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Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

ericredaxe said:
BU had 2.5 sections of students there.
Harvard had 3/4 of a student section.

I was not there for the early game. How many BC / NU students were there?
Click to expand...

i want to say nu.. 3 or 4 sections.. but clearly, bu & nu had the students there, though not like previous seasons as has been widely noted.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

ericredaxe said:
BU had 2.5 sections of students there.
Harvard had 3/4 of a student section.

I was not there for the early game. How many BC / NU students were there?
Click to expand...

I was there for both games....NU had probably 3.5 sections full, BU had 2.5, BC had about 1.5 and Harvard had about .75 full. Pretty pitiful on all accounts but NU clearly had the most vocal and most support from fans. BU was 2nd. BC was 3rd and obviously no one at Harvard cares about their talented hockey program.
 
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Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

chickod said:
I don't agree and here's why: You guys are taking this out of context and talking as if this topic hasn't been discussed on this board for the past three years. Why "isolate" the Beanpot? Has ANY attendance been good recently? There have even been separate "attendance" threads that have addressed this.

I'm currently working in Connecticut, for example, so why should I even bother to try to go when I can watch it on TV? I suspect that many fans feel the same way.

It's a different time. With PWR, national television for every sport and game, the "lustre" of a local "the only game in town" event has worn off. It's not anybody's "fault," it's just the way it is.

If we're going to be objective, we have to start discussing, for example, the attendance at Agganis and everywhere else. Attendance is down EVERYWHERE. I don't think it's fair to say the tournament is "boring" any more than any other game is "boring." In fact, this year is one year where the teams are as relatively even as almost any year you can point to. Nobody "cares" because nobody cares about just about anything any more.

So if you're going to say "yawn," then why not just stop going to ANY games? Why single this out? It counts in the PWR just like any other game. What would you rather see? BU vs Colorado College in Joe Louis Arena? I don't get the point...
Click to expand...

You make some good points. This isn't just an east coast college hockey problem; Wisconsin and Minnesota used to pack their huge arenas almost every game, and now seemingly never do.

But I wonder why college basketball hasn't seen the same issues across the board. Maybe it's because the sport is more mainstream/high-profile, but it still seems odd to me that in the regions where hockey has traditionally been one of the most popular sports – New England and the Upper Midwest – attendance has plummeted over the past decade. If they had the Frozen Four at Ford Field tomorrow (assuming we didn't have it in 2010), does anyone really think they'd get crowds over 30,000 anymore? No way.

Part of me wants to blame the NCAA for not making hockey seem like as much of a "big event" sport as football and basketball. But, when it's not as marketable since it doesn't have a presence in every part of the country, I suppose it's hard to blame them.

The recent drop-off in Beanpot attendance is especially sad, since it used to be a packed house every year (or, at least the student sections for the three HEA schools would be overflowing). Then again, marketing has been virtually nonexistent for this event for years (NESN commercials notwithstanding), so that's probably a factor.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

kdiff77 said:
...it still seems odd to me that in the regions where hockey has traditionally been one of the most popular sports – New England and the Upper Midwest – attendance has plummeted over the past decade....
Click to expand...

I think the primary (but not only) reason for the drastic drop in hockey interest is that the game has effectively priced out kids from blue collar and middle class families. Just visit your local hockey shop and look at the price tags. Until recent years, ordinary kids who knew they had no shot at college or pro hockey would still play at a recreational level because a stick, helmet, and basic protective equipment was affordable. So they played, had fun, and developed an attachment to the game that they carried with them into adulthood.

Beyond equipment costs, the stratospheric expenses associated with elite travel programs also puts hockey beyond the reach of kids of modest means that have elite potential. And then there is the youth hockey culture that all too often seems so pre-occupied with grooming elite players that kids who just like to play get marginalized or ignored. And too many of them get frustrated and quit. The modern-day Eruziones/Craigs/O'Callahans/etc., are still playing sports. It's just not hockey.

So hockey has become a rich man's game and now finds itself paying the price in terms of plummeting interest at both the college and pro levels. Houston, we have a problem.

Just my BTC.00000000000000000000000002
 
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Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Split-N said:
I think the primary (but not only) reason for the drastic drop in hockey interest is that the game has effectively priced out kids from blue collar and middle class families. Just visit your local hockey shop and look at the price tags. Until recent years, ordinary kids who knew they had no shot at college or pro hockey would still play at a recreational level because a stick, helmet, and basic protective equipment was affordable. So they played, had fun, and developed an attachment to the game that they carried with them into adulthood.

Beyond equipment costs, the stratospheric expenses associated with elite travel programs also puts hockey beyond the reach of kids of modest means that have elite potential. And then there is the youth hockey culture that all too often seems so pre-occupied with grooming elite players that kids who just like to play get marginalized or ignored. And too many of them get frustrated and quit. The modern-day Eruziones/Craigs/O'Callahans/etc., are still playing sports. It's just not hockey.

So hockey has become a rich man's game and now finds itself paying the price in terms of plummeting interest at both the college and pro levels. Houston, we have a problem.

Just my BTC.00000000000000000000000002
Click to expand...

My balcony tickets last night were $38 each. If they made the tickets $10 or so they would draw more students for sure.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Not sure if or how BU/BC are different, but Northeastern charged students $32 for both nights in the corner balcony or $21 for one. I think it fluctuates a bit, I seem to recall paying something like 36 or 37 when I was a student a few years back, but it's in that ballpark.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

I remember the days when BU would sell out of its allotment so fast people were told to call Harvard for tickets.
 
Scarlet said:
I remember the days when BU would sell out of its allotment so fast people were told to call Harvard for tickets.
Click to expand...

A key part of the Beanpot experience when I was at BU was the ticket line. You knew you had to get in line early or risk obstructed view seats in the old Garden or worse, no tickets at all. That could mean waiting outside in the cold but no one complained. Actually, it was an honor to be first in line. It’s disappointing that the current students don’t have that and don’t seem to care.
P.S. With all the talk about the legacies on the team, it’s too bad Corey Ronan wound up at UConn.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

I was listening to 98.5 earlier today and they were playing news station audio from 40 years ago when the Beanpot took place during the blizzard of ‘78. It was really amusing to hear people talk about being at the game that night and that some were allowed to stay in the Garden overnight and were even provided free food and drink.

Can you imagine that happening today? They would kick you out of the building for certain. This all happened before I was born but crazy how times have changed.

Edit: Here's a link to the audio. It begins around 34:15.
http://tun.in/tileEO
 
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Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Middle Street said:
I was listening to 98.5 earlier today and they were playing news station audio from 40 years ago when the Beanpot took place during the blizzard of ‘78. It was really amusing to hear people talk about being at the game that night and that some were allowed to stay in the Garden overnight and were even provided free food and drink.
Click to expand...

I was there. They announced early in the evening that the T would be shutting down so a huge number of people left. We ended up staying. One of our friends had a car that we actually had to abandon. We ended up walking back. Boston was surreal. NO traffic and therefore NO noise for a week. The city was completely shut down. People were cross-country skiing down Beacon Street. Cars were snowed in at their parking spaces...when we walked in the street we were ABOVE the roof level of the cars. Since there was no place to push the snow, they couldn't remove any of it. It was like 19th century London with the gaslights. One of the most memorable experiences in my life!
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

in that wiseguy book the writer spend pages on that and how the bu team bus was picking up folks on the road going back to campus ONLY if they were wearing red and white. (it did however mention that they assumed the bc bus was doing the same for their fans :) )
plus how jack asked the driver to stop at marsh so if anyone wanted out to pray they could :D
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Lemonade said:
...NU had probably 3.5 sections full, BU had 2.5, BC had about 1.5 and Harvard had about .75 full. Pretty pitiful on all accounts but NU clearly had the most vocal and most support from fans. BU was 2nd. BC was 3rd and obviously no one at Harvard cares about their talented hockey program.
Click to expand...

Harvard hockey fans started to slowly go extinct after "Love Story" won an Oscar so I can understand why they couldn't even fill a section. But BC not being able to fill even two for a team that's still in first place in HEA?
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Regarding attendance - we have the same arguments here in University at Buffalo discussion forums. Everyone thinks there's something specifically wrong with their crowds at their games, when in fact this is a general problem across almost all college sports. There is an immense competition these days for people's time and attention, and it's too easy to just sit at home and follow sports (often from higher levels of play). Everyone says "our fanbase is big enough that we should never have a problem filling the arena/stadium." Maybe this is just a period when the powers that be can't simply assume everyone will show up, they're going to have to put some effort into marketing and making sure it's a fun time. Even something like the Beanpot.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

Logic would dictate that you find the price point at which consumers will purchase your product, and that may be lower than what it used to be. Seems sports in general, and BU/college hockey in particular, are struggling with that concept. "Whaddaya mean we can't charge $50 bucks a ticket for the Beanpot anymore? 30 years ago people would pay scalpers more than that!" Beanpot should be a lower cost event that attracts families and friends of alums to check out a the game. If its going to cost you $200 bucks to walk in the door, clearly far too many people are saying screw that.
 
Re: Beanpot LXVI: The Tong Wars Resume

LOL I knew we would see the chest thumping about how many sections of fans NU had
 
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