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Ford Field Rink Installation

Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

In my opinion, everyone who paid $189 for a seat in the risers was absolutely swindled. The view was terrible due to the shallow pitch. A tall guy sitting several rows in front of you could easily obstruct your view of a significant portion of the ice. Also, the acoustics were non-existent. It was like we weren't even at the game. Every once in a while we heard a muffled chant from across the chasm in the student sections. And it was impossible to make out what anyone was saying over the loudspeakers...much like a football game. Knowing it was at a football stadium, I didn't expect the quality experience you get at a real (nhl or college) hockey arena, but I thought the huge number of attendees would help make up for it. Not even close.

We ended up moving to some empty lower-section permanent seats after the first game. The view wasn't too bad from there, but it still didn't come close to the kind of experience you get at a hockey arena. I was cautiously optimistic coming in, but there is no way I will ever again shell out that kind of cash to see hockey at a football stadium. Not impressed.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

I spent the first period of the first game in my seat (RS2 R5 S10) - moved at intermission and moved around the lower bowl, but never got close to anything resembling a decent seat.

You know what this feels like? When you go to a big tournament and its like the 10th game or whatever and only the fans of the teams playing care whats going on. No atmosphere.

Also, Friday night I went to a Flint Generals game. That was good - number of college kids on both teams. Played Port Huron. Got picked to shoot at the second intermission - they made us use FOAM pucks - I couldn't keep it below the net! The other guy had never touched a hockey stick before and he beat me! :mad:
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

Anyone know what tickets are going for on the street for tonight's championship game?

Want to go, but not willing to shell out too much since I have no local rooting interest. Don't want to make the drive and have tickets be a lot more than I expected.

Smart thing would have been to pick up some tickets from a losing fan after Thursday's game...
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

Are you saying ticketmaster doesn't have the $10 variety available? That this is a sell out?!?!?
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

STATEdude3 said:
Friends of mine just got tickets for 20 each from the box office.
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I just called and they said the cheapest they had was $39.50, which is also what they told me yesterday. Kind of frustrating that they're not being consistent.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

MGoBlue17 said:
I just called and they said the cheapest they had was $39.50, which is also what they told me yesterday. Kind of frustrating that they're not being consistent.
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According to Ticketmaster they're sold out of $20 seats. The $20 option is there but it says all seats are gone when you try and select any.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

Gary Thorne has said three times in the first hour of the championship game "the Frozen Four should be played in a hockey rink, not on a football field." He also said the ice is as good as it can be but "it's not like playing in a hockey rink."

When you've got the lead ESPN guy saying it repeatedly, I'm guessing the conditions are probably worse than they're letting on.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

They had 37,000 in the house for the title game, and it looked much better than the semis did in terms of TV.

That said, noise levels seemed low, and three blowout games did not help.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

HockeyMan2000 said:
Gary Thorne has said three times in the first hour of the championship game "the Frozen Four should be played in a hockey rink, not on a football field." He also said the ice is as good as it can be but "it's not like playing in a hockey rink."

When you've got the lead ESPN guy saying it repeatedly, I'm guessing the conditions are probably worse than they're letting on.
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I've read some comments here and there about the ice being OK and better than people feared it would be, but I have to say the conditions of it were far less than ideal. I think some tried to spin it a little more positively than it actually was. I think it it certainly something that could be corrected, but as has been said before also, the 3 most important games of the season are not the place to experiment. You need to get it right for this weekend from the first faceoff to the final horn.

I did find the crowd pretty impressive today. My guess is the official attendance is not a stretch of the truth by any large margin. It looked quite full, and plenty of people were bleeding about as far passed the corners you could have and not have your view blocked by the riser sections. On that front, I think this FF is a success (72,000 tickets sold/scanned for the two days is impressive), but the atmosphere on Thursday, the ice for pretty much most of the three games, and the bad view too many fans apparently had put up with make me hope this isn't tried again.
 
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Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

Aside from the now-notorious risers, can anyone say that it was a failure after tonight? The place was packed and the atmosphere was far better than Thursday. Too bad Wisconsin didn't get at least one goal because the Badger fans outnumbered BC fans by about 8 to 1 and the place would have exploded.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

MichFan said:
Aside from the now-notorious risers, can anyone say that it was a failure after tonight? The place was packed and the atmosphere was far better than Thursday. Too bad Wisconsin didn't get at least one goal because the Badger fans outnumbered BC fans by about 8 to 1 and the place would have exploded.
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The atmosphere could have been a lot better but even if there were 80K there the sound would probably wouldn't have traveled well.

It was still a failure since 99% of the seats were worse than the worst seats at a hockey rink. It wasn't enjoyable hockey, but can we blame the NCAA for that?
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

I talked to a skills challenge player who told me the ice was terrible, the worst she had ever seen in playing collegiately and the ice went soft-hard-soft and you never would know how much the ice would change in hardness from spot to spot.

This was on a day off when besides the practices the entire rink was cold and they could work on the ice nonstop.

It wasn't a question of fairness: all 4 teams had to play on it. But it is a question of what the heck was the NCAA thinking if they weren't sure they could make the ice good.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

Puck Swami said:
They had 37,000 in the house for the title game, and it looked much better than the semis did in terms of TV.

That said, noise levels seemed low, and three blowout games did not help.
Click to expand...

MichFan said:
Aside from the now-notorious risers, can anyone say that it was a failure after tonight? The place was packed and the atmosphere was far better than Thursday. Too bad Wisconsin didn't get at least one goal because the Badger fans outnumbered BC fans by about 8 to 1 and the place would have exploded.
Click to expand...

Terrierbyassociation said:
The atmosphere could have been a lot better but even if there were 80K there the sound would probably wouldn't have traveled well.

It was still a failure since 99% of the seats were worse than the worst seats at a hockey rink. It wasn't enjoyable hockey, but can we blame the NCAA for that?
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The atmostsphere sucked because most of the Wisconsin fans were sitting on their butts. Where the hell was was the Wisconsin Students?? Didn't the school get them a section to themselves so they could be as loud as they want to be?? the RIT students who stuck around for the championship game were the ones making the most noise there tonight.

BC had a little student group there that wow, while they did make some noise, just seemed really **** light to be from a D1-A BCS school. I know they're further away and all, but ****, pack a car with your buddies, cram a hotel room together and BE THERE when your school wins a National Championship. You had all of Sunday to drive back home to Boston.

Congrats to the RIT fans, who show us who are the real fans of the Game.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

bigmrg74 said:
The atmostsphere sucked because most of the Wisconsin fans were sitting on their butts. Where the hell was was the Wisconsin Students?? Didn't the school get them a section to themselves so they could be as loud as they want to be?? the RIT students who stuck around for the championship game were the ones making the most noise there tonight.

BC had a little student group there that wow, while they did make some noise, just seemed really **** light to be from a D1-A BCS school. I know they're further away and all, but ****, pack a car with your buddies, cram a hotel room together and BE THERE when your school wins a National Championship. You had all of Sunday to drive back home to Boston.

Congrats to the RIT fans, who show us who are the real fans of the Game.
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The Wisconsin students didn't have much to cheer, did they. I was in 141, between the main Wisconsin section (140) and the BC section (101), and the fans were giving each other some entertaining banter back and forth...UW fans chanting "Harvard rejects," BC fans chanting "Gopher rejects," etc.

The RIT fans made a lot of friends and were definitely the best bunch, I think that we can all agree about that.
 
Re: Ford Field Rink Installation

HockeyMan2000 said:
When you've got the lead ESPN guy saying it repeatedly, I'm guessing the conditions are probably worse than they're letting on.
Click to expand...

If the ESPN guys are saying the ice is bad, that makes me inclined to believe that the ice was actually not that bad. :rolleyes:
 
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