Re: Big Ten 2015-2016
The B1G Tourney will never do well.
The reason that the WCHA Tourney did so well is because you had so many local schools and the alumni living in and around the Twin Cities.
The vast majority of the attendees were Gopher and Sioux fans, but there were also significant numbers of SCSU, UMD, Tech and Badger fans to fill it out along with the other programs.
All of these are schools where hockey is or was one of the top draws or has (had) a great tradition.
Part of the fun was that it was a destination tourney - meaning that there was a buzz around it and the atmosphere was worth traveling to.
That will never happen with the B1G schools or their tourney. Ever.
You cannot manufacture or create that.
Centrally locating it in Chicago wouldn't help either.
I think school proximity and tournament locations would be two major independent variables under consideration in the foregoing expansion process of BTHC in future years. Others would include negotiating the entry level standards for affiliate membership (e.g. Notre Dame), startup vs established hockey traditions and fanbases, broader conference alliance through partnerships in various sports, major media and sponsorship revenue, and market expansion of the media footprint. Arguably, it will take time to expand and build a Big Ten hockey tradition that rivals the old WCHA in popularity and attendance. But to say it will "never" happen is a bit reductionist and myopic.
It's noteworthy that we are in a different time in college sports today than when the old WCHA was formed. As I mentioned in a previous post, Big Ten sports today is in fact primarily money driven with entertainment value for the average fan running a very close second. Media exposure is everything for the Big Ten. In the landscape of conference expansion and media $$$ over the past decade among power 5 conferences, it is becoming the battle of the fittest. The Big Ten has in fact been on the leading edge of it in other non-niche college sports and stands to become the largest media revenue generating machine in college sports.
But make no mistake about it, BTHC expansion is in the works. But the Big Ten also has a more comprehensive emphasis on expanding the collaborative BTN, ESPN/ABC and CBS footprint in other major college sports. As I mentioned, the Big Ten will be looking at significant increases when those media contracts expire next year from its 10-year, $1 billion deal with ESPN/ABC for football and basketball and 6-year, $72 million pact with CBS for basketball. It already has a 25-year, $2.8 billion deal with the league-run BTN that extends through 2031-32. That's why they're is not overly concerned that college hockey venues like the X or the Joe are 80-90% empty because they understand it's a niche media market with 6 teams that will not yield significant revenue in it's present form compared to other major college sports.
But I disagree that it's impossible to "create" a vibrant tournament atmosphere in the future similar to the WCHA F5. However, it becomes a little more of a challenge with college hockey as a niche sport with the enigma of travel distances. In the future it's feasible we may be looking at something of a divisional "mantra" (not exactly like the one below but an adaptation) along with additional affiliate members in men's ice hockey as when the B1G moved to 14 teams, and dumped the Legends and Leaders divisions to set up a divisional structure based on geography.
<img alt="" rel="lightbox" src="http://bigtennetworks.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/east-west33.jpg?w=640">
