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Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

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Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

Timothy A said:
There was a radio station in Madison that devoted an hour a day to only UW athletics. It was neat, they interviewed players and coaches from all sports. It didn't last......I'm still bitter. Obviously money talks and it didn't make enough and no alums put up cash to keep it going. I feel your pain.
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His point was that we had that here too. Stephen King's WZON was all sports. Tons of UMaine coverage. They had a morning show, an afternoon show that were local. Aired UMaine hockey, basketball, baseball, football... Then, one of our previous AD's sold the rights to Learfield Sports, who then kicked WZON to the curb for what has turned out to be a statewide revolving door of stations. King, who had a luxury box at the Alfond and gave generously to UMaine sports, dropped the all sports format and to my knowledge hasn't given a cent to the University since.

The justification at the time was to get a wider array of sports broadcast statewide. If you can hear UMaine sports in southern Maine, I haven't figured out how to do it.
 
Timothy A said:
There was a radio station in Madison that devoted an hour a day to only UW athletics. It was neat, they interviewed players and coaches from all sports. It didn't last......I'm still bitter. Obviously money talks and it didn't make enough and no alums put up cash to keep it going. I feel your pain.
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As AMC said, we had exactly what I described. The Kings ran that station at a loss of $30,000/year and did it gladly because it was for the university. The Kings were incredibly generous. Back in my undergrad days the swim&diving teams were going to be cut. They donated enough money to fund those programs in perpetuity. The one thing AMC undersold is how badly the school screwed them in the radio deal. As much as I loathe Blake James for it I am convinced he had blessings from on high before making that deal.


AMC, that was a very well-written response. Certainly more substantial than "put a better team on the ice." If you haven't already done so I hope you will share it with the athletics director. It may not be pleasant but this is exactly what he needs to hear.
 
AMC said:
His point was that we had that here too. Stephen King's WZON was all sports. Tons of UMaine coverage. They had a morning show, an afternoon show that were local. Aired UMaine hockey, basketball, baseball, football... Then, one of our previous AD's sold the rights to Learfield Sports, who then kicked WZON to the curb for what has turned out to be a statewide revolving door of stations. King, who had a luxury box at the Alfond and gave generously to UMaine sports, dropped the all sports format and to my knowledge hasn't given a cent to the University since.

The justification at the time was to get a wider array of sports broadcast statewide. If you can hear UMaine sports in southern Maine, I haven't figured out how to do it.
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I listened to wzon all the time, or at least when I was within 50 miles of bangor, they didn't cover umaine any more than the 92.9 does now. Duffer talks red Sox 365 days a year. Now having Hannigan on the drive time show was great for hockey but he left before Blake James screwed umaine athletics.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

ticapnews said:
Priceless no longer exists. I only started posting here again because I'm writing recaps and doing special features for the site.

If my presence here annoys you that much, click on my profile on the left, then choose "Add to ignore list"

As for scarves, the point is that the athletic department is asking for your (realistic) input on what would motivate you to buy season tickets. The end goal is to build value into the season ticket to free them up to run BOGO and other promotions during the season to boost attendance, without angering STH because other people are getting tickets cheaper. Other schools do this. I have been a STH with two NHL clubs. This is a HUGE part of what they do. I'm sure STH in Boston are telling Neely and Sweeney to put a better team on the ice. That really doesn't help. What helps is that I know that come October one of the players might be knocking on my door to hand deliver my tickets. Or that I may get to travel with the team. Or that I get a percentage off at the team store and the concessions. It's all about building value into the ticket so I don't really care when they have promotions like half-price for college kids.

These are questions I asked here and in other fan forums 2-3 years ago and the answer was always "Put a better team on the ice." That doesn't help John Diamond and the other marketing guys sell tickets. It handcuffs them. Then people complain when attendance suffers. Well, if you'd either tell them how you want them to build value into the season ticket or tell them that you don't care if they do promotions during the season that slash ticket prices, then they can go after the attendance problem. Or you can continue to give wise-@s$ answers and they will continue to be handcuffed; attendance will continue to drop, the Alfond will continue to be a morgue and the resources Red and Ben have to "put a better team on the ice" will get smaller and smaller. We're already at a point where the budget is a joke in Hockey East. Are you hoping it will become the laughingstock of the AHC as well?
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Maybe it doesn't, but it answers the question. The fans don't want scarves, T-shirts, skating bears, cheerleaders, or coupons for a free 6-pack of McNuggets. They want a better product on the ice. That is all that matters. So it isn't a wise-@55 answer, it comes from the heart and is the bare truth.
 
UncleRay said:
Maybe it doesn't, but it answers the question. The fans don't want scarves, T-shirts, skating bears, cheerleaders, or coupons for a free 6-pack of McNuggets. They want a better product on the ice. That is all that matters. So it isn't a wise-@55 answer, it comes from the heart and is the bare truth.
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It's a combination of both. Having a better team certainly helps, but even with good teams attendance was dropping the last couple of years Maine made the frozen four. Fans want to feel like they are appreciated and being treated fairly. As AMC rightly points out that feeling hasn't really existed since Shawn was alive and Sue Tyler was AD. People blame Blake James a lot but the man before him, and his mentor, Patrick Nero set a lot of the nonsense in motion.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

Watch him be a much better goaltender there.
 
rufus said:
Watch him be a much better goaltender there.
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I don't see it. The other guy they got from Maine hasn't done very much. Timmy must have some connection with their coaching staff. It seems like Romeo was a lot better before his injury in the USHL.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

Maine had too many guys for one net. Hope the ones they decided to keep can play, though its hard to be sold on any if em. Also wish Romeo the best he had some flashes.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

The new captain of the Black Bears: Cam Brown
"A"s will be worn by Eric Schurhamer and Blaine Byron
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

It's rather sad to see the last of the Swavely brothers leave but even more so for some of us who will miss their family as well. I wonder who will sing the National Anthem on senior night next spring. Best of luck to all the Swavely's.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

Just read on Twitter one of the games against BC will be in Portland, has anyone else heard this? If I was a season ticket holder I would be pretty upset. It's not like with the new hockey east schedule there are many good home league games to begin with.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

It keeps getting better.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not sure on matchups, but told Frozen Fenway teams are BC, BU, PC, UMass, UConn, UNH, Northeastern and Maine. 4 games over 2 Saturday's.</p>— Mike McMahon (@MikeMcMahonCHN) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeMcMahonCHN/status/732621799427584001">May 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
ticapnews said:
It keeps getting better.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Not sure on matchups, but told Frozen Fenway teams are BC, BU, PC, UMass, UConn, UNH, Northeastern and Maine. 4 games over 2 Saturday's.</p>— Mike McMahon (@MikeMcMahonCHN) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeMcMahonCHN/status/732621799427584001">May 17, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Hopefully it is one of the games at UConn. Have you heard the BC at Portland rumor?
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

Drew S. said:
Hopefully it is one of the games at UConn. Have you heard the BC at Portland rumor?
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Dunbar posted it over at MBR. It was supposedly on Twitter but I can't find it.

Given that (under the schedule they released) Boston University is playing a pair at UConn that would indicate Maine is doing a split series with the Huskies as they did a few years ago. The best scenario is the game scheduled for Hartford gets played at Fenway instead and Maine hosts one game vs UC later in January.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

Tim Throckmorton of WABI is reporting it will be UConn. I have also heard BC vs PC and UNH-NU. That leaves BU and UMA in the other game. All that is left is dates and times.
 
Re: Maine Black Bears - Return to the Glory Years or On to Oblivion?

For the sake of repeating one of my big concerns with this program, sorry, but I don't put it past this bunch in the athletic department to look to holding as many games as they can get away with in Portland as a short term fix to things.
Until they saturate that market.
Well those of you in the local area know what I mean, can't disregard the local support. Big mistake.
Not holding home games in orono means some local economic loss, game nights are good economy for the local restaurants etc. Pats pizza, you know how that goes.
 
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