Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

[SCSU Euro]

Chara, the captain defenseman, takes them for the Bruins.

Hmmm... It is now my life's work to find a team with a goalie for a captain and attend a game where he takes a faceoff. Ceremonial will be fine, actual one, even better

 

[Biddco]

A small consolation for you I'm sure given UMD forgot the point of hockey.

I'm just glad they didn't forget in the Frozen Four later that season. That would have been embarrassing!

 

[Dirty]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

I really hate to break up this ****ing contest with an actual question, but I guess I've never paid attention to who takes faceoffs at ceremonial things like that... is it always the captain (assuming like 99.8% of teams out there your captain is a skater)? I guess I mean do they always send out the captain or always send out a center or always send out least a forward? Or if a team's got a defenseman who's their captain does he get to take it?

I like how you ask this question when both Montgomery and Genoway are defensemen.

 

[sterlippo1]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

You have 58 college hockey programs and suffice it to say you have 58 sets of variables that impact attendance.

Clearly who you play on a given night or weekend can have a tremendous impact on both attendance (internet/walk up sales) and revenue.

exactly and also, i think UND and their fanbase and what they have going on up there is unique in college hockey. UND and about just about all of the rest of the teams are 2 different animals

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Interesting insight, I bet BU's largest attendance numbers came against Merrimack and Providence.

 

[darker98]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

The entire history of UND hockey, I would say that is a fairly large sample. It shouldn't matter what team you use for the analysis because it is a relative comparison between teams that come into a given team's barn. My point is, if the team you're playing matters then I would expect all of the top 20 attended games at UND would be against Minnesota, Denver, Duluth, etc (their rivals). Correct?
The fact that Tech and Mankato make the top five tells me that UND fans will go watch UND play anyone, and that was the point of this post. They don't just show up when a "premium team" comes to town and stay home when they play a bottom-feeder. And while this may not hold true for your team then that means to me that the fans are there to see the visitors, not the home team. Well what kind of fans are they if they are not there to see the home team?
Ryan J

I believe there was a game against Anchorage that was up there too.

 

[Happy]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

For those of you who still think fans won’t show up unless you are playing a “premium name” team I present excerpts from a North Dakota press release issued today:

“UND's average home attendance of 11,341 fans per game ranked second nationally behind only Wisconsin's 11,772.9.”

“The Sioux played in front of two of the five largest crowds in program history when 12,065 turned out to watch a 1-1 overtime tie with Michigan Tech on Feb. 18, and 12,029 witnessed a 3-0 win over Minnesota State in the regular season finale on March 3. Those two crowds ranked as the fourth and fifth-largest in program history.”

Hmmm... Seems like there isn't any problem at all playing "no-name" programs according to those numbers. If the fans don't show up in your building, maybe they just don't care about the HOME team?

Ryan J

Wow, I would have thought a great team like UND would have sold out every game.

 

[burd]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Wow, I would have thought a great team like UND would have sold out every game.

Shows how little you know about great teams.

 

[bronconick]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

On a smaller scale, Western's attendance successes and failures, such as they are have been pretty closely tied to on-ice success. By the final year of Culhane's run as coach, we only pulled in 2,613 for MSU, 2,374 for Michigan, and 2,393 for a season average. 7-8 years earlier, both games would have been SRO sellouts at 4,575 and average attendance was usually in the 2,700-3,000 range, if I'm remembering right.

This season, after a trip to the NCAA tournament last year, the average was 3,444. They outdrew that Michigan State game from 2009 in all but one regular season game, IIRC.

 

[HumRsky]

I'm just glad they didn't forget in the Frozen Four later that season. That would have been embarrassing!

Good point, we did outscore UND 7-0 in that frozen four. They did beat us 1-0 in holes punched in arena walls and Michigan played flipped the bird, however.


As for the topic of the thread, it is a very small sample and it's a team that draws very well for every game. It's like saying that Women's hockey attendance is great because Wisconsin's attendance record is more than 10,000. If you look at attendance for less popular teams over the last 20 years I'm certain you'll find a noticeable difference in attendance for games against Minnesota, UND, and possibly Wisconsin vs. attendance for other games.

 

[jjmc85]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Hmmm... It is now my life's work to find a team with a goalie for a captain and attend a game where he takes a faceoff. Ceremonial will be fine, actual one, even better

Paul Dainton was captain for UMass in 10-11. I don't remember who took the ceremonial face offs that year. I doubt it was him, cause I think I would have remembered.

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

...it's a team that draws very well for every game.

Which is exactly the point I was trying to make. It doesn't matter who they play, the fans show up because they are there to watch the Sioux. So if they schedule AIC and UAH next season you would expect good attendance as well.

Yet there are plenty of people on this board who say their team couldn't "afford" to be in a league with non-premier teams because it hurts their revenue. My point is, if you had a fan base who was buying tickets to watch the home team, who the visitor was would not matter. If it makes the point better, look at a team with poor attendance every weekend. Simply bringing a "great" team to town isn't going to put butts in the seats either. It works both ways. Either fans are behind the team or they are not.

Ryan J

 

[SCSU Euro]

I like how you ask this question when both Montgomery and Genoway are defensemen.

I don't give a rat's *** about anyone from tUMD and I'm an SCSU fan so I don't recognize Genoway from the front

 

[darker98]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Wow, I would have thought a great team like UND would have sold out every game.

Every once in awhile 299 people want to attend an Elton John concert.

 

[Bale]

Which is exactly the point I was trying to make. It doesn't matter who they play, the fans show up because they are there to watch the Sioux. So if they schedule AIC and UAH next season you would expect good attendance as well.

Yet there are plenty of people on this board who say their team couldn't "afford" to be in a league with non-premier teams because it hurts their revenue. My point is, if you had a fan base who was buying tickets to watch the home team, who the visitor was would not matter. If it makes the point better, look at a team with poor attendance every weekend. Simply bringing a "great" team to town isn't going to put butts in the seats either. It works both ways. Either fans are behind the team or they are not.

Ryan J

So basically your point was to find a new way to brag about how amazing your team is?

Neat.

 

[osualum86]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

For those of you who still think fans won’t show up unless you are playing a “premium name” team I present excerpts from a North Dakota press release issued today:

“UND's average home attendance of 11,341 fans per game ranked second nationally behind only Wisconsin's 11,772.9.”

“The Sioux played in front of two of the five largest crowds in program history when 12,065 turned out to watch a 1-1 overtime tie with Michigan Tech on Feb. 18, and 12,029 witnessed a 3-0 win over Minnesota State in the regular season finale on March 3. Those two crowds ranked as the fourth and fifth-largest in program history.”

Hmmm... Seems like there isn't any problem at all playing "no-name" programs according to those numbers. If the fans don't show up in your building, maybe they just don't care about the HOME team?

Ryan J

I've been saying this for years, and it seems to be a problem at OSU. Some are saying our attendance will be better once the Big Ten Hockey Conference starts. They say fans would rather come out and watch us play Minnesota or Wisconsin than Lake Superior State or Western Michigan (no disrespect to those programs, just using them as examples). If that's the case, I would ask the same question, "Who are you going to see?" My belief has always been that you go to games to watch your team. It shouldn't matter who they are playing. Unfortunately at Ohio State, who we are playing has always been a factor with the crowds. Lately the largest crowds have been when we were playing Michigan or Miami, it seems. With some of the others, we've been lucky if there have been 4,000 or 5,000 people there, which just looks like crap when you play in a 17,500-seat arena.

 

[Dirty]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

So basically your point was to find a new way to brag about how amazing your team is?

Neat.

Amazing and Michigan Tech. Two things that don't go together.

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Amazing and Michigan Tech. Two things that don't go together.

Not recently anyway, but we're working on it.

So basically your point was to find a new way to brag about how amazing your team is?
Neat.

No, actually my point was it doesn't matter who the visiting team is...
What does that have to do with the team I support?
Done.
Ryan J

 

[fangers]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Not recently anyway, but we're working on it.


No, actually my point was it doesn't matter who the visiting team is...
What does that have to do with the team I support?
Done.
Ryan J

I think the point is this: there is nothing else to do in town.

Not being a smart ***, but one of the big issues organizations/schools have to market against is competition for the consumer's disposable income. I doubt UND faces much competition.

 

[LynahFan]

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Re: Debunking the Myth – Who you play has a huge impact on attendance

Which is exactly the point I was trying to make. It doesn't matter who they play, the fans show up because they are there to watch the Sioux. So if they schedule AIC and UAH next season you would expect good attendance as well.

Yet there are plenty of people on this board who say their team couldn't "afford" to be in a league with non-premier teams because it hurts their revenue. My point is, if you had a fan base who was buying tickets to watch the home team, who the visitor was would not matter. If it makes the point better, look at a team with poor attendance every weekend. Simply bringing a "great" team to town isn't going to put butts in the seats either. It works both ways. Either fans are behind the team or they are not.

Ryan J

Nonsense. Put UND in Atlantic Hockey, so that your home games against UMinn, UW, DU, and CC are replaced by AIC, Sacred Heart, and Canisius. UND's attendance would drop through the floor, even as their win percentage went through the roof. Then, after about 3 seasons, get a non-conference game against UMinn, and I guarantee that the attendance would be way above that season's average. It absolutely matters who you play - even at UND.