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

[Bale]

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.

Well....I certainly failed on that one, didn't I?

 

[uaafanblog]

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.

Not clearly. DU's attendance numbers reflect quite a different story over the years. Yes, a couple of people don't show up to watch DU play Mankato versus a "brand name school" but it is not tremendous. It's actually nearly irrelevant.

This is the same incorrect assertion that you've been making for a long time now. I showed you were wrong with DU's attendance numbers and have repeatedly referred to that whenever I see you post clap-trap like this.

 

[Caustic Undertow]

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'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.

OSU doesn't have a large base of dedicated ticket-paying fans. There is a somewhat larger base of fans who care enough about hockey to think, "it would be fun to go to a game. What game would be interesting to see?" When you ask that question, the local hockey rivalry and "That Team Up North" seem much more attractive, especially in an environment where you never have to worry about whether or not tickets will be available. The crowd is bigger, the game is more fun.

I had to overcome this when I started getting serious about college hockey; the big-school bias. As a lifelong Michigan fan I was used to big name schools, even to the point of bias against basketball-only schools in the NCAA basketball tournament. So when I saw a team like "Ferris State" on the schedule I thought lesser of it since I knew nothing about it. Ohio State fans, conditioned to appreciating big football games against teams like Texas and USC and big basketball games against teams like Duke, aren't used to getting hyped up for Lake Superior State.

It's really the same in football, just on a different scale; when OSU and Michigan play, tickets sell for hundreds of dollars. When one of them play Bowling Green, you can get a ticket for $20 on the street.

 

[dggoddard]

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 clearly. DU's attendance numbers reflect quite a different story over the years. Yes, a couple of people don't show up to watch DU play Mankato versus a "brand name school" but it is not tremendous. It's actually nearly irrelevant.

This is the same incorrect assertion that you've been making for a long time now. I showed you were wrong with DU's attendance numbers and have repeatedly referred to that whenever I see you post clap-trap like this.

Are you the guy that also ran the numbers and invented Moneyball?

The NCHC was founded because 8 schools believed that planing name brand opponents on a consistent basis mattered.

 

[crossjcek]

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

Huh. I didn't realize that changes to the 2013-14 schedule affected the ticket sales for the 2011-12 season.

Many of the season ticket holders I talked to said that with the realignment looming PLUS this years schedule is why they did not renew their tickets. So why pay for this year and next when you don't like the schedule this year and won't like it in a couple of years. These are not my feelings but from some I have talked to.

 

[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

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.

Did you come to Grand Forks and take a Poll?

 

[uaafanblog]

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

Are you the guy that also ran the numbers and invented Moneyball?

References to movies that you attend and/or watch are lost on me.

The NCHC was founded because 8 schools believed that planing name brand opponents on a consistent basis mattered.

Whut?!?!?!?

DU's attendance numbers are available for anyone. When and if anyone does they'll see that "playing brand name opponents" resulted in insignificant differences. So what dumbasses (i.e... Gwoz and Faison) do without looking at real numbers is their problem. DU won't see ANY significant change in their attendance from the WCHA to the Butt-Hurt League they formed.

 

[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

Man it will be nice when UAA folds their program. Who will be blamed though? The Alaska regents? Gwoz and Faison? Everyone and anyone who isn't associated with UAA? I can't wait to find out.

 

[dogs2012]

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 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.

This.

Of course people there will always be a large crowd for the UND games. North Dakota has no professional sports teams. They also don't have a whole lot to do outside of sports. On a Friday and Saturday night, UND hockey games are like the Super Bowl to North Dakotans.

 

[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

DU won't see ANY significant change in their attendance from the WCHA to the Butt-Hurt League they formed.

I agree - but you're asking the wrong question. You're just replacing big-name opponents with other big name opponents.

The more interesting question to ask is: what would have happened to DU's attendance if they'd stayed in the new WCHA? Ponder that for a couple minutes and THEN tell me that the opponents don't matter.

 

[uaafanblog]

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 agree - but you're asking the wrong question. You're just replacing big-name opponents with other big name opponents.

The more interesting question to ask is: what would have happened to DU's attendance if they'd stayed in the new WCHA? Ponder that for a couple minutes and THEN tell me that the opponents don't matter.

Here's a ditty I wrote specific to discussions about attendance at UAA. There actually isn't a huge amount of study regarding this but I managed to find some relevant links and have quoted/linked them in the post. I don't want to tout it as some sort of comprehensive look but I did put about 6 hours of research into it.

As to what would have happened ... the status quo would have happened. DU doesn't market it's team worth a crap. They're in a city with a million-plus inhabitants and cannot consistently sell-out their arena? Even with national championships? Their attendance issues have nothing to do with opponent ... weather is a bigger factor across the board in all spectator sports.

 

[uaafanblog]

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

Man it will be nice when UAA folds their program. Who will be blamed though? The Alaska regents? Gwoz and Faison? Everyone and anyone who isn't associated with UAA? I can't wait to find out.

 

[GoUNH]

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 only does who you play have an impact, but who you are impacts attendance as well. Duh.

 

[dggoddard]

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 agree - but you're asking the wrong question. You're just replacing big-name opponents with other big name opponents.

The more interesting question to ask is: what would have happened to DU's attendance if they'd stayed in the new WCHA? Ponder that for a couple minutes and THEN tell me that the opponents don't matter.

Thinking isn't his strong suit.

 

[uaafanblog]

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

Thinking isn't his strong suit.

A marketing/business grad saying that I have problems thinking is hilarious.

 

[aparch]

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 NCHC was founded because 8 schools believed that planing name brand opponents on a consistent basis mattered.

No, the NCHC was founded because:
-Five schools felt that they shouldn't have to fly into Green Bay and bus the four hours North to Houghton
-Five schools felt they were "bankrolling" the "lesser" schools by participating in the league championship when the "lesser" schools repeatedly missed out.
-Five schools felt using the B1G conference as a scapegoat would cover their true intent.
-The sixth school came along because it didn't want to be the flag bearer for a "much weakened" conference when Notre Dame left for wherever their dart landed.
-The seventh and eighth schools were only invited because the other six wanted to have a pair of whipping boys so the teams didn't just play .500 hockey and hurt their PWR. Because the seventh and eighth teams have ONE NCAA tournament win in their combined history.

 

[uaafanblog]

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

No, the NCHC was founded because:
-Five schools felt that they shouldn't have to fly into Green Bay and bus the four hours North to Houghton
-Five schools felt they were "bankrolling" the "lesser" schools by participating in the league championship when the "lesser" schools repeatedly missed out.
-Five schools felt using the B1G conference as a scapegoat would cover their true intent.
-The sixth school came along because it didn't want to be the flag bearer for a "much weakened" conference when Notre Dame left for wherever their dart landed.
-The seventh and eighth schools were only invited because the other six wanted to have a pair of whipping boys so the teams didn't just play .500 hockey and hurt their PWR. Because the seventh and eighth teams have ONE NCAA tournament win in their combined history.

Pointless. Damien typically just makes ridiculous assertions and is incapable of defending them.

 

[aparch]

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

Many of the season ticket holders I talked to said that with the realignment looming PLUS this years schedule is why they did not renew their tickets. So why pay for this year and next when you don't like the schedule this year and won't like it in a couple of years. These are not my feelings but from some I have talked to.

That just sounds ignorant. I understand if the team isn't performing well, the best way for fans to explain their displeasure is to not buy tickets... but to blatantly say "well, I don't like who the opponents are this season, and I really will miss them in a few years..." just, wow.

I know there is some allure to who you play, but isn't the home team who you're really there to support as a season ticket holder? As a Wings fan in Chicago, I have season tickets to the AHL Chicago Wolves because I became a fan of their team, not because they play the Grand Rapids Griffins four times a year.

 

[Goon]

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

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.

UND has sold out games against lesser knowns UManitoba, Cornell, Harvard, RMU and Canisus at the REA in the past. There is not a lot to do on a cold winters night in Grand Forks, ND.

 

[uaafanblog]

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

UND has sold out games against lesser knowns UManitoba, Cornell, Harvard, RMU and Canisus at the REA in the past. There is not a lot to do on a cold winters night in Grand Forks, ND.

Congrats on reading the thread.