What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

The reported attendance per chstats was 13051. That seems about 3-4000 too high.

Those are obviously sold and unused tickets (as usual, I’ll point out that there is very little incentive for the hosts to overreport attendance figures). Perhaps a symptom of fans from blue blood schools that didn’t book a trip when they missed the tourney? I’d blame the prices, but the prices have been insane for years.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

PrezdeJohnson09 said:
Sellouts listed for all three games in Buffalo in 2003.
Click to expand...

The Buffalo News reported a few days ago that tickets for the 2003 FF sold out a year ahead of time.

That clearly didn't happen this time around. I was there tonight and had a GREAT time watching two terrific games in a pretty nice facility... but the turnout was very poor and not what I would have envisioned for my first Frozen Four. I doubt there was even 10,000 in there. Maybe 9K. I've been to regular season games at Union, Cornell and RPI with a better atmosphere.

What went wrong? Ticket prices were higher than ever, I think. Our all-session passes were $300 each for the lower level. The four teams that did make it may not have been optimal for attendance purposes but there's way of controlling that. And though we drove in, I've heard a lot of complaints about the Buffalo Airport. I can't speak to how well the event was (or was not) marketed in the Buffalo area. Maybe all those were factors.

I could see Saturday's crowd being worse with Providence knocked out of it. Outside of UMass, they might have had the best turnout.

Unfortunately, I would be surprised Buffalo will be getting another Frozen Four after this. All those empty seats is a bad look on TV for the NCAA.
 
ecachawkeyfan said:
The Buffalo News reported a few days ago that tickets for the 2003 FF sold out a year ahead of time.

That clearly didn't happen this time around. I was there tonight and had a GREAT time watching two terrific games in a pretty nice facility... but the turnout was very poor and not what I would have envisioned for my first Frozen Four. I doubt there was even 10,000 in there. Maybe 9K. I've been to regular season games at Union, Cornell and RPI with a better atmosphere.

What went wrong? Ticket prices were higher than ever, I think. Our all-session passes were $300 each for the lower level. The four teams that did make it may not have been optimal for attendance purposes but there's way of controlling that. And though we drove in, I've heard a lot of complaints about the Buffalo Airport. I can't speak to how well the event was (or was not) marketed in the Buffalo area. Maybe all those were factors.

I could see Saturday's crowd being worse with Providence knocked out of it. Outside of UMass, they might have had the best turnout.

Unfortunately, I would be surprised Buffalo will be getting another Frozen Four after this. All those empty seats is a bad look on TV for the NCAA.
Click to expand...

It isn’t a Buffalo problem. It is a lack of foresight with ncaa hockey.
 
ecachawkeyfan said:
The Buffalo News reported a few days ago that tickets for the 2003 FF sold out a year ahead of time.

That clearly didn't happen this time around. I was there tonight and had a GREAT time watching two terrific games in a pretty nice facility... but the turnout was very poor and not what I would have envisioned for my first Frozen Four. I doubt there was even 10,000 in there. Maybe 9K. I've been to regular season games at Union, Cornell and RPI with a better atmosphere.

What went wrong? Ticket prices were higher than ever, I think. Our all-session passes were $300 each for the lower level. The four teams that did make it may not have been optimal for attendance purposes but there's way of controlling that. And though we drove in, I've heard a lot of complaints about the Buffalo Airport. I can't speak to how well the event was (or was not) marketed in the Buffalo area. Maybe all those were factors.

I could see Saturday's crowd being worse with Providence knocked out of it. Outside of UMass, they might have had the best turnout.

Unfortunately, I would be surprised Buffalo will be getting another Frozen Four after this. All those empty seats is a bad look on TV for the NCAA.
Click to expand...

Seats were empty for first game then filled up with umass fans for 2nd game. Then empty seats for second game when prov. fans left.
Go figure -- why not watch both games.

Mass had biggest group of all. Hopefully they bus em in for saturday.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
The reported attendance per chstats was 13051. That seems about 3-4000 too high.

Those are obviously sold and unused tickets (as usual, I’ll point out that there is very little incentive for the hosts to overreport attendance figures). Perhaps a symptom of fans from blue blood schools that didn’t book a trip when they missed the tourney? I’d blame the prices, but the prices have been insane for years.
Click to expand...

Not this insane.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

It *should* feel like a UMass home game tomorrow. They haven't been good in any major sport for quite some time and now have a chance to win it all. With that said, probably going to be a lot of empty seats. Hopefully Buffalo was just a bad choice and this isn't the norm going forward.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

J.D. said:
It *should* feel like a UMass home game tomorrow. They haven't been good in any major sport for quite some time and now have a chance to win it all. With that said, probably going to be a lot of empty seats. Hopefully Buffalo was just a bad choice and this isn't the norm going forward.
Click to expand...

Buffalo was an excellent host so far and I really don't think it was a bad choice. This might just be the norm moving forward until the NCAA gets a ****ing clue about pricing.

Then again, it might just be a bad site, I don't know. But it's not like there aren't good bars and restaurants around town. And there's plenty to do and see around here. Toronto is just a two-hour drive away. Hockey hall of fame and the Blue Jays. It's too bad the Bison were out of town. Catching a AAA game there looks like it would have been fun.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

Buffalo might be a great "host" but as a neutral, I had no plans of ever making a trip out of it. If we're talking Nashville, Vegas...that gets my wife interested and I am more likely to make a trip out of it. With the closest team still being a 6 hour drive, that obviously didn't help either.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

But if you're saying that local fan interest in Buffalo was down because of pricing, alright that's definitely something to look at. But that goes back to someone with a calculator determining that what they made on ticket sales is more than what they would make if they lowered prices and had a better atmosphere.
 
J.D. said:
But if you're saying that local fan interest in Buffalo was down because of pricing, alright that's definitely something to look at. But that goes back to someone with a calculator determining that what they made on ticket sales is more than what they would make if they lowered prices and had a better atmosphere.
Click to expand...

The sad reality, I’m sure.
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

J.D. said:
But if you're saying that local fan interest in Buffalo was down because of pricing, alright that's definitely something to look at. But that goes back to someone with a calculator determining that what they made on ticket sales is more than what they would make if they lowered prices and had a better atmosphere.
Click to expand...

And this is what I never understood. If you lower the price by 25% and get 25% more people, you come out ahead, because you can't leave the building so the concessions sales increase dramatically. Unless they don't get much of the concessions revenue???
 
Re: 2019 Frozen Four: NCHC vs. Hockey East

J.D. said:
Buffalo might be a great "host" but as a neutral, I had no plans of ever making a trip out of it. If we're talking Nashville, Vegas...that gets my wife interested and I am more likely to make a trip out of it. With the closest team still being a 6 hour drive, that obviously didn't help either.
Click to expand...

We went in 2003, and while the game was nice, the city didn't have much going for it- the best we could find was in the public library to spend time before the game.

Add in the cost of the tickets and how we got really bad seats in the biggest NHL rink in the country- pass.

It's interesting to see so few people there, as in 2003, we only bought Championship game tickets, and still went after our team got beat in the Semi.

Still, seat availability in Chicago left a very, very bad taste in our mouth. Costs need to come down a LOT for us to re-consider after that.
 
chickod said:
Which once again proves the adage of "a two-goal lead is the worst lead in hockey." UMass has played like this all year. They're streaky and they're phenomenal when they're good, but sometimes they get cocky and just stop playing.
Click to expand...

I would’ve agreed with you until I started coaching — I’d much rather have a 2 goal cushion than a 1 goal cushion.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top