An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

[pokechecker]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

the population of the Duluth, MN metro area is about 100,000 and they drew the third biggest crowd last year, just under 2000 fans a game
(behind MN & WI which drew just over 3000),
teams out east cannot draw more fans than UMD with 100x the population?
and you are asking why there isn't more coverage of the women's game?

maybe it's good there is little coverage in the off season
look at the NFL off season news, or mens college hockey for example

 

[Eeyore]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

It should be noted that UMD also ranked sixth in attendance for men's hockey in 2011-12, ahead of every eastern team. Nine of the top ten were in the CCHA or WCHA.

Keep in mind that women's hockey at UMD is probably the third biggest sports draw within a two hour driving radius (behind UMD men's hockey and UMD football). It's just a completely different world than the Hockey East schools, whose men's teams aren't even particularly close to the top ten in their metro area.

 

[ARM]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

It's just a completely different world than the Hockey East schools, whose men's teams aren't even particularly close to the top ten in their metro area.

Point taken, but I think you'd have a hard time coming up with 10 local teams that outrank men's hockey for some in Hockey East, such as the Black Bears.

 

[Eeyore]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

Point taken, but I think you'd have a hard time coming up with 10 local teams that outrank men's hockey for some in Hockey East, such as the Black Bears.

Again, for the 2011-12 season (which is the most recent I've found at the NCAA website) the highest average attendance for men's hockey is BC at 6,171. Here are some Boston area teams that have a higher average attendance:

New England Patriots: 68,756
UConn Football: 38,205 (as I said, I'm using a 2 hour driving radius)
Boston College Football: 37,020
Boston Red Sox: 34,670
Boston Celtics: 18,764
Boston Bruins: 17,565
New England Revolution: 14,001
Yale Football: 12,453
Harvard Football: 11,520
UMass Football: 10,901
UConn Meb's Basketball: 10,728
UNH Football: 7,746
Brown Football: 6,872

So, no, BC hockey doesn't come all that close to being in the top ten.

 

[dave1381]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

Right, the Hockey East schools that have much larger metro populations have many more sports options too.

The Hockey East schools that are actually the leaders in their areas have populations that are actually quite similar to Duluth's.

College hockey is the best show in town around UNH and Maine and to some extent Vermont. Dick Umile is the highest-paid New Hampshire state employee. But now we're no longer talking about urban areas much larger than Duluth. The Duluth MSA has a population of 280,000. The Bangor, Maine MSA has a population of 150,000. Burlington, Vermont is just over 200,000. The Nashua-Manchester MSA closest to UNH has a larger population of 400,000 but is an hour away from Durham.

 

[Mission]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

Wow........hard to believe this thread and the embedded criticism even lasted this long........it reminds me of a something I witnessed not too long ago.....


There was this homeless man on the corner holding a sign stating he was homeless and asking for whatever change passerby's could spare. A very conservatively dressed, kindly looking woman, carrying a large satchel stopped, read the man's sign, proceeded to open up her satchel and pulled out a brick made of solid gold. She proceeded to hand the gold brick to the man who had a very suprised look on his face. Upon taking the brick from the woman, then man's face then turned sour and aggravated. The woman then asked him "what is wrong" ?? The mans reply was "I don't want this, it's too heavy".................

Enjoy the "quiet before the start of a sure-to-be great season".

Yours in "FREE hockey news coverage".......

Mission

 

[pokechecker]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

Right, the Hockey East schools that have much larger metro populations have many more sports options too.

The Hockey East schools that are actually the leaders in their areas have populations that are actually quite similar to Duluth's.

College hockey is the best show in town around UNH and Maine and to some extent Vermont. Dick Umile is the highest-paid New Hampshire state employee. But now we're no longer talking about urban areas much larger than Duluth. The Duluth MSA has a population of 280,000. The Bangor, Maine MSA has a population of 150,000. Burlington, Vermont is just over 200,000. The Nashua-Manchester MSA closest to UNH has a larger population of 400,000 but is an hour away from Durham.

statistics can be deceiving
Duluth metro area may officially have a population of 280,000, how many of those are in WI?
the cheeseheads won't go watch the Bulldogs play unless the opponent is WI

no matter how you cut it, there just aren't a whole lot of fans of women's hockey
look at the "pro" league for example

and to the above poster:
sorry that we take enough of an interest to talk about it

 

[dave1381]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

Sure, I wasn't trying to say Duluth had a larger potential fan base than the three northern New England state schools I mentioned, just that they're all a similar order of magnitude.

 

[zoofer]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

So we're one week away from practice starting, the season 2 weeks away!! Maybe soon the front page of the women's coverage will change from 6 months ago...no rush! Nothing going on...all the blogs on "Living the Dream" from women players of D1 schools, show there's nothing new to cover; nothing to discuss....but didn't I hear about a couple of outdoor games for the women this year? Can't be sure cause no one thinks it's of value, like today's cover story on the men's page about Frozen Fenway....."too accept mediocrity means submission"!

 

[WIrinkrat]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

So we're one week away from practice starting, the season 2 weeks away!! Maybe soon the front page of the women's coverage will change from 6 months ago...no rush! Nothing going on...all the blogs on "Living the Dream" from women players of D1 schools, show there's nothing new to cover; nothing to discuss....but didn't I hear about a couple of outdoor games for the women this year? Can't be sure cause no one thinks it's of value, like today's cover story on the men's page about Frozen Fenway....."too accept mediocrity means submission"!

Then sign up and write an article for crying out loud.

 

[ARM]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

So we're one week away from practice starting, the season 2 weeks away!! Maybe soon the front page of the women's coverage will change from 6 months ago...no rush!

I'm not entirely sure which you would like to see: more coverage, or the appearance of more coverage. The latter could probably be accomplished by changing the women's front page every couple of weeks accompanied by minimal actual content. Sure, some events have happened over the summer such as the US and Canada settling on centralization rosters for Olympic preparation and announcing outdoor college games. Those news events have been reported by USCHO. Could someone have thought up an angle and queried USCHO with an idea for a feature story? Sure. I did not; perhaps, you did not either.

What I'd really like to see is more actual coverage, ideally during the season when there is more to cover, such as games. Let's consider UNH. Here is a link to the Wildcats' schedule from last season. Note that there is nothing in the "Recap" column. That mean's that opportunity exists for a UNH fan to volunteer to cover games and submit recaps. I wrote my first recap for USCHO nine years ago with no reporting experience beyond posting in this forum and likely complaining about the lack of coverage from time to time. Here's your chance to put your passion into action. If you don't feel you could write a decent recap, you could at least attempt to recruit another UNH fan to do so. However, I think you should give it a shot. You get to meet a lot of great people and watch hockey games. You say that you'd like to see USCHO have better coverage; prove it.

On another note, we'll finally have some story-worthy content about college hockey. Both Hockey East and ECAC Hockey have teleconferences scheduled with the leagues' coaches this week. USCHO's conference previews will follow.

 

[zoofer]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

It's 6:39 and am on my way to work Arm but will give ur answer the time ur deserves when I get out. I would rather actual coverage but maybe ur right that the appearance of some consideration by USCHO would be sufficient. Thanks for the meaningful response....

 

[ARM]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

I would rather actual coverage but maybe ur right that the appearance of some consideration by USCHO would be sufficient.

For the record, I'm not advocating the appearance of coverage rather than coverage. IMO, USCHO does attempt to provide some level of coverage through its offseason news releases. It isn't as in depth as coverage during the season, but even though things still happen in the hockey world outside over the summer, the quantity and urgency of the news is typically far less. That's why the bulk of the USCHO staff is only retained during the season.

 

[joehockey]

Re: An Issue with USCHO and their Women's Coverage

Anyone know when Wednesday Women and weekly coverage will start? I see polls were listed.

 

[Hux]

Anyone know when Wednesday Women and weekly coverage will start? I see polls were listed.

ARM is waiting on new ribbon for his Smith-Corona.