What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Hockeybuckeye said:
So, should we blame Penn State for getting a hockey team and screwing it all up? Everything was fine until they came into the picture.
Click to expand...
No, I blame the knee jerk reaction that was the NCHC.

I've said my piece. I just want all 59 teams to be successful. The me-myself-and-I in the name of "like mindedness" is horsesh**.
 
Hockeybuckeye said:
Except maybe for the very last one. I was expecting a gourmet spread and when they took the silver lids off the trays there was stacks of WHITE CASTLE SLIDERS!
But again, they were liquidating everything and were at the end of their funds. I liquidated that dinner as well if you get my meaning!!
Click to expand...

😂

Too funny!!



I miss tOSU's trips to Marquette. The rivalry from the 80's, the carry over dislike into the 2000's... The rally cry of "Oh How I Hate Ohio State" is lessened since the formation of the B1G. :(

Thank you for beating Sparty though!
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

alfablue said:
Where the B1G failed is that they relied fully on the BTN and did not care about people in the seats. Given that the CCHA went away- just picking up what they had, and adding the same thing to Wisconsin and Minnesota would have been a good way to start- even starting in Minneapolis. But they didn't. And when fans went directly to them telling them what to do, they totally ignored the suggestions. It would be easy for a handful of B1G promoters, who I'm betting they have at EACH school, to go to home games. It would also be easy to get large amounts of promotional stuff FOR FREE (and gladly handed out) from Visit Detroit and Visit Twin Cities to help fans go to each city.

Why they ignored that? No idea. IMHO, even with renting the Joe and the X, they could easily have done better in terms of income than the home site set up. This isn't rocket science, it's marketing 101.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure how much of a difference this would have made......

I don't have great knowledge of the old CCHA tournament, geographically speaking. But the reason the WCHA Final Five worked is because you had Minnesota's fan base right in town, SCSU about an hour away, Mankato about an hour and a half, UND has a large fanbase in the Twin Cities plus whoever made the trip from Grand Forks. I'm guessing it was similar for the CCHA.

As for the BTT, the fans who care know where the conference tourney is and know how they can get there without a Visit Detroit pamphlet.
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

gopher wes said:
I'm not sure how much of a difference this would have made......

I don't have great knowledge of the old CCHA tournament, geographically speaking. But the reason the WCHA Final Five worked is because you had Minnesota's fan base right in town, SCSU about an hour away, Mankato about an hour and a half, UND has a large fanbase in the Twin Cities plus whoever made the trip from Grand Forks. I'm guessing it was similar for the CCHA.

As for the BTT, the fans who care know where the conference tourney is and know how they can get there without a Visit Detroit pamphlet.
Click to expand...

Not really- Michigan was 40 min away, MSU and BGSU 1 1/2, Western and OSU about 3.

So the only "regular" fans one could count on were Michigan- as I'd put EL too far away to go just for the sake of going. But when schools made the weekend, they brought fans, and quite a few of them. We'd have more from Lake State than the B1G had from Michigan.

When they going- fans from Northern (10 ish hours) and UNO (no idea how far) would come. Which is to say, with CCHA kind of promotion and stuff going on- we could expect a good group of fans from PSU and OSU, let alone MSU and UM- as everyone is there.

Again, the WCHA and CCHA championships were very different weekends- but we had a great time at the CCHA weekends. Replicating that would have been light years better than what the B1G did.
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

alfablue said:
Not really- Michigan was 40 min away, MSU and BGSU 1 1/2, Western and OSU about 3.

So the only "regular" fans one could count on were Michigan- as I'd put EL too far away to go just for the sake of going. But when schools made the weekend, they brought fans, and quite a few of them. We'd have more from Lake State than the B1G had from Michigan.

When they going- fans from Northern (10 ish hours) and UNO (no idea how far) would come. Which is to say, with CCHA kind of promotion and stuff going on- we could expect a good group of fans from PSU and OSU, let alone MSU and UM- as everyone is there.

Again, the WCHA and CCHA championships were very different weekends- but we had a great time at the CCHA weekends. Replicating that would have been light years better than what the B1G did.
Click to expand...
Ok, you're right. The B1G setting up a booth at Mariucci handing out freebies and Visit Detroit pamphlets would really jack up all those Minnesota fans. I bet if they'd have done that they'd get 7-8k heading to Detroit for this.:rolleyes:
 
gopher wes said:
Ok, you're right. The B1G setting up a booth at Mariucci handing out freebies and Visit Detroit pamphlets would really jack up all those Minnesota fans. I bet if they'd have done that they'd get 7-8k heading to Detroit for this.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I thought you guys considered yourselves some kind of special fans.

Apparently not.

It worked for Alaska and UNO. Just sayn.
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

alfablue said:
I thought you guys considered yourselves some kind of special fans.

Apparently not.

It worked for Alaska and UNO. Just sayn.
Click to expand...
Yeah, and how many fans total from each of those fanbases attended?
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Hockeybuckeye said:
So, should we blame Penn State for getting a hockey team and screwing it all up? Everything was fine until they came into the picture.
Click to expand...

Yes. But don't forget that Barry Alvarez also deserves a majority of the blame too.
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

SteveO said:
From what I read attendance for the B1G tourney dropped from 42,000 tickets sold in 2014, to 16K in 2015, and 15K in 2016. Whoever conceived of this central location swap between the X and Joe really laid an egg.
Click to expand...

Move the ****ed thing to the United Center. It's centrally located for all the schools excepting PSU. All the schools, excepting PSU, have large local alumni bases. And, it removes the butthurt factor of Gopher fans refusing to travel to Detroit and UM/MSU fans refusing to travel to Minneapolis. Additionally, you can throw in Saint Patrick's Day activities to attract the students down. Hell, it couldn't be any worse than the current arrangement.
 
gopher wes said:
Yeah, and how many fans total from each of those fanbases attended?
Click to expand...

Who cares?

Jeez, I was just trying to suggest ways that it could have been better.

This B1G thing isn't going to change anytime soon, so we are stuck with each other whether you like it or not. Instead of constantly looking back, why can't we move forward?
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Sterling Cooper said:
Move the ****ed thing to the United Center. It's centrally located for all the schools excepting PSU. All the schools, excepting PSU, have large local alumni bases. And, it removes the butthurt factor of Gopher fans refusing to travel to Detroit and UM/MSU fans refusing to travel to Minneapolis. Additionally, you can throw in Saint Patrick's Day activities to attract the students down. Hell, it couldn't be any worse than the current arrangement.
Click to expand...
Not a horrible idea.

The other thing is with Penn St being so new I don't think we could expect them to get in on the conference tournament thing right off the bat. Might have taken a few years but I bet they would have bought into the program if this format had continued. The beauty with Penn St is they don't have to worry about basketball conflicts. lol!
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

gopher wes said:
Yeah, and how many fans total from each of those fanbases attended?
Click to expand...

Enough that the turnout was larger than last night (3,387) with Michigan playing and Ann Arbor just 40 minutes away...
Start of Super Six format:
2001-02 Thursday CCHA Quarterfinal - ND vs NMU / tOSU vs UA_ - 6,583
2002-03 Thursday CCHA Quarterfinal - NMU vs MSU / ND vs tOSU - 6,374
2003-04 Thursday CCHA Quarterfinal - NMU vs MSU / ND vs tOSU - 6,238
2004-05 Thursday CCHA Quarterfinal - NMU vs UA_ / MSU vs UNO - 3,436*
End of Super Six format.


* I wonder if they just split the attendance across both games. For all other Thursday CCHA Super Six games, there was no recorded attendance for the early game, only for the late game. Thursday (and Friday) were single day tickets, with your ticket getting you into both games. IF they did split the games, Thursday, March 17th, 2005 was 6,872.
 
Last edited:
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

alfablue said:
Who cares?

Jeez, I was just trying to suggest ways that it could have been better.

This B1G thing isn't going to change anytime soon, so we are stuck with each other whether you like it or not. Instead of constantly looking back, why can't we move forward?
Click to expand...
You're the one that brought them up! lol!

I agree, and I'm not looking back. You're the one sitting here whining about promotion and all that garbage. Maybe if the two closest schools to the Joe didn't suck so horribly this year, there'd be a few more people there this year. But apparently you needed all those other schools to help fill the Joe back in the day.....
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

IMHO.......the biggest reason for the ****** poor attendance to the BIG tourney is the simple fact that there is ZERO excitement at the games. In the days of the WCHA Final Five at the X, no matter what two teams were on the ice, the crowd was electric.......now, even if the Gophers are playing, the crowd is pretty laid back. BTN did huge disservice to college hockey in general.
 
Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Tiggsy said:
Yes. But don't forget that Barry Alvarez also deserves a majority of the blame too.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't Terry Pegula take some of the blame too for gifting some of his fracking fortune back to his alma mater?;)
 
gopher wes said:
You're the one that brought them up! lol!

I agree, and I'm not looking back. You're the one sitting here whining about promotion and all that garbage. Maybe if the two closest schools to the Joe didn't suck so horribly this year, there'd be a few more people there this year. But apparently you needed all those other schools to help fill the Joe back in the day.....
Click to expand...

Whatever, dude.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top