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Attendance at Regionals

Re: Attendance at Regionals

With the new conferences, Denver/St Paul for the west. Both are mainly central, good cities to have hockey in, etc.
Yes, though attendance might be tough in Denver if neither CC nor DU make the tournament.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

LOTS of UND alumni there. LOTS. Now if all THREE don't make it.....then yeah.

Denver is out on an island, that's a huge gamble there. CC is 50/50 these days to make it, AF is probably below 25%, and if DU misses, are there enough Sioux/other alums to make it worth the while, because otherwise no one else is going. 100% inaccessible by car from the East. At least Toledo and GR are theoretically driveable from New England/NY. The problem is clearly in the West because of distance, if they held it in St. Paul/Minneapolis every year and maybe one other, perhaps on campus, that would seem to be a good idea.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Denver is out on an island, that's a huge gamble there. CC is 50/50 these days to make it, AF is probably below 25%, and if DU misses, are there enough Sioux/other alums to make it worth the while, because otherwise no one else is going. 100% inaccessible by car from the East. At least Toledo and GR are theoretically driveable from New England/NY. The problem is clearly in the West because of distance, if they held it in St. Paul/Minneapolis every year and maybe one other, perhaps on campus, that would seem to be a good idea.
If it was a Super-regional, sure. But if there HAD to be two regionals.....maybe Omaha, I suppose?
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Fair enough. I'm torn because you can't argue with those numbers, but I also don't like these regionals being played in NHL arenas. Sure, the two day total is great, but is it a great atmosphere with all those empty seats?

Oh, but didn't you read what CLS said? <b><i>"I like good hockey and don’t feel the need for “atmosphere” to keep me entertained."</i></b>

I agree, I think this "experiment" has gone on long enough. Or, at least have it in an arena in a "college hockey area" (and we know where those places are). Enough of these places like Toledo and St. Louis (I don't care if they have an NHL team or not). If not, than it's obvious (as I speculated before) that as long as the NCAA gets the revenue from TV rights (and what makes it worse is that this money is not dependent upon hockey because hockey is a throw-away that they are forced to cover according to the contract anyway) they could care less about attendance.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Bangor or Portland would NEVER draw as well as these places are drawing!:rolleyes:

Especially with crap facilities like this:

image.jpg
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Add to that the people who go to the F4, that's 3 weekends in a month's time that you are going to spend a crapload of money, and your team may not even be there.
For me, this is a huge point. I'm fortunate to have lived near my conference tourney, so it's only been 2 weekends for me. Next year with the B1G in St Paul may be the first time I miss the conference tourney, as I'd rather go to a regional.

For regionals, the only way I've gone is if it was somewhere I can drive to. A flight booked within the week is too expensive. Now, my driving radius is much larger than most people. I've driven 15 hours each way for a regional in Grand Forks.

As for price, it should be evaluated. It won't be, but it should. I know the money comes from tv, and ESPN only broadcasts these games 'cause of their NCAA contract. It's doubtful they care about the viewing numbers on these games. I just wish we could sell more tickets. It would obviously help the host sites. It would create a better atmosphere, and it would improve the broadcast. If I'm randomly flipping channels, and see some game going on in front of a bunch of empty seats, I think no one cares and keep flipping channels. If I see a game in front of a packed, energetic crowd, I may pause enough to see what it is and might watch it.

As for price, I didn't go to Toledo on Sunday mostly based on price. I went to both days in Grand Rapids, and was looking forward to having 3 days of hockey, but when I saw $45 (over $50 with fees) for a one day ticket in Toledo, with 2 teams I don't care about, I was out.

It's hard to grow interest in a sport if ticket prices are too high for the casual fan, despite thousands of empty seats.


All this being said, I have always enjoyed that I can sit wherever I want at regionals. It's nice to find somewhere I can stand all game if I choose. Or to meet up with 10 friends that purchased tickets separately, and all be able to sit together.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

...As for price, it should be evaluated. It won't be, but it should. I know the money comes from tv, and ESPN only broadcasts these games 'cause of their NCAA contract. It's doubtful they care about the viewing numbers on these games. I just wish we could sell more tickets. It would obviously help the host sites. It would create a better atmosphere, and it would improve the broadcast. If I'm randomly flipping channels, and see some game going on in front of a bunch of empty seats, I think no one cares and keep flipping channels. If I see a game in front of a packed, energetic crowd, I may pause enough to see what it is and might watch it.

It's hard to grow interest in a sport if ticket prices are too high for the casual fan, despite thousands of empty seats...

All good points, IMHO.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Bangor or Portland would NEVER draw as well as these places are drawing!:rolleyes:

Especially with crap facilities like this:

image.jpg

Are they building a new arena in Bangor? Is that where that picture was taken? (it said WABI so I was just wondering...)
 
Hello thanks for giving all of us your own delusional version of history, we really appreciate it, your a really smart person.

The middle stanza on drugs I'm not sure about... I'm willing to buy it (liberals never own up to their unintended consequences) but my knowledge on that is lacking. Leominster faired better in the transition years due to easy access to two highways... A lot of current issues relate to geography and apathy. The latter has resulted in years of mypoic views of its problems due to an unwillingness to deal w them. Being the "last stop in worcester county" should have been a call to action but the core community ignored this because it wasn't them and thus not their problem. A lot of the current issue relates to the large influx of low-no income non-English speaking Hispanics in tandem with no local industry.

Things have been compounded as the US transitioned away from manufacturing. Fitchburg was the paper mill city and had a large GE plant.

But that is probably more than people want to know. However, if you live in the less dense areas and don't send you kid to public school you can avoid this and take advantage of the snobbery effect on prices... On the other hand, access to boston for regular commuting is an issue as you really have to go through the entire town (10-15 min) to get to the highway. Another minus is proximity to events. Leominster is similar but you are already on the highway.

If I had to live in that general area... Either right off the highway near Westminster or near 13/2A in Lunenburg. I'm willing to bet the chicky residence is fairly decent w/o any local issues.
 
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Re: Attendance at Regionals

Are they building a new arena in Bangor? Is that where that picture was taken? (it said WABI so I was just wondering...)

It's already built and ready to open in the fall. Did you know that Bangor, Maine is only a 4 hour drive from Boston! I thought it was like 12 hours or something............
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

That was brutal to watch all those empty seats. I'm sure the NC$$ was certain Michigan would be in the tournament based on the last few decades. But still, even if UMich did make it, poor attendance would be an issue at the other sites, or some of them.

And I think someone mentioned it, if you want to get the neutral locals interested, lower ticket prices and start the Friday games later after most people get off of work.
 
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