up. However, with the jump to D1 and the WCHA and the revenue factor of the program being required to bring in cash, it brings an entirely new set of pressures to win...............The programs higher ups (new AD) need to be prepared to make all sorts of decisions to right the ship over the next few years if in fact revenues are not generated to make a profit.

I blame Huntsville. One condition for entering the nWCHA should be that they have to purchase any tickets that don't sell at BSU home games. Forever. :D
 
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