Re: ECAC, Sunday March 11
Those are sad statistics.
I also remember from the days when Brown used to host playoff games (yes, there was a time when the world worked this way!) that reported attendance would drop in the playoffs. Crowds that in the regular season would likely be reported in the 1,500-1,700 range would be recorded as around 1,000-1,200 for playoff games. I would think that since the league runs ticket sales for the playoff games, as opposed to the schools in the regular season, actual ticket stub ripped is the figure they used for attendance, rather than tickets sold (which makes sense: it's called ATTENDance, not salesance).
Or maybe schools aren't embellishing the regular season figures, and for whatever reason playoff attendance is just lackluster. Maybe the higher prices keep people away, or with less notice before the game, there aren't as many avenues to promote the game to the casual fan, who might hear about Harvard-Yale happening two months in advance and decide to go for that one game. It's also spring break for a lot of schools (I don't know if any ECAC teams are included; Brown isn't off for another week or two, but I know most schools were either off this past week or the impending one), so that could explain low student turnouts.
Regardless of the problem, the low playoff attendances are embarrassing. Hockey East sees generally lower numbers in the playoffs as well, but they still draw in the 3,000+ range. No, none of our teams are as marketable (except maybe Cornell) as the likes of BU and UNH, but we should still be seeing bigger crowds than for regular season games. You never hear of professional sports playoff games having smaller crowds in the playoffs (unless the Devils are playing), so why should this be any different?.