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Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

sweatpants said:
3. Set the price at $12. If they really wanted to set an attendance record why the heck did they make the tickets so high?
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because you are paying to watch 2 games. $25 for 2 games isnt expensive. Im sure most people couldnt care less about watching the women though.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

GoBucky36 said:
because you are paying to watch 2 games. $25 for 2 games isnt expensive. Im sure most people couldnt care less about watching the women though.
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Nobody's paying for two games. The women's game is a tack on and they'll be lucky to have 2000 people there for it.

Obviously, since the game is 35,000 short of a sellout, $25 is too expensive for this game.

Simple Economics

Our Athletic Department messed up and it's a shame because having so many empty seats will reflect poorly on this sports community.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Gurtholfin said:
Nobody's paying for two games. The women's game is a tack on and they'll be lucky to have 2000 people there for it.

Obviously, since the game is 35,000 short of a sellout, $25 is too expensive for this game.

Simple Economics

Our Athletic Department messed up and it's a shame because having so many empty seats will reflect poorly on this sports community.
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Also, I believe women's games are still free for students and $2.00 to the open public so they are not the same. At $24.00 I feel a lot of people were very reluctant to buy a bundle of tickets. I know for me, when I thought tickets were going to be in the $10-12 range my plan was to buy 6-7 tickets and give them out to whoever wanted to go. Then most likely they would be buy me a few drinks in exchange. When it got to $24 I was reluctant to buy a large number tickets because it seemed to steep if I had to eat a couple tickets or give out. I think a lot of people were going to do the same. In the end I only bought 3.

Also $24 is fine for a game at the Kohl Center, but not at a place where a majority of seats are gonna have bad sightlines. The athletic department got too greedy with this one. Alvarez has gotten more and more money hungry every year so I'm gonna pin this on him.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

I play with a couple of men's groups ages 20-50 with a mix of guys who played high school hockey and a few who played D-3. Many of us are coaches and/or have children who play.

I asked the other day and no one in either group was going to this game. These are all hockey people here in Madison and they aren't planning on going.

I'm not sure what that says, but I was somewhat surprised even though I'm not planning on going either. Although I still may.

Wish they'd open the upper deck. I want that 50 yard line seat, row 1. ;)
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

sweatpants said:
Also, I believe women's games are still free for students and $2.00 to the open public so they are not the same. At $24.00 I feel a lot of people were very reluctant to buy a bundle of tickets. I know for me, when I thought tickets were going to be in the $10-12 range my plan was to buy 6-7 tickets and give them out to whoever wanted to go. Then most likely they would be buy me a few drinks in exchange. When it got to $24 I was reluctant to buy a large number tickets because it seemed to steep if I had to eat a couple tickets or give out. I think a lot of people were going to do the same. In the end I only bought 3.

Also $24 is fine for a game at the Kohl Center, but not at a place where a majority of seats are gonna have bad sightlines. The athletic department got too greedy with this one. Alvarez has gotten more and more money hungry every year so I'm gonna pin this on him.
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Could UW be looking at this or am I an idiot....

45,000 X $24.00 = $1,080,000

80,000 X $10.00 = $800,000 (Wasn't "The Cold War" $10.00?)

Would about $15.00 have been "perfect"? At $15, 70,000 seats would be needed to match 45,000@$24. ($1,050,000)

Just a thought, were they "banking' on 45,000 and anything over that a bonus?; not sure where I stand on this.
 
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Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Many people already paid only $15/ticket with group sales. I knew it would be easy to get a group of 20 people together to go for the experience and ordered 20 without knowing who was going. About a thrid of our group are diehard fans, a third may see a game or two a season in person, while the other third are their for the tailgating/experience of an outdoor game.

Temperatures are looking colder then the early week forecast. High of 27 on Accuweather, but with the wind feel like Temp of only 12.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Lest we also forget that the student tickets were discounted as well.

I think two things killed this:

1) Pricing. As has been noted.

2) At the risk of sounding like uw14 or VW, I'm gonna say it: lack of TV exposure. Given the way that the event was promoted through UW Athletics, it seemed like Barry's expectation was that it would sell out simply on the basis of it being at Camp Randall. You'd have to wonder how 80,000 people would decide they wanted to go to see a team that they have a hard time finding on TV.

There aren't exactly a lot of live Badger games on TV this year, and a fair chunk of the live games aren't on readily available channels (WPT, BTN, FSN), but instead on specialty channels (NHLN, FCS, Charter Extra). If you want 80,000 people to show up for something, you're going to have to appeal to populist sensibilities. In the sports world, "appealing to populist sensibilities" includes some sort of a presence in the media- and yes, that means having plenty of games on live TV on channels where most people can see them. Football and Basketball have it at UW. Hockey doesn't. Ergo, no prayer on the sellout.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

I'm just as disappointed as all of you are about not even sniffing a sell-out and I think the price was a little too high.
However, I'm still rather optimistic. If you look at the attendance numbers for this year, we seem to have rock-bottom base of around 12,000. Take off around 3,000 or so for students and we have a base of around 9000. Assuming most of those bought tickets for the CRHC, and taking off for student's and Michigan fans and others, that leaves- conservatively- 20,000 fans who are going to be at Camp Randall who may not have any familiarity with Badger hockey. Now say 15% of them get "converted" to Badger hockey. That's 3000 people who now want to come to more games, maybe we'll see better attendances for the Mankato and St. Cloud series?
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

GoBucky36 said:
because you are paying to watch 2 games. $25 for 2 games isnt expensive. Im sure most people couldnt care less about watching the women though.
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To be honest, students are $2 and gen public are $5, but that's not the point.

I find two unrelated things interesting:

1. On the women's side the WCHA had no problem with the effects that an outdoor game could have on a conference game as the women's game vs. Bemidji St. is the first of a two-game weekend conference series. Ironically, due to the women's not-so-hot season, this game has some real implications on their playoff prospects, since they are on the bubble for an NCAA bid. If conditions screw with the result, it could be that the UW Athletic Dept. played a role in their failure to see postseason play due to their inclusion in the CRHC.

2. The UW really showed how well they are supporting the women's team's presence in the classic by announcing that the Pre-Game party at the Field House begins at the same time as the women's game -- and no one is allowed to come and go from the Field House to Camp Randall. That's the sure way to boost early attendance!
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

sunprairie said:
1. On the women's side the WCHA had no problem with the effects that an outdoor game could have on a conference game as the women's game vs. Bemidji St. is the first of a two-game weekend conference series. Ironically, due to the women's not-so-hot season, this game has some real implications on their playoff prospects, since they are on the bubble for an NCAA bid. If conditions screw with the result, it could be that the UW Athletic Dept. played a role in their failure to see postseason play due to their inclusion in the CRHC.
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How can conditions screw with the result? Both teams would be playing in the same conditions...
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Innova said:
How can conditions screw with the result? Both teams would be playing in the same conditions...
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Well, they're essentially giving up a known home-ice advantage by not being at the Kohl in a crucial stretch game. So, while Bemidji will be in the same conditions, two thousand fans a distance away from the ice in an 80,000 seat arena doesn't hold the same intensity of the same amount of fans on top of the ice in the Kohl. Also, UW is sacrificing the familiarity of the Kohl and creating a more even -- or neutral -- experience.

And, one of the original reasons that the WCHA poo-pooed the UW-Minnesota mens game was that they didn't want the potential chippyness and unexpected variables of an outdoor game to influence a conference match-up.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Innova said:
How can conditions screw with the result? Both teams would be playing in the same conditions...
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Conditions can most definitely screw with the result, bad ice being the most obvious potential problem. Your point is that, at the start of the game both teams have an equal chance of being screwed. I agree, but that's not the same thing as no chance of being screwed.

An anaolgy that everyone can relate to is being screwed by the ref. Yeah, both team have an equal chance of being screwed. But that doesn't mean that, at the end of the game, if you're the screwed team you find the outcome acceptable.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

RedFreak said:
An anaolgy that everyone can relate to is being screwed by the ref. Yeah, both team have an equal chance of being screwed. But that doesn't mean that, at the end of the game, if you're the screwed team you find the outcome acceptable.
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I was also thinking of using that as an analogy. If you are saying that this is a reason that the two teams should not be having a conference game at Camp Randall, then it would follow that there should be no refs at conference games either.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Innova said:
I was also thinking of using that as an analogy. If you are saying that this is a reason that the two teams should not be having a conference game at Camp Randall, then it would follow that there should be no refs at conference games either.
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Things that make you go hmmmmm...

I feel compelled to argue (regardless of how distasteful I find it) that refs are necessary (though I'm prepared to be persuaded otherwise).
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

Innova said:
I was also thinking of using that as an analogy. If you are saying that this is a reason that the two teams should not be having a conference game at Camp Randall, then it would follow that there should be no refs at conference games either.
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I'm not of the mindset that there shouldn't be a conference game at the CRHC.

I simply believe if that was one of the reasons the WCHA said the men couldn't, then the same should have applied to the women. But, the athletic department went ahead and threw them in anyway with no real reward to anyone and no support for the game itself and now are actually seeing that it is the UW with a big risk of having the potential of a loss due to conditions out of their control actually have a significant effect in NCAA tournament positioning.
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

sunprairie said:
I simply believe if that was one of the reasons the WCHA said the men couldn't, then the same should have applied to the women.
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It's a good point. Three potential explanations: 1) it wasn't the WCHA's real reason, 2) the WCHA doesn't care about the women, 3) the WCHA didn't notice before it was too late (which may not be much different than reason #2).
 
Re: Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic: Michigan vs UW.. Brrrrrrrr!

RedFreak said:
It's a good point. Three potential explanations: 1) it wasn't the WCHA's real reason, 2) the WCHA doesn't care about the women, 3) the WCHA didn't notice before it was too late (which may not be much different than reason #2).
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I mentioned this earlier, but McLeod's primary reason was that there would be no replay capability which is mandatory for all men's league games, not women's.
 
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