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B1G Championship in Detroit

Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

There was a great tournament in the WCHA Final Five. A pretty good CCHA Tourney in Detroit that included an amazing awards show at the Fox Theatre and they've been sadly reduced to three piles of rubble. But this is good for college hockey. Maybe it's a concerted effort to make the regional look less desolate.

I miss the CCHA. They treated Hockey as their #1 sport, because it was their only sport. Unlike the B1G, where they treat it as their #4 sport. The B1G just worries about making money now and not making fans happy. Exhibit A: Rutgers and Maryland.

I'm legitimately excited to be playing former CCHA teams in the next couple GLIs. It's been too long.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

Some thoughts...

The B1G did a *terrible* job marketing the tournament around here. I saw one billboard. I saw nothing on TV (though I don't watch much of it). My son plays travel hockey and I'm at the rink frequently; I saw almost nothing to promote it in the local hockey community. I'm not surprised about the attendance.

As noted early in this thread, attendance was awful in St. Paul last year, too. I don't think you can judge either city as a hockey town by two underpromoted B1G tournaments.

In fact, it's hard to compare Michigan and Minnesota at all. I've said it before and will say it again. Michigan and Minnesota have very different hockey cultures.

In Minnesota, the game is based around schools: high school and college hockey are big. Your rural areas have the hockey-rink-as-center-of-the-community thing that we don't.

In Michigan, the game is based around clubs and the pros, and is primarily an urban/suburban phenomena. The best teenage players here play AAA club, not high school. Many of the best players here go to the CHL rather than college (obviously not all). College hockey is big on campus, but is only on the periphery with general public, and high school hockey is an afterthought (if that).

Sure, Minnesota has its high school hockey tournament. But we have one AHL team, you have none. We have an ECHL team, you have none. We have two OHL teams; you have none in any of the CHL leagues. We have two USHL teams, you have none. (Granted, you have 3 NAHL teams compared to two here.) We have 6 youth AAA club teams, you sort of have one. We support plenty of hockey around here.

And even though the colleges aren't the center of the game, we still have 7 division I colleges with 19 national championships. You have 5 with 6. :-)

I might concede that Minnesota supports the game better than Michigan statewide because of the rural roots there. But I would say that Detroit is a better hockey town than the Twin Cities. The roots of the game are pretty deep here. It just isn't focused on high school and college like there.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

God, you people are so obnoxious with this ****. Do you honestly think we, Michiganders, give two ****s and a holler about your high school hockey statistics? I'm sorry, but it has to be said. Every time, literally every time, I see or am in a discussion with people from MN, they bring up their HS hockey stats.

HS football isn't even big in this state unless it's on the West side.

And why would I care/attend a HS sporting event unless I have a child who is participating in said-sporting event?

You better get used to it or you are in for a long bumpy ride the rest of your adult USCHO life.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

Sounds like the crowd sucks for the intra state matchup as well. Thanks a lot Big Ten. Please end this NHL arena farce.
 
Some thoughts...

The B1G did a *terrible* job marketing the tournament around here. I saw one billboard. I saw nothing on TV (though I don't watch much of it). My son plays travel hockey and I'm at the rink frequently; I saw almost nothing to promote it in the local hockey community. I'm not surprised about the attendance.

As noted early in this thread, attendance was awful in St. Paul last year, too. I don't think you can judge either city as a hockey town by two underpromoted B1G tournaments.

In fact, it's hard to compare Michigan and Minnesota at all. I've said it before and will say it again. Michigan and Minnesota have very different hockey cultures.

In Minnesota, the game is based around schools: high school and college hockey are big. Your rural areas have the hockey-rink-as-center-of-the-community thing that we don't.

In Michigan, the game is based around clubs and the pros, and is primarily an urban/suburban phenomena. The best teenage players here play AAA club, not high school. Many of the best players here go to the CHL rather than college (obviously not all). College hockey is big on campus, but is only on the periphery with general public, and high school hockey is an afterthought (if that).

Sure, Minnesota has its high school hockey tournament. But we have one AHL team, you have none. We have an ECHL team, you have none. We have two OHL teams; you have none in any of the CHL leagues. We have two USHL teams, you have none. (Granted, you have 3 NAHL teams compared to two here.) We have 6 youth AAA club teams, you sort of have one. We support plenty of hockey around here.

And even though the colleges aren't the center of the game, we still have 7 division I colleges with 19 national championships. You have 5 with 6. :-)

I might concede that Minnesota supports the game better than Michigan statewide because of the rural roots there. But I would say that Detroit is a better hockey town than the Twin Cities. The roots of the game are pretty deep here. It just isn't focused on high school and college like there.

You also have TWICE the population of our state.

Despite having half the people living in out state compared to yours....

- We have more registered youth players, despite the fact that out high school players don't register with USA Hockey.
- We have produced twice as many current D1 players.
- We have produced twice as many NHL players all time.
- We have produced something like 4x as many Olympians.

I agree with the rest, absolutely different cultures, which is fine. No question that we embrace the sport more here though.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

Not sure I've ever heard a conversation about college or junior hockey in Detroit that I didn't start. We love the Red Wings, but let's not pretend it extends beyond that.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

I miss the CCHA. They treated Hockey as their #1 sport, because it was their only sport. Unlike the B1G, where they treat it as their #4 sport. The B1G just worries about making money now and not making fans happy. Exhibit A: Rutgers and Maryland.

I'm legitimately excited to be playing former CCHA teams in the next couple GLIs. It's been too long.

I am so thankful the nWCHA survived. I have found many (if not all) of the new schools to be like minded. perhaps not all are as elite (read that as "as white") as DU and CC, but certainly all are more elite than SCSU and UND. I like the nWCHA. I like our tournaments. I like our new commish. I like the way he publicized the tournament. I also like the way Tech won the first and second round.
funny, huh? a Michigan or Minnesota team is about to win a trophy called the Broadmoor?
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

The dozens of hockey crazy fans in Michigan
must be riveted by this game. You guys look good dressed as empty seats...
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

I'm not getting high off my *** from blowing out a garbage state team. Don't care what seed number they had next to their name, that is a bad team and this is a bad conference.

Said the key to the game was getting the first goal. Kind of worried a little bit there when it went 1-1 but once Michigan got it to 2-1, I felt more comfortable with each goal.

Should be a good one tomorrow. Michigan has done some baaaaaad things to 1 seeds in conference tournaments in that building. Most notably destroying top-3 ranked Miami teams twice.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

My thoughts:

1. Needs beer. Big Ten needs to lose its stupid rule, I don't even drink beer at most games but others do and expect an NHL rink to serve it.
2. Step into the real world of pricing. 60 bucks is a price no one is going to pay, even for glass seats. Drop 5 bucks off upper bowl tickets and 10 off lower bowl and maybe you can attract more people.
3. Souvenir cups were cool.
4. Who did they hire for PA? Stumbled over his words, didn't know how to pronounce anything.
5. I literally saw 2 OSU fans in the entire building.
6. All the Gopher fans around me left and never came back after their game.
7. No band, Minnesota? I thought this was your #1 sport, you can't get the band there?
8. Saddest/heart warming moment: OSU skating off the ice saluting the band because those were the only fans they had.
9. I figured Hildebrand would have to play the game of his life for the 2nd game in a row, because UM would press even harder than last weekend. He didn't, but still put up one heluva effort.
10. Go Gophers.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

I think Michigan played a better game today than Minnesota but I think tomorrow may will be a battle of the goaltenders.
 
Re: B1G Championship in Detroit

Hildebrand was great until it looked that he got hurt.

Big question now is if we have enough gas to survive.
 
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