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Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Humanoid said:
Like it matters when you're that far north, except for state sales tax purposes. It might as well be Canada at that point (except for RMU).
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Not a geography major, eh? Not really "that far North" ... Check out the latitudes - virtually the same as Bentley. Well, I guess it is better to be in the Crumbling Empire State than in Taxachusettes. :D
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Snively65 said:
So, if Clarkson is coming to the JAR for two this year, then the Wolverines will be coming to the JAR for two next year, right?
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They will still draw 89, but the attendance will read a capacity crowd of 1,200.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

schiegs said:
They will still draw 89, but the attendance will read a capacity crowd of 1,200.
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Ironically, last year the attendance figures were better as the season went on. Students started coming to the games down the stretch and by the end of the year there were legit 250 people in the stands. What's unfortunate is that the seating arrangement puts that alley between the press box and home fans, so it's hard to generate noise and actually see the people at the game from their vantage point. Not that I'm making excuses because Bentley still draws one of the worst crowds in D1 (and maybe even D3), but I think it goes beyond a lot of different things.

Last year, there were a lot of people for the Air Force and Holy Cross games. Army was a big draw too; I remember an actual sell out two years ago when Army came to town - a member of the Bentley ROTC took his oath in front of the cadets and was saluted. The US Army actually helped bring fans in that game, and there were easily 900 people.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

FlagDUDE08 said:
*checks naughty and nice list*
*checks it again*

Too bad. :D
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It's times like this that I don't hate you.

Now that the alignment has stopped, what's the take from ECAC heading into the season? We've hit a little bit of a lull where it seems like we are finally getting back to hockey.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

komey1 said:
I would be shocked if HEA wanted anything to do with UConn hockey considering the state of that program. The lack of support at that school is disappointing.
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Don't be too shocked. If that were done it would be with the understanding that UConn would start giving athletic scholarships for men's hockey and perhaps expand the arena over a reasonable time frame. Hockey at UConn is actually quite well supported. Their gate generally does not go below 800 which is a whole lot better than many schools; and they are a big name in the NCAA overall. Since if they did it they'd be in it to win it, I think that HE would find it attractive. The key is the continued progression of FB, however.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

UConn ranked 52nd in D1 out of 58 teams by averaging a little over 800 people per game. They ranked 6th in AHA, which occupies every slot from 48 to 58 with the exception of 2 (Alabama-Huntsville and Colgate are ranked in the lower part with the AHA). Only Army was better in the east than UConn, and Holy cross was right on their heels.

In contrast, Bentley drew a total of 5,000 fans for the season, which is 57th out of 58 D1 teams (only AIC was worse). The Falcons averaged 339 fans (AIC was avg. of 173) and were only slightly worse than the 390 averaged by Sacred Heart.

Compare to Hockey East, whose worst attendance was held by Providence at just under 2,000 people per game. Boston College averaged 6,000 per game to top the league (and rank 7th in D1). BU and Maine both averaged around 5,000 fans per game (Bentley had 5,000 for the whole season!), and thats with ticket sales (Bentley's table up front of the lobby doesn't exactly count as full-fledged ticket sales, especially when the students work about as well as the toilets).

It's both a major discrepancy, and at the same time what makes D1 hockey so great. A school like Bentley playing at Michigan (which averaged over 12,000 fans per game) is unheard of in any other sport at this stage (without the D2-D1 matchup in football, which is essentially a paid *** kicking), even though it shows what kind of financial discrepancy exists between the Michigans and the AHAs of the world.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Humanoid said:
It's both a major discrepancy, and at the same time what makes D1 hockey so great. A school like Bentley playing at Michigan (which averaged over 12,000 fans per game) is unheard of in any other sport at this stage (without the D2-D1 matchup in football, which is essentially a paid *** kicking), even though it shows what kind of financial discrepancy exists between the Michigans and the AHAs of the world.
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Well, bear in mind that Michigan's total is almost doubled by the fact that the Big Chill game last December drew over one hundred thousand fans by itself. Yost is just a touch over 6600 normally.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

I thought for some odd reason when I did the count of Michigan home games that the Big Chill was excluded. After your note, I recounted their home games, and, alas, I was off by one - it was just marked differently on their schedule on the Michigan homepage.

With the exception of my inflammatory comments, which are designed solely to get a laugh or a rise out of people, my factual statements have been off. I need to go back to slacking off at work where I can focus my efforts on better statistical breakdown.

PS - can the season get here so I can do that?
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Anyone going to Ann Arbor the weekend of October 7th? I am thinking about it.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Snively65 said:
Anyone going to Ann Arbor the weekend of October 7th? I am thinking about it.
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Thinking about it. Wouldn't be able to get out there for Friday but Saturday is doable. I heard from sources that Bentley is not going to be sending its radio (no big surprise - they rarely do for road games), so we would have to rely on Michigan's team and stream, which I think is a pay-per-view service similar to AmericaOne.

There are rumblings from campus as well that a Ryan Soderquist Show is in the works. The school is trying to beef up its coverage and get the team more publicity, so the video would be available online at bentleyfalcons.com. They're also working on a partnership with a sports coverage website to get the team more PR, but nothing's definite yet.

It would be nice to get more exposure for the team to hopefully bring more fans out to the games.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Humanoid said:
Thinking about it. Wouldn't be able to get out there for Friday but Saturday is doable.
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Looks like I will be attending both games in AA. Bentley is on fall break the following Monday and Tuesday, so this schedule worked out great for me. I took 8 credits at U Michigan's geology field camp in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, for my undergraduate geology degree at UNH and considered going to Ann Arbor for my PhD, so I would be delighted if the Falcons can come back with a point of two.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Hey... quick question... Do tickets cost anything at Bentley?

Im a UMass Amherst fan living here in Waltham, but being married now means very few visits out to Amherst.... so Im looking for a nice close hockey fix and really dont want to go to BC unless UMass is there..

Thanks!
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Lil Bit Special said:
Hey... quick question... Do tickets cost anything at Bentley?

Im a UMass Amherst fan living here in Waltham, but being married now means very few visits out to Amherst.... so Im looking for a nice close hockey fix and really dont want to go to BC unless UMass is there..

Thanks!
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There's two way of handling this:

1) Tickets cost $5 at the door. INstead of buying them through a ticket office like every other d1 program, we have a table that is in the JAR lobby manned by workstudy students. They have a cash box and give you a ticket for reentry in case you have to go outside. It's like a 50-50 raffle ticket, so it's not like the ticket windows and scanners that teams like UM and BC employ. You don't have to worry about tickets in advance - Bentley doesn't do that and the rink usually doesn't sell out. If they're playing a team like Holy Cross, Air Force, or Army, then the crowd will be bigger, but there will still be plenty of seating/standing room around the boards.

2) You can usually walk in right by the door.

Welcome to the fold, hopefully. As much as we joke around about the quality of the rink (it's a complete dive. Don't expect anything remotely close to the Mullins Center or Conte Forum. It's a municipal rink, so definitely do not expect much), the quality of hockey is pretty darn good. There have been some really exciting games, and the AHA is always high-scoring and very physical. No lead is ever safe.
 
Re: Bentley Falcons Official 2011-2012 Thread

Humanoid said:
Welcome to the fold, hopefully. As much as we joke around about the quality of the rink (it's a complete dive. Don't expect anything remotely close to the Mullins Center or Conte Forum. It's a municipal rink, so definitely do not expect much), the quality of hockey is pretty darn good. There have been some really exciting games, and the AHA is always high-scoring and very physical. No lead is ever safe.
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That sums it up well. Come to the Clarkson games on October 28th-29th; Bentley took a point from them in Potsdam last fall, and the Falcons seem to pull off a big upset or two in OOC game(s) each year. I am hoping that one will be in Ann Arbor this year! :-)
 
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