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Big Ten Conference Tournament

Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

mnstate0fhockey said:
I don't think we'll see a whole lot of traveling for this tourney. That's why I think support from the local market is important.
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Gurtholfin said:
I think that they should get "significant numbers" for OSU games first.

BTW, Columbus will never happen coz 90% of paying, ticket holding Big Ten hockey fans reside many hundreds of miles to the north and west.
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OSU drew 9828 for a friday game vs UM. I think that compares to the 9969 that Minny drew for a friday game vs Wisc. When your universe was the WCHA, Minnesota was literally and figuratively the center of that universe. If you drew a circle with a 300 mile diameter so Grand Forks, Omaha, and Houghton were on the perimeter, Gophertown is in the middle with 5 other WCHA schools inside the circle. The next closest B1G school after Wisc. is MSU. That would be a 600+ mile drive to the tourney. Both the Michigan schools are closer to Nationwide Arena than Madison is to the X. Here are some more geography lessons. It's a shorter drive from Madison to JLA than it is to drive from East Lansing to the X. PSU is closer to JLA than Madison is to JLA. Unless you guys think that Minnesota can override UM, MSU, OSU and PSU there is no way you can really beleive that the X will be the future, permanent home to the B1G tourney. Welcome to the Big Ten!!!

I just can't beleive that the B1G is going to lose out on conference quarter final games and all that cash. To scrap the playoffs in favor of a three night, 5 game tourney screams to me that they don't want the money. The way I see it is for the first couple of years they have this tourney with all 6 schools invited. First at the X, then JLA. This is to get PSU acquainted to hockey and what not. Then they scrap the NHL arena and let the middle two schools host the bottom two schools in a weekend series. The winners advance to play the top 2 schools at their campus rinks, and the highest seed remaining hosts a best 2 out of 3 championship series. They would sell just as many tickets, probably more than at the X. Plus the atmosphere would be like the regular season, only 10 times better. at least 4 games the first weekend, at least 4 games the second weekend, and then 2 or 3 games the next.
 
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Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

Wol4ine said:
I just can't beleive that the B1G is going to lose out on conference quarter final games and all that cash. To scrap the playoffs in favor of a three night, 5 game tourney screams to me that they don't want the money. The way I see it is for the first couple of years they have this tourney with all 6 schools invited. First at the X, then JLA. This is to get PSU acquainted to hockey and what not. Then they scrap the NHL arena and let the middle two schools host the bottom two schools in a weekend series. The winners advance to play the top 2 schools at their campus rinks, and the highest seed remaining hosts a best 2 out of 3 championship series. They would sell just as many tickets, probably more than at the X. Plus the atmosphere would be like the regular season, only 10 times better. at least 4 games the first weekend, at least 4 games the second weekend, and then 2 or 3 games the next.
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The big problem with campus sites is that UW and OSU don't play in hockey only facilities that can be held open for three consecutive weekends every year. Unless you want to cram 750 students, 2000 non student UW fans, and 250 visiting fans in the new woman's rink/practice facility at UW or some secondary rink at OSU the on-campus tournament isn't going to work. First round, sure but not a whole 3 round tournament.
 
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Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

Brenthoven said:
One time should be enough. Just add a sort of minimum requirement for attendance to re-host the tourney. If what people say is true (well-travelled fans will go once), then that first time should theoretically be the best attendance numbers for all intents and purposes.
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Except that how well the local draw does will have a huge impact on sales and that can fluctuate wildly from year to year.
 
Almington said:
Why shouldn't each school get the opportunity to host (if they want to)? No one has any actual data on what attendance will be like anywhere for a Big Ten tournament, hold it in each location and get some actual attendance data.
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I already explained why. Life isn't fair. This is all about maximizing profit.
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

“@GopherPuckLive: "All-sessions" ticket prices for each regional (before added fees) Bridgeport:$60... GreenBay: $66... Worcester: $83.50... St.Paul: $90.”

EDIT: “@GopherPuckLive: Good point by a few tweeters.... The arena rental cost is probably why tickets are so much more expensive in St. Paul...”

EDIT: “@BruceCiskie: @GopherPuckLive I'm told that the host proposes the ticket prices based on a number of factors.”

EDIT: “@BruceCiskie: @GopherPuckLive I'll glean some more info. Could be due to what the host guaranteed the NCAA for the right to host.”
 
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Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

mnstate0fhockey said:
“@GopherPuckLive: "All-sessions" ticket prices for each regional (before added fees) Bridgeport:$60... GreenBay: $66... Worcester: $83.50... St.Paul: $90.”
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yeah, that has something to do with the Big Ten tournament...because obviously they were considering Bridgeport, Green Bay and Worcester to diversify the brand...
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

mnstate0fhockey said:
This is all about maximizing profit.
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Is it? Who says?

If the Big Ten Wrestling tournament were all about maximizing profit, it would be in Iowa City every year, because when it is in Iowa City, they sell out a 15,500 seat arena for all 3 sessions, and when it is in Bloomington, Indiana, they sell about 1/4 that number--3500 seats per session, mostly to Iowa fans. But the Big Ten Wrestling tournament isn't in Iowa City every year. It's in Iowa City as often as it is in Bloomington: once a decade or so.

I would imagine that there are more profitable places for the football championship as well. Indianapolis doesn't even have one of the 5 largest football stadia in the Big Ten footprint, but that's where they put the game.

So for at least two sports, the Big Ten has decided that it isn't all about maximizing profit.
 
Alton said:
Is it? Who says?

If the Big Ten Wrestling tournament were all about maximizing profit, it would be in Iowa City every year, because when it is in Iowa City, they sell out a 15,500 seat arena for all 3 sessions, and when it is in Bloomington, Indiana, they sell about 1/4 that number--3500 seats per session, mostly to Iowa fans. But the Big Ten Wrestling tournament isn't in Iowa City every year. It's in Iowa City as often as it is in Bloomington: once a decade or so.

So for at least one sport, the Big Ten has decided that it isn't all about maximizing profit. I would imagine that there are more profitable places for the football championship as well. Indianapolis doesn't even have one of the 5 largest football stadia in the Big Ten footprint, but that's where they put the game. I assume that some of the reason it was in Indianapolis instead of (say) Madison, Wisconsin, is that it isn't all about maximizing profit.
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Wrestling isn't a revenue sport. It's not going to make a lot of money regardless of where it is placed. For some of these schools (especially Minnesota), hockey is (and an important one). And college football isn't a niche sport. It will make a lot of money regardless of where it is placed.

If the Big Ten could make significantly more $$ in a few markets over others in either sport, those tournaments would be held at those venues much more often than not.
 
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Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

A general comment. This is not a comparative to basketball...this is hockey. Its not let's make sure we spread the wealth...its let's make sure and make the wealth.

To get attendance...it will likely rotate between Detroit and St Paul.
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

mnstate0fhockey said:
Wrestling isn't a revenue sport. It's not going to make a lot of money regardless of where it is placed.
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It is a revenue sport in Iowa--that's my point. There is one place they can put the tournament and sell a total of 46,500 tickets at $20 a pop. That's 15,500 all-session tickets at $60, or almost $100K. Instead, they rotate it to places like West Lafayette, where they get $20K ticket revenue.

Why? I guess they are willing to give up the $80K difference, which seems to be about the difference in ticket sales that we are talking about between the hockey tournament at the X and the hockey tournament at (say) Milwaukee or Nationwide.
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

Alton said:
Is it? Who says?

If the Big Ten Wrestling tournament were all about maximizing profit, it would be in Iowa City every year, because when it is in Iowa City, they sell out a 15,500 seat arena for all 3 sessions, and when it is in Bloomington, Indiana, they sell about 1/4 that number--3500 seats per session, mostly to Iowa fans. But the Big Ten Wrestling tournament isn't in Iowa City every year. It's in Iowa City as often as it is in Bloomington: once a decade or so.

I would imagine that there are more profitable places for the football championship as well. Indianapolis doesn't even have one of the 5 largest football stadia in the Big Ten footprint, but that's where they put the game.

So for at least two sports, the Big Ten has decided that it isn't all about maximizing profit.
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If it was all about maximizing profit, why is PSU adding hockey and does OSU bother to have a Men's and Woman's teams? Plenty of sports that are much cheaper to operate: The whole budget for other teams would be less than the losses incurred by those programs.
 
Almington said:
If it was all about maximizing profit, why is PSU adding hockey and does OSU bother to have a Men's and Woman's teams? Plenty of sports that are much cheaper to operate: The whole budget for other teams would be less than the losses incurred by those programs.
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The revenue is very important to some schools.

And the fact that OSU was losing so much money on their programs, and PSU would have been very likely to as well, is one of the main reasons there is going to be a BTHC.

If OSU and PSU have no interest in maximizing hockey related revenue, that's their choice (though I don't believe that for a second), but that doesn't mean it isn't VERY important to a schools like Minnesota, Michigan, or Wisconsin.

Minnesota is looking at making significant enhancements to Mariucci Arena, and has it and Ridder Arena to maintain. Wisconsin just built a new women's facility. And maybe Michigan and Michigan State will add women's team if hockey revenue is more stable.
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

mnstate0fhockey said:
The revenue is very important to some schools.

And the fact that OSU was losing so much money on their programs, and PSU would have been very likely to as well, is one of the main reasons there is going to be a BTHC.

If OSU and PSU have no interest in maximizing hockey related revenue, that's their choice (though I don't believe that for a second), but that doesn't mean it isn't VERY important to a schools like Minnesota, Michigan, or Wisconsin.

Minnesota is looking at making significant enhancements to Mariucci Arena, and has it and Ridder Arena to maintain. Wisconsin just built a new women's facility. And maybe Michigan and Michigan State will add women's team if hockey revenue is more stable.
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OSU is looking to improve hockey revenue by improving the quality of it's product with the new coaching staff but it takes time to build a winning program and fans are fickel and only show up in numbers when a team's winning. Also we've had the problem of our athletic dept not taking a serious interest in the program compared to real hockey states further north. If it weren't for having a NHL team in Columbus I doubt anyone here would have any interest. However when the Big Ten hockey starts the die hard Buckeye fans which completely populate central Ohio may start coming out to see the hockey Buckeyes play their Big Ten opponents as they don't care about schools like Ferris, Western, ect. They have a long standing dislike of Minnesota, Wisconsin, ect. because of football & basketball so it may carry over.
 
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Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

The revenue is more important during the regular season as the $ goes primarily to the host school, but the BTHCC doesn't have to be about maximizing revenues.
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

I just don't see WI, MN, OSU and MSU showing up for a big x tourney playing to not one single soul at State College. But that's me.
 
Re: Big Ten Conference Tournament

Caustic Undertow said:
I've been to both Nationwide and the X, and while Nationwide is outstanding, the X is the best arena in the country. Columbus is not close enough to the reliable draws of the Michigan fans to warrant a conference tournament until Ohio State fans demonstrate that they will attend their team's own hockey games in decent numbers. They draw well for the UM and MSU matchups, sure, but the dedicated base is just not there. Without that base the quality of the arena is irrelevant; in contrast, the JLA is a dump, but it is within 90 minutes of both Michigan and Michigan State, and so it remains in the conversation.
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Now that I've been to the "X" this weekend I can finally give a firsthand comparison. I think both the X & Nationwide have some plus & minus when compared to each other but I certainly wouldn't put either one ahead of the other. I will say that for the hotels Columbus has more closer to the arena and also more bars & resturants within the same given distance, all easy walking distance. All in all VERY similar.
 
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