Minnesota Gophers 2024-25

[Ditra]

I am looking forward to enjoying the new arena at St. Thomas. After 'the' Ohio State team visits us here it will be fascinating to speculate about their thoughts when they return home.

It will be interesting if the students start showing up to games. I think that is part of OSU's problem that even though they "sell out" it's only 600 fans. They didn't draw very well when they hosted the Ice Breaker this year. Maybe the folks in charge of the money don't believe they can draw enough fans to make it worthwhile to build a new rink. Their men's team draws about 50% of current capacity. Given the size of the student population I think it makes people pause when looking at the cost of a new rink.

 

[davearm]

It will be interesting if the students start showing up to games. I think that is part of OSU's problem that even though they "sell out" it's only 600 fans. They didn't draw very well when they hosted the Ice Breaker this year. Maybe the folks in charge of the money don't believe they can draw enough fans to make it worthwhile to build a new rink. Their men's team draws about 50% of current capacity. Given the size of the student population I think it makes people pause when looking at the cost of a new rink.

The stats say OSU's men's team draws about 50% of current capacity because capacity has been artificially limited to 7700. The building itself is enormous, with capacity for ice hockey of 17,500 (according to Wikipedia). So the true percentage is more like 25%.

I've never been, but it must be a pretty lousy atmosphere with 3/4 of the seats empty.

 

[BowWowWow]

Yes, new sports and leagues always lose money, be they men's or women's. At some point, you need to invest to produce income in the future. The next Caitlin Clark can't come along and boost popularity if there isn't already a sport in place. While gymnastics tends to be a niche sport at the NCAA level, it is a far more popular sport at the international level. I'd guess it does better than hockey for girls in terms of youth participation in the US.

I looked around for some of this info. It looks like USA Gymnastics enrollment of girls was recently about 138,000, while USA Hockey was about 73,000 (in the 2023-24 Final Registration Report).

 

[Timothy A]

It will be interesting if the students start showing up to games. I think that is part of OSU's problem that even though they "sell out" it's only 600 fans. They didn't draw very well when they hosted the Ice Breaker this year. Maybe the folks in charge of the money don't believe they can draw enough fans to make it worthwhile to build a new rink. Their men's team draws about 50% of current capacity. Given the size of the student population I think it makes people pause when looking at the cost of a new rink.

Makes me wonder what kind of crowd size UW drew at the KC before they got into Labahn.

There's no way any new Women's hockey rink built will ever pay for itself. TWSNBN are only interested in pouring every available dollar into the FB program. A new rink for Muzzy means the FB team gets less. That is never happening. UW's AD would level LaBahn if it FB in a better spot. He blew up the track team's facility for FB without ANY plan in place for where the track team could practice. What an Ahole.

 

[robertearle]

Makes me wonder what kind of crowd size UW drew at the KC before they got into Labahn.

There's no way any new Women's hockey rink built will ever pay for itself. TWSNBN are only interested in pouring every available dollar into the FB program. A new rink for Muzzy means the FB team gets less. That is never happening. UW's AD would level LaBahn if it FB in a better spot. He blew up the track team's facility for FB without ANY plan in place for where the track team could practice. What an Ahole.

Sorry for Badger fans taking over the Gopher thread, but attendance numbers at least relate to the discussion.

But to answer Tim's question, the hockey writer for the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper keeps a database of sorts of the number of tickets sold and scanned for UW women's hockey (as well as other sports/teams). The most recent season isn't included here yet - though he just had the numbers published in the newspaper - but here's a chart and the underlying data for seasons going back to 2006-07. 2012-13 was the first year in LaBahn.

The 25-words-or-less answer is attendance at the Kohl Center was largely comparable to attendance at LaBahn. (Keep in mind that some years, the numbers are skewed by high attendance "Fill The Bowl" charity fund-raiser events.)

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/todd.d.milewski/viz/Wisconsinwomenshockeytickets2023-24/Dashboard1

 

[Timothy A]

Sorry for Badger fans taking over the Gopher thread,

We da CHAMPS! We can do whatevah we want to. Da BADgers rule da world! They hate their team and their coach anyway.

Wow those seizures are wicked. Thinner withdrawal is never ending. Labahn had no impact on increasing attendance, therefore TWSNBN should not bother with a new rink, just keep shoveling the money into the FB furnace.

 

[Steamboat]

It will be interesting if the students start showing up to games. I think that is part of OSU's problem that even though they "sell out" it's only 600 fans. They didn't draw very well when they hosted the Ice Breaker this year. Maybe the folks in charge of the money don't believe they can draw enough fans to make it worthwhile to build a new rink. Their men's team draws about 50% of current capacity. Given the size of the student population I think it makes people pause when looking at the cost of a new rink.

I did go to the Mendota Heights arena for St. Thomas games. There are much better high school arenas here in the Twin Cities metro area. Even with that, there was always a good crowd of Tommie supporters who I would have said were student age. If anything, I think the student crowds will be larger, but the out of town attendance may be less due to potential parking issues. I saw many Badger fans, folks from Mankato, and of course, a great many Gopher fans at those games. The Gopher fans should hold steady, and maybe build if this develops into the Twin City rivalry that an up and coming St. Thomas team will pose.

 

[Ditra]

I did go to the Mendota Heights arena for St. Thomas games. There are much better high school arenas here in the Twin Cities metro area. Even with that, there was always a good crowd of Tommie supporters who I would have said were student age. If anything, I think the student crowds will be larger, but the out of town attendance may be less due to potential parking issues. I saw many Badger fans, folks from Mankato, and of course, a great many Gopher fans at those games. The Gopher fans should hold steady, and maybe build if this develops into the Twin City rivalry that an up and coming St. Thomas team will pose.

I admire your positivity, but I think we have different ideas about what constitutes a good crowd. If the attendance figures are correct, they averaged under 400 a game this season. I think the bar should be higher for an institution with over 10K students. Just my opinion.

 

[eastcoastgopher]

So to the other actual Gopher fans in this chat. How are we feeling re: the apathy? Roster looks a lot different up front; saying it's "better" is hard to argue but it looks like there was effort put in to improve it. Defense will be another year older, that I think is a positive. 23-player roster (at present), despite Frost's usual deployment, seems risky but there's time to add, if there's anyone worth adding.

 

[davearm]

I admire your positivity, but I think we have different ideas about what constitutes a good crowd. If the attendance figures are correct, they averaged under 400 a game this season. I think the bar should be higher for an institution with over 10K students. Just my opinion.

Only 4 women's D1 teams averaged over 1,000 fans per game. St. Thomas ranked 28th out of 44. Right next to St. Cloud and Boston College.

So both of these can be true: St Thomas' crowds are disappointing, but also typical.

 

[ARM]

So to the other actual Gopher fans in this chat. How are we feeling re: the apathy?

We don't care about the apathy.

Up front? I think that they are going to miss Huber a lot. The few times that I watched them live over the last couple of seasons, she was the most noticeable player. Yes, Murphy generates the highlights, but Huber was the one who would get on the puck and get it quickly to the other end of the ice, consistently. The new batch of forwards may have a higher ceiling, but we'll have to see how that translates on the ice. Blue line is likely better if they can stay healthy. I liked Graham a lot. More depth in goal. They will likely be a top-six team that will still have a visible gap between them and a title.

 

[Steamboat]

We don't care about the apathy.

Up front? I think that they are going to miss Huber a lot. The few times that I watched them live over the last couple of seasons, she was the most noticeable player. Yes, Murphy generates the highlights, but Huber was the one who would get on the puck and get it quickly to the other end of the ice, consistently. The new batch of forwards may have a higher ceiling, but we'll have to see how that translates on the ice. Blue line is likely better if they can stay healthy. I liked Graham a lot. More depth in goal. They will likely be a top-six team that will still have a visible gap between them and a title.

That's what we want to hear -- we're number 4! ( or 5 or 6).

 

[StPaulSam]

So to the other actual Gopher fans in this chat. How are we feeling re: the apathy? Roster looks a lot different up front; saying it's "better" is hard to argue but it looks like there was effort put in to improve it. Defense will be another year older, that I think is a positive. 23-player roster (at present), despite Frost's usual deployment, seems risky but there's time to add, if there's anyone worth adding.

I predict the roster will stay where it is thanks to our higher profile transfers and incoming recruits. I actually feel pretty good about the coming year with Wisconsin losing some firepower, Murph coming back, and other players who've been around for a few years maturing further in their third year (e.g., Kreisz).

the word in Al's Breakfast is this: Brad is well aware that he needs to win a national championship and having his former assistant with the heir to the Safelite Autoglass[1] fortune's checkbook is making him get serious about NIL since that is now a serious thing in this sport. He is very aware that his seat is warming up.

For anyone who's ever met Brad, you know he tends to be somewhat soft-spoken. I'd imagine he also hates asking for NIL or any kind of money.

A few days ago, a friend from Saint Paul (and alum of UMN-Duluth) who works at a Hockey East school and donates/has season tickets to/constantly is miserable because of their women's team, was back in town. I was kvetching about Frost and being the WCHA's third wheel, etc. They were happy that their HE team had a winning record last season. It put things in perspective.

My suggestion is this:

1. we need to get money flowing to NIL, ie., people need to join Dinkytown Athletes and make sure you're designating your contributions for women's hockey when you sign up. Don't worry, NIL contributions now count towards Golden Gopher Fund points...
2. contribute to the Power Play Club. That money all goes to the team funds, eg., they paid for the Hockey Day Minnesota uniforms last season. They also have several events throughout the year. Now, that requires me to actually read my emails from them, but they always are fun, according to people I know who go. They have, eg., pre-game talks with the coaches, a brunch, social meetups before games, etc.
3. Brad has one more year left on his contract. barring him going off to the PWHL, he's gonna be our head coach for another year. Given that fact, I suspect we'll see a more aggressive Frosty than we've seen in a long time. Get some season tickets and people need to get their asses to Ridder as much as possible.

"Ride or die" as someone put it the other day. Maybe, hopefully, it will at least be fun.

[1]: randomly selected OhSU major corporate donor, i haven't a faint clue who the donor is.

 

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

We da CHAMPS! We can do whatevah we want to. Da BADgers rule da world! They hate their team and their coach anyway.

Wow those seizures are wicked. Thinner withdrawal is never ending. Labahn had no impact on increasing attendance, therefore TWSNBN should not bother with a new rink, just keep shoveling the money into the FB furnace.

Hate? Too apathetic to care or don't care enough to be apathetic like ARM said.

Sinners fans in the thread? Meh...Better than certain yuckeye posters in the thread.

 

[Timothy A]

Sinners fans in the thread? Meh...Better than certain yuckeye posters in the thread.

Thanks for the compliment. The question is how low is the bar.