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.

Average Men's Attendance

Yuppie Scum said:
I'm not sure if the leagues are doing the best job of marketing themselves. HEA is leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in regards to social media, but I don't think that has quite paid dividends yet. And yes, college life is downright luxurious compared to even ten years ago. (Can I get a mulligan?)
Click to expand...

Yeah...we had a bed, desk and hot plate. In a cinder block 12x8 room. :)

(I bet they don't even know what a "hot plate" is...)
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

chickod said:
Yeah...we had a bed, desk and hot plate. In a cinder block 12x8 room. :)
Click to expand...
Some BU dorm rooms are still cinder blocks (although more like 18x12 for a double), but the hot plate has been replaced by a microwave and a mini-fridge. ;)

Sean
 
chickod said:
Well, I'm certainly not in the "target demographic" (lol)....but I can tell you this. At least as it applies to myself, there would be almost a direct correlation between the sports I PLAYED and the ones I WATCHED. We played baseball EVERY DAY after school for probably ten years when I was a kid. We would imitate the players we saw on TV (Yaz adjusting his hat, Tiant's crazy pitching motion, etc.). Naturally, the things you "imprint" when you're young tend to stay with you most of your life. What I notice today is that kids don't play sports unless it's "organized." We would just go out in the yard and play. OK - you can say "well, there was nothing else to do," and that's sort of the point. There are so many other distractions today, plus the fact that parents feel that every SECOND of their kids time has to be planned. We didn't have control freaks for parents. We just did our own thing with our friends. They didn't check up on us every second. So what happens with these "organized" sports? The "good" players play and the rest of them sit around and watch. And most of these kids don't play ANY OTHER TIME except the "organized" time. We ALL played, no matter how good we were, because we weren't "competing" to see who was better. And we played every day. EVERYBODY played, and we had FUN. And we developed skills, which can only be honed through repetition. When you play once a week, unless you have natural ability, you don't really develop. So once your parent takes you out of the "organized" environment, you lose interest. With us, there was no pressure from parents, coaches, or anyone else. We played because we wanted to and we loved it! And then when we got junior high and high school, we weren't "burned out."

Also, my Dad TOOK me to games. I went to my first Red Sox game when I was six. I went to my first Bruins game when I was eight. Dropping your kid off at the soccer field isn't the same thing. It's kind of like, "OK, kid, get out of my hair for a couple of hours." Not the same as when you are indoctrinated into it and someone takes an interest in exposing you to it and teaching you.

It was a different time. I know people will say (and have said it already) that I can't "adjust" to today's "technology." Well, #1 that's not true because I am a software developer and that's all I do all day every day. What I can't adjust to is people's inability to separate themselves from it in every aspect of their lives. They live in a different reality, and I'm sorry, but to me it's not for the better.

Bottom line: Why would you go to a game that you never had any interest in? And how do you develop "interest?" You INVOLVE yourself in it by either having played or watched. A huge number of kids today don't do that. Heck, they hardly go outdoors. A friend of mine had a son who did nothing but sit in front of a video game console ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Scary...
Click to expand...
One of the best posts I've ever read in here and it's spot on. I can definitely relate. Well done.
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

chickod said:
Well, I'm certainly not in the "target demographic" (lol)....but I can tell you this. At least as it applies to myself, there would be almost a direct correlation between the sports I PLAYED and the ones I WATCHED. We played baseball EVERY DAY after school for probably ten years when I was a kid. We would imitate the players we saw on TV (Yaz adjusting his hat, Tiant's crazy pitching motion, etc.). Naturally, the things you "imprint" when you're young tend to stay with you most of your life. What I notice today is that kids don't play sports unless it's "organized." We would just go out in the yard and play. OK - you can say "well, there was nothing else to do," and that's sort of the point. There are so many other distractions today, plus the fact that parents feel that every SECOND of their kids time has to be planned. We didn't have control freaks for parents. We just did our own thing with our friends. They didn't check up on us every second. So what happens with these "organized" sports? The "good" players play and the rest of them sit around and watch. And most of these kids don't play ANY OTHER TIME except the "organized" time. We ALL played, no matter how good we were, because we weren't "competing" to see who was better. And we played every day. EVERYBODY played, and we had FUN. And we developed skills, which can only be honed through repetition. When you play once a week, unless you have natural ability, you don't really develop. So once your parent takes you out of the "organized" environment, you lose interest. With us, there was no pressure from parents, coaches, or anyone else. We played because we wanted to and we loved it! And then when we got junior high and high school, we weren't "burned out."

Also, my Dad TOOK me to games. I went to my first Red Sox game when I was six. I went to my first Bruins game when I was eight. Dropping your kid off at the soccer field isn't the same thing. It's kind of like, "OK, kid, get out of my hair for a couple of hours." Not the same as when you are indoctrinated into it and someone takes an interest in exposing you to it and teaching you.

It was a different time. I know people will say (and have said it already) that I can't "adjust" to today's "technology." Well, #1 that's not true because I am a software developer and that's all I do all day every day. What I can't adjust to is people's inability to separate themselves from it in every aspect of their lives. They live in a different reality, and I'm sorry, but to me it's not for the better.

Bottom line: Why would you go to a game that you never had any interest in? And how do you develop "interest?" You INVOLVE yourself in it by either having played or watched. A huge number of kids today don't do that. Heck, they hardly go outdoors. A friend of mine had a son who did nothing but sit in front of a video game console ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Scary...
Click to expand...

Very well put. Things have certainly changed over the years. My ma had to yell from the door in the summer months to come in for supper....and then again when the sun went down.
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

chickod said:
Yeah...we had a bed, desk and hot plate. In a cinder block 12x8 room. :)

(I bet they don't even know what a "hot plate" is...)
Click to expand...

My share of the rent was $112.50. Even 30 years ago, that didn't rent much luxury in Minneapolis.
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

Sean Pickett said:
Some BU dorm rooms are still cinder blocks (although more like 18x12 for a double), but the hot plate has been replaced by a microwave and a mini-fridge. ;)

Sean
Click to expand...

Had a friend that brought his treadmill, we had a quad with a "living room" and it filled up almost half the space.
 
AKSWF said:
Had a friend that brought his treadmill, we had a quad with a "living room" and it filled up almost half the space.
Click to expand...

Ha ha! If we put a treadmill in there one of us would have had to sleep in the hallway (oh wait...I did plenty of that anyway when my roommate had his girl over...) :eek
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

I wanted to bring this thread back where we're a month into the season. Are people losing a lot of interest in non-confernece games? I'm surprised BU and BC had such small attendances against what truly is a great Denver team.
 
Drew S. said:
I wanted to bring this thread back where we're a month into the season. Are people losing a lot of interest in non-confernece games? I'm surprised BU and BC had such small attendances against what truly is a great Denver team.
Click to expand...

Gonna guess a lot of that had to do with Halloween weekend.
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

Drew S. said:
I wanted to bring this thread back where we're a month into the season. Are people losing a lot of interest in non-confernece games? I'm surprised BU and BC had such small attendances against what truly is a great Denver team.
Click to expand...

I'm going to paste in here something I posted a couple of weeks ago in response to a similar discussion on the UNH thread (and I suspect there are several discussions happening regarding this topic):

My theory is that, first of all, the season is too long. Early October is ridiculous to start hockey. Now I know at BU, the school is COMPLETELY different in terms of student demographics than it was even twenty years ago. There is a giant international population. You can't just say, "Well, we'll market to them and they will show up." Hockey is a regional, niche sport. Most of us who follow hockey grew up with it either because we grew up in a climate where it was played frequently or had fathers who exposed us to it. It's a sport that requires more of the "hard core" fan, as opposed to some other sports, which attract more casual fans simply because of the increased coverage on "wide-reaching" (read: national) networks. I don't know the demographics at UNH, but clearly "other" activities and interests exist now that weren't available when we were students. Just the prevalence of the internet, computers and technological advancements seems to attract students and appeal to them more than watching sporting events.

Also, I know I didn't have a car when I was a student. It seems today that students have more money and resources to go "off campus" for entertainment. Of course, this is even more prevalent in the city, so it's very difficult for hockey to compete against that. When I was in school, we also played during the week - not just on weekends. Students would be less inclined to go home, or out of town, or whatever, during a school night.

Now obviously the "isolated" schools have a more captive audience. In the East, there are more urban schools that simply offer more, especially when one has the means (money, transportation) to partake of these things.

So to me, it's a combination of availability, resources and lifestyle that have all contributed to the decline in attendance. I wish there was a magic bullet, but the reality is I don't see how you can go back to the days when it was the "only game in town." Those days are gone. It's a big world and being a student on campus isn't as "isolating" as it once was. That's probably not the answer you were hoping for, but I don't think there is one. I don't like it either. And, in fact, the effect cascades. As the arenas become emptier, I am less inclined to go because, as several have mentioned, the atmosphere is dead. So this just begets even less excitement and smaller attendance and a domino effect occurs. I also think students today will show up for the "big events." There doesn't appear to be the "dedicated" following, even if someone LOVES hockey. They tend to not confine themselves to one or two things. So there isn't a feeling that one has to attend "consistently," as long as they can show up for the "big game." It's a media-driven world. I remember a few years ago when BU was playing the Patriot League Championship tournament final [basketball...inserted because I know this is a hockey thread :)] at Agganis. It was live on ESPN and the place was packed - a complete madhouse. But they never got more than 300-400 fans for ANY other game all year.

Even the attendance at the Hockey East tournament at TD Garden last year was down. Attendance for the Beanpot is down. The availability of games on your computer has made it easier to stay away. And, as previously mentioned, money is no object. These students will pay to watch on their computers as much as they will pay to go. And speaking of money, ticket prices are becoming insane (which may very well be a larger factor than anyone seems to realize). There are tickets on the "BU Ticket Exchange" for the BC game in December priced at NINETY-TWO DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Last edited:
Re: Average Men's Attendance

Yesterday I thought about going to see a Div 1 game at my alma mater. It's a 90 mile drive, $5-$10 to park, and $25 for a ticket.
Instead I went to see two Div 3 CLUB teams 45 miles away, free parking, a couple bucks at the gate.

I'll go see the Div 1 team a couple times before the season's out, but it's got to be a social thing. For example, last season I went with a co-worker, his wife, and 3-4 of his friends --- all from India, and some of whom got turned on to hockey while at MI Tech. We'll probably do that again, if schedules work out.

It was a CS professor whose enthusiasm got a lot of us going to games in the old Goggin. Free admission, packed house, up next to the glass ... always a good time. The new rink is nice, in a "look but don't touch" sort of way.

Yeah there are a lot of distractions, but it should be fun & social more than antiseptic like an MBA project. I can't shake the feeling that's part of what's going on.
 
Re: Average Men's Attendance

Stratus said:
Yesterday I thought about going to see a Div 1 game at my alma mater. It's a 90 mile drive, $5-$10 to park, and $25 for a ticket.
Instead I went to see two Div 3 CLUB teams 45 miles away, free parking, a couple bucks at the gate.

I'll go see the Div 1 team a couple times before the season's out, but it's got to be a social thing. For example, last season I went with a co-worker, his wife, and 3-4 of his friends --- all from India, and some of whom got turned on to hockey while at MI Tech. We'll probably do that again, if schedules work out.

It was a CS professor whose enthusiasm got a lot of us going to games in the old Goggin. Free admission, packed house, up next to the glass ... always a good time. The new rink is nice, in a "look but don't touch" sort of way.

Yeah there are a lot of distractions, but it should be fun & social more than antiseptic like an MBA project. I can't shake the feeling that's part of what's going on.
Click to expand...

Seems like there are a lot of team threads talking about declining attendance. It wasn't that long ago that there was a long waiting list for Gopher tickets, now there were huge areas of unoccupied seats this weekend. People blame move from WCHA, costs, non-conference opponent (this weekend) etc., which I am sure are all contributors, but the apparent trend across multiple schools seems to suggest there is more to it than just those.
 
its all about the outreach.. coll hockey can adapt (to changing trends) or go the way of the dinosaur (okay not as drastic).. but for example, if the casual int'l student is going.. appreciate them going.. run a few specials. make them a part of it all through contests, activities. rest takes care of itself as it is a great sport. Lowell has done a great job with this as their arena averages 4, 5 or 6K a gm kudos to their outreach among youth hockey teams, dance teams, area high school, town.. all very good.

Last night, in the city of Boston.. NU had some outreach around campus and alumni during the week prior.. & they had close to 4K fans show up, which for NU is great given all the distractions Boston has to offer.

Adaptation is the way to go. The folks running the ticket office & programs at the colleges should heed & stay ahead of these trends. That's the best we can do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top