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Atlantic Hockey Championship awarded to Utica NY March 18-19 2022
- Thread starter sshablak
- Start date
Maybe ask someone at Atlantic Hockey?
My guess is that they're hoping for good attendance at a centrally located, truly neutral site.
They had good attendance in Rochester but it was 90% RIT fans. And as an RIT fan myself, having to play the tournament in Canisius' barn was torturous.
Powers &8^]
My guess is that they're hoping for good attendance at a centrally located, truly neutral site.
They had good attendance in Rochester but it was 90% RIT fans. And as an RIT fan myself, having to play the tournament in Canisius' barn was torturous.
Powers &8^]
I'm afraid you'll be able to hear a pin drop at the Aud. The Comets sellout every game and Utica College has the number one attendance in D3 averaging somewhere around 3500 per game. But you have to have a Utica team in the mix for that kind of attendance.
TigerFan86-87
R!!!!...I!!!!!...T!!!!!!
So they went from sites that were essentially home games for one of the teams (RIT and Canisius) to a site that is "centrally located within the league's footprint". That would make sense if only there were any teams even close to the local area and/or if this league had fan bases that actually travel (aside from RIT, of course). Since neither of those is true of Utica, then this is an attendance disaster in the making. I'm guessing they didn't have a lot of options and Utica was willing to let them in.
But, hey, at least RIT is now once again the closest team to the championship location (about 15-20 minutes closer than AIC). And the college team that plays there is from the conference RIT used to call home back in the day. Can we consider that a home game if the Tigers make it to the semifinals?
But, hey, at least RIT is now once again the closest team to the championship location (about 15-20 minutes closer than AIC). And the college team that plays there is from the conference RIT used to call home back in the day. Can we consider that a home game if the Tigers make it to the semifinals?
SHUCrosscheck
Registered User
Utica wants to go D1. They are waiting for the NCAA vote this January to see if D3 schools can offer D1 scholarships (see RIT). This is a great way to test the waters and see if Atlantic Hockey is a good fit for UC.
Chuck Murray
WIS & Effingwoods Hockey Almanac
Utica is truly The Land That Time Forgot. Hope this works out for you guys ...
Explain please !
Chuck were you there back in the day when UNH was the Champions of November through January?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975%E..._hockey_season
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I don't buy it. My understanding is that the only reason scholarships are on the table for D3 play-ups is because new play-ups are no longer being accepted.
Powers &8^]
larfretz44
New member
I'm not sure that this is actually such a bad thing. I'll bet this is much cheaper for the AHA than playing in Buffalo or Rochester. Rochester was a ghost town when RIT didn't make it. RIT fans will travel to Utica, at least for the finals. Attendance has always been a shitshow with AHA, so I don't see this as a bad move at all.
Also, don't sleep on the Utica hockey fans. Some will show up. Especially with those ticket prices
Also, don't sleep on the Utica hockey fans. Some will show up. Especially with those ticket prices
Earl_Leatherland
Lucky
I believe Covid-19 restrictions are higher in Erie County than most other places in New York, excluding NYC. Could this have been a factor? At least when it comes to Buffalo hosting?
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larfretz44
New member
Hmm, that could be too. I've been to a few Comets games in Utica and they don't care at all. Different than Rochester or Syracuse which require vaccination
TigerFan86-87
R!!!!...I!!!!!...T!!!!!!
Don't worry. The Governor will take care of all of this. The first of this season's statewide mandates begin today, almost assuredly leading into another seemingly perpetual state of lockdown or whatever form of government over-reach they decide to enact next.
Russell Jaslow
Registered User
Exactly. One sport play ups are now banned in the NCAA. This legislation is just to clean the slate for those few schools that can't offer scholarships because they missed the grandfather clause timing since there will no longer be any future schools in this situation.
If Utica wants to go D1, their whole school has to go D1.
I have not been to a UC game this year, partially due to laxness in covid protocol at the Aud. I have heard from multiple (independent) sources who know of people (perhaps themselves) having covid this week who went to the UC Teddy Bear Toss (sell out) last weekend.
Come on Russ, lets not let facts get in the way of wild speculation! Utica tried the D1 thing 40 years ago, with basketball driving the wagon. That experiment lasted about 6 years.
And wow, how time changes things. About 10 years ago was the unsuccessful attempt by the D2-D3 community to strip scholarships from the D2-D3 schools who played a D1 sport (usually hockey, but sometimes lacrosse) since before the start of the D1, D2, D3 designations. At that time the argument for doing that was that "we can't have two classes of athletes, some getting scholarships and most not."
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TigerFan86-87
R!!!!...I!!!!!...T!!!!!!
And that would only happen so they could make money from the bouncy-ball tournament, certainly not so they can lose money on the hockey program.
It just takes so long to convert a whole program to DI (in the neighborhood of 5 - 10 years, I think), it's got to be something that is truly worth the effort. No longer can programs experiment with DI.