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Attendance at Regionals

Re: Attendance at Regionals

chickod said:
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But there aren't as many people who like college hockey as there are who like music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's funny you brought this up...I was talking to a guy at work the week before the regionals (and I'm not just telling this story to substantiate my point). I told him that I was going to the playoffs (blah blah blah) and how much the tickets were. He said, "Wow!! That's expensive!" And I said, "I don't know...it's only once a year and I enjoy going. Why...you wouldn't pay that?" He replied, "I'd pay it if I were going to see a CONCERT, but not for a HOCKEY GAME!"

MOST people feel the same way. Sorry...that's just the way it is. I know it's tough for us on this board to hear, but college hockey is a NICHE sport with a SMALL (albeit passionate) fan base. You can't presume attendance will be in a similar range as the "norms" for attendance for more "mainstream" events, regardless of where it is. It's a numbers game. Since the percentage of the "general population" that will go to a college hockey game is much smaller than will go to other things, you have to START with more people. You know, like 1% of 200,000 is less than 1% of 2,000,000. Hockey is hockey. But I could choose from Aerosmith (or as they say down here, "ARROWsmith") to Tony Bennett to Sting to Michael Buble to 'Lil Wayne to Lady Gaga to Chicago to the Boston Symphony to Wynton Marsalis and each get totally DIFFERENT crowds with almost no overlap. There's a type of concert for virtually everyone. You can't even compare the two!!!
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We're going to have to agree to disagree on if Bangor and/or Portland would be successful or not. Bangor will never happen because of the facility design (thanks City of Bangor!) and Portland is unlikely to happen anytime soon.........although I see more events making their way to Portland in the future.
 
For what it's worth, the band phish is opening up their summer tour in Bangor, they have some of the most passionate, dedicated, ridiculous fans on the planet, and the tour opener is usually a big deal... Many of the other summer shows have already sold out but many tickets remain for the tour opener in Bangor
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

WildShawn said:
For what it's worth, the band phish is opening up their summer tour in Bangor, they have some of the most passionate, dedicated, ridiculous fans on the planet, and the tour opener is usually a big deal... Many of the other summer shows have already sold out but many tickets remain for the tour opener in Bangor
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If Phish can get 70,000 to Loring I'm pretty sure Bangor will sell out.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

WildShawn said:
For what it's worth, the band phish is opening up their summer tour in Bangor, they have some of the most passionate, dedicated, ridiculous fans on the planet, and the tour opener is usually a big deal... Many of the other summer shows have already sold out but many tickets remain for the tour opener in Bangor
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The general admission capacity for this show is 16K.........the concert will be sold out by July 3.........over 3 months away.
 
sandiegoblkbr said:
Before you start spreading lies, only 6 out of 25 shows are sold out........and only 1 on the East Coast.

Here's the official site link to put this one to bed:

http://phish.com/#/tours/summer-2013
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My apologies, I was going by the ticketmaster pages for the Saratoga shows and how there are only lawn tickets available for the three night run (and had read earlier that they were close to gone on a phish message board), touché :) I was still expecting it to be a tough ticket since its their only New England show, and the opener, and it's not.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Seating capacities at sold out shows:

Jones Beach (NYC) - 15K

Stateline, NV (Lake Tahoe) - 7K (2 S/O shows)

Bill Graham Auditorium (San Francisco) - 7K (3 S/O shows)


Any other false claims, WildShawn???
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Getting back to boosting Regionals attendance, here's an idea: Serve beer!

If a key to solid attendance as some have said is to get the casual unalligned hockey fans to go, those folks expect to be able to swill a few while watching the game. I drink beer at UML games at the Tsongas, I drank beer at Boston Garden for HEA Championship, why can't I drink at Regionals? Now my team was playing Saturday night so I would have went anyway but if the game had been Wisconsin - Denver instead, between the ticket price and the no beer policy I would have watched it on TV. If I, as a dedicated college hockey fan, felt this way, how can the NCAA expect an average casual hockey fan to attend?
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Fishhawk said:
Getting back to boosting Regionals attendance, here's an idea: Serve beer!

If a key to solid attendance as some have said is to get the casual unalligned hockey fans to go, those folks expect to be able to swill a few while watching the game. I drink beer at UML games at the Tsongas, I drank beer at Boston Garden for HEA Championship, why can't I drink at Regionals? Now my team was playing Saturday night so I would have went anyway but if the game had been Wisconsin - Denver instead, between the ticket price and the no beer policy I would have watched it on TV. If I, as a dedicated college hockey fan, felt this way, how can the NCAA expect an average casual hockey fan to attend?
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Isn't "no beer" an NCAA policy during the tourney?
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

My thoughts on the regionals:

1) Maine is chock full of toothless smelly hicks. In short, the perfect place for a hockey tournament. ;) Problem is its too far away. Are Maine residents going to show up to watch BC play Union or even UNH play Wisc? Maybe the first year it was held there but that would be about it.

2) I'm glad to see some consensus that the East regionals seem to work well. Providence, Manchester, Bridgeport or Worcester. Pick your poison but the attendance #'s are decent. I do wonder how well other schools arrange transportation to these venues. BU used to do that but stopped I believe. Hopping on a bus where you can booze up to your heart's content and then get a ride home afterwards might bring a few more people out. Even more if the bus has hookers and gambling, but I digress.. The point is that with not too much planning or expense the Eastern schools (this year BC, UNH, Lowell, Yale, etc) should be able to transport 250 people to the arena via a few busses, hence boosting regional attendance by 1000 or so.

3) Out west they should do Minny for one all the time. On the 2nd venue you could be strategic and only put it in places with multiple college hockey programs + an understanding that a local team will get sent there regarless of whether they're hosting or not. That would mean Michigan (MI, MSU, NMU, FSU), Ohio (OSU, Miami, BGSU), or Colorado (DU, CC, AF). Some years you're going to get burned but that's the breaks. All and all this hasn't been that bad.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

I’ll admit to having changed my mind on the beer issue. When I first started attending Frozen Fours, I thought it was the beer ban was a good thing. I came with my kids, and I didn’t have any urge to have a beer myself. I didn’t want to be around a bunch of drunk college kids.

But if FFs were ever attended mainly by college kids, that time is long past. The cheering sections and the pep bands are there, which is great, but the majority of the crowd is now middle aged or older. The venues are now NHL arenas, which have security systems that are used to dealing with crowds that can get alcohol. And now, with the two Thursday games scheduled close together, I find it easier to not try to leave the rink, which means my dinner is a sausage or a pizza and . . . bottled water (which sometimes costs more than a soft drink, but that’s another story).

At the Hockey East championships, the crowds can get beer, and I’ve never seen an alcohol-related incident at a HE championship that was more than a minor annoyance. I bet people who go to the other conference tournaments would say the same thing.

Can’t say that it annoys me so much that I’d skip the FF or a regional because I couldn’t have beer. I do believe, though, that the NCAA could get more interest from venues to host regionals or the FF if they’d losen up on the no beer policy. I have no evidence, but I strongly suspect the no beer policy is one of the reasons that the TD Garden (Boston) doesn’t seem interested in the FF.

The signage is another thing. Some of the commercial requirements (like signs on the boards) aren’t overly onerous on the venues, but some of them, like what can appear on the ice surface, are, and things like the silliness over the <strike>Pepsi</strike> Center in Denver were just plain stupid.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

Rover said:
I do wonder how well other schools arrange transportation to these venues. BU used to do that but stopped I believe. Hopping on a bus where you can booze up to your heart's content and then get a ride home afterwards might bring a few more people out. Even more if the bus has hookers and gambling, but I digress.. The point is that with not too much planning or expense the Eastern schools (this year BC, UNH, Lowell, Yale, etc) should be able to transport 250 people to the arena via a few busses, hence boosting regional attendance by 1000 or so.
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Lowell got a bunch of student support because the Student Activities Office helped out with tickets and transportation. They got free tix (w/bus) to the HE tournament, $10 tix (w/bus) to the regional and they are now offering $150 for tix/bus/hotel to the FF. I'm not sure what other schools are doing, but it seems like that's the way to go.
 
Re: Attendance at Regionals

CLS said:
Didn't someone say there were no plans for refrigeration (i.e. no ice)? Which seems odd in Maine.
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The floor is capable of holding a regulation sized rink (thank god!)........but there is no in-house ice making capability or equipment.
 
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