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Big Chill at the Big House

Re: Big Chill at the Big House

RedFreak said:
The reason for the disparity in turn-out (should it materialize as is assumed here) is blindingly obvious.

Wisconsin fans are more intelligent.
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I hate to dampen your bias, but drinking heavily and then stampeding prior to a football game was not one of Badger fans greatest intelligent moments. So maybe staying away from an outdoor hockey game in Madison proved to be smart. :p
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
Visibility.

UW promoted the Camp Randall game with one little 20 second blurb at each football game during the football season. And that was pretty much the extent of their attempt to promote the event outside of hockey circles up until December or so.

UW does a pretty poor job when it comes to actually making people aware of UW hockey. The "Badger" themed shows on FSN or Time Warner Sports are 100% football and basketball. You've got to be pretty lucky to catch a game live on TV.

So the casual fans who normally only go to football games or watch football at a bar (you know... the people you NEED if you want to sell out an event like this) are honestly not much more aware of the hockey team than they are of, say, the volleyball or wrestling teams. Everything they know is word of mouth or whispers of "oh, I've heard those games are fun". And the only promotion that was given to this event was a little something that 80% of the stadium ignores during football games. I was actually shocked that we got 55,000 people to show up.

Even if 80,000 tickets have been sold for Cold War II with little to no promotion, there's something going on in Michigan that Barry Alvarez isn't privy to.

Okay, that and sour grapes.
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Sorry, EoDS - I can't agree with any of this. Sure, UW could have promoted the event more. It probably wouldn't have made a huge difference. The single biggest reason for the relatively low attendance was price. I'll re-post my thoughts from the UW season thread:

blockski said:
The Big Chill - tickets are 15, 10 for groups.
Michigan single game tickets - range 19-25. Michigan State tickets - range 18-20.

Camp Randall Classic - tickets are 25 bucks. 10 for students.
Kohl Center face value, single game tickets - 18-22.

Someone in the economics department at Michigan whispered in the AD's ear. If you want to massively expand capacity, you're probably going to have somewhat softer demand and will need to lower the price - not raise it.

It may very well be the case that UW made more money by selling 50k tickets at 25 a pop rather than selling 80k at 15. (without knowing the exact breakdown of group sales, etc) But if you're actively promoting this to break the world record - hell, if you're going to go to the trouble to host an outdoor game - why not aim to sell the place out? And if that's your aim, you need to price the game accordingly.

There's room to criticize the promotions, the choice of opponent, etc. Those are all minor factors compared to the underlying economics. Barry's like or dislike of hockey is irrelevant in this case, too.

Again, UW does not sell out the 15,000 seat Kohl Center, yet they somehow thought they could sell out 80,000 seat Camp Randall by increasing prices?
Click to expand...

Reasons for the lower attendance - price, price, price, price, lackluster promotion, and price.
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

blockski said:
Sorry, EoDS - I can't agree with any of this. Sure, UW could have promoted the event more. It probably wouldn't have made a huge difference. The single biggest reason for the relatively low attendance was price. I'll re-post my thoughts from the UW season thread:



Reasons for the lower attendance - price, price, price, price, lackluster promotion, and price.
Click to expand...
Continued in the UW thread.
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

I'm guessing Wisconsin didn't care about selling out/setting the attendance record once they knew they'd likely only have the record for less than a year.
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

kdilks said:
I'm guessing Wisconsin didn't care about selling out/setting the attendance record once they knew they'd likely only have the record for less than a year.
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Yeah... assuming they did know of the upcoming event, which I doubt because of when they probably starting planning the Camp Randall game, that is basically the dumbest thing I've heard in this thread so far.

I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
madison.jpg
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

Yager said:
Yeah... assuming they did know of the upcoming event, which I doubt because of when they probably starting planning the Camp Randall game, that is basically the dumbest thing I've heard in this thread so far.

I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
madison.jpg
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Wisconsin didn't have their official press release "announcing" the game and setting ticket prices until March 6th (http://www.wcha.com/sports/m-hockey/spec-rel/030609aaa.html). The Ann Arbor News had an article on March 4th saying that the Michigan outdoor game at Michigan Stadium was going to happen (Michigan Daily article citing Ann Arbor News: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/2009-03-04/michigan-host-outdoor-hockey-game-michigan-stadium). And I'm pretty sure Wisconsin's athletic department would have heard that Michigan was planning something well before Michigan was ready to make an announcement to the media.
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

kdilks said:
On the banks of the Red Cedar,
We'll learn to read and write;
Its specialty is farming,
And those farmers are goofballs;
Aggie teams are never beaten,
All through the game they'll cry;
Cry for the only colors:
Complain and Whine.

Smash right through that line of blow,
Watch our nose keep growing.
Aggie teams are bound to win,
They'll even learn to count to ten!
Rah! Rah! Rah!
One! Two! Three! Four! Five!
H3LL we're half-way there!
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The only sparty fight song you'll hear is this version.
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: That had to be written by a 5-year old, not the author of post #26.
I'm waiting for the refrigerator art that accompanies this.
 
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Re: Big Chill at the Big House

streaker said:
yeah, you're right. Not like OUR fightsong has ever been altered. :rolleyes:
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Oh please. I appreciate wit no matter who the target is (within certain boundaries of taste). After reading the first couple lines I chuckled a bit
"they learn to read and write". Passable stuff.

But after that the drop-off was precipitous. Please don't tell me you never saw cleverer stuff going the other way. :confused:
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

owslachief said:
Oh please. I appreciate wit no matter who the target is (within certain boundaries of taste). After reading the first couple lines I chuckled a bit
"they learn to read and write". Passable stuff.

But after that the drop-off was precipitous. Please don't tell me you never saw cleverer stuff going the other way. :confused:
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I agree with you. I've never heard that version, it doesn't fit the song very well and lacks the rhyming scheme.

I like the R rated version where I yell "quack"....but I won't post that.

The G rated version I've heard is:
Go to school at MSU
Learn how to count to ten
If you start to mess it up
We'll let you start again.
1, 3 Crap!
We're so dumb at MSU
We don't even care!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Holy crap we're half way there!
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

owslachief said:
Oh please. I appreciate wit no matter who the target is (within certain boundaries of taste). After reading the first couple lines I chuckled a bit
"they learn to read and write". Passable stuff.

But after that the drop-off was precipitous. Please don't tell me you never saw cleverer stuff going the other way. :confused:
Click to expand...

I know. It's not easy being Green (and white). :eek:
 
Re: Big Chill at the Big House

STATEdude3 said:
MSU wore the winged helmet starting in 1933 (earliest photograph though is 1934). Chrisler brought the winged helmet to UM from Princeton in 1938. Maybe you should learn your own history...

The teams both wore the helmet in the game played in 1939.
http://www.spartanjerseys.com/image...ichigan-state-football-winged-helmet_over.jpg
Click to expand...
Good to know, now I can tell MSU fans that it came from them when they make fun of the winged helmet.
 
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