New Arenas

[Sean Pickett]

Re: New Arenas

Oh, yeah, that is the status that I thought was in effect -- no decision has been made. I would be really surprised if they tore down Freitas to put a bigger barn there. Personally, I would not be surprised if they do nothing. Now that HE has played at the XL and UConn was right near the top of HE in attendance with their games there, my guess is that HE will tell UConn that they will not insist on the on-campus facility. With the XL, they can get 8,500 into the place for games, 16,000 if they had to. Their average attendance at XL is already over 5,000. Why would they build a new barn smaller than that? That's why they created buses ... so the students can party to and from Hartford.

UConn lead the league in attendance this past season, but part of that is due to the drop in attendance at both BC (since 2012-13) and UNH (since 2006-07). Do you really think they will continue to have such good attendance if they continue to play at the XL Center, especially if they fail to become an annual league contender? UMass is an excellent example of what could happen. I think a 5,000 seat on campus arena would maximize attendance for most games. The big games that could sell more tickets could still be played at the XL Center (assuming the lease issue is worked out).

I have put a spreadsheet of the home attendance for every current Hockey East team since the 2001-02 season on Dropbox. You can see the large jumps in attendance when BU (over 2 seasons as Agganis opened in middle of the 2004-05 season) and ND opened their new arenas and when UConn joined Hockey East. I've also included a chart and tried to make it so you can follow the different schools attendance.

Sean

 

[Snively65]

Re: New Arenas

UConn lead the league in attendance this past season, but part of that is due to the drop in attendance at both BC (since 2012-13) and UNH (since 2006-07). Do you really think they will continue to have such good attendance if they continue to play at the XL Center, especially if they fail to become an annual league contender? UMass is an excellent example of what could happen. I think a 5,000 seat on campus arena would maximize attendance for most games. The big games that could sell more tickets could still be played at the XL Center (assuming the lease issue is worked out).

I have put a spreadsheet of the home attendance for every current Hockey East team since the 2001-02 season on Dropbox. You can see the large jumps in attendance when BU (over 2 seasons as Agganis opened in middle of the 2004-05 season) and ND opened their new arenas and when UConn joined Hockey East. I've also included a chart and tried to make it so you can follow the different schools attendance.

Sean

Very cool; thanks, Sean.

 

[Yuppie Scum]

Re: New Arenas

Very cool; thanks, Sean.

Bandwagon-ometer!

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: New Arenas

UConn lead the league in attendance this past season, but part of that is due to the drop in attendance at both BC (since 2012-13) and UNH (since 2006-07). Do you really think they will continue to have such good attendance if they continue to play at the XL Center, especially if they fail to become an annual league contender? UMass is an excellent example of what could happen. I think a 5,000 seat on campus arena would maximize attendance for most games. The big games that could sell more tickets could still be played at the XL Center (assuming the lease issue is worked out).

I have put a spreadsheet of the home attendance for every current Hockey East team since the 2001-02 season on Dropbox. You can see the large jumps in attendance when BU (over 2 seasons as Agganis opened in middle of the 2004-05 season) and ND opened their new arenas and when UConn joined Hockey East. I've also included a chart and tried to make it so you can follow the different schools attendance.

Sean, nicely done. You raise a number of points that, of course, have been in the back of our heads for awhile now. Great first year in the league, what are the second and third years gonna look like, especially in terms of fan support and the W/L trajectory when they still will not have their full compliment of scholarships. Dunno, actually, we'll have to see. That will be part of the fun. All I know is that the XL was rocking far more than anticipated and there was a true college hockey atmosphere. Somewhat abetted by a top line version of the hockey band which was close to the best in HE already by the end of the season.

Btw, was the average attendance in your spreadsheet calculated with only the XL center games or for all games including at Taft School and Bridgeport?

 

[Sean Pickett]

Re: New Arenas

Sean, nicely done. You raise a number of points that, of course, have been in the back of our heads for awhile now. Great first year in the league, what are the second and third years gonna look like, especially in terms of fan support and the W/L trajectory when they still will not have their full compliment of scholarships. Dunno, actually, we'll have to see. That will be part of the fun. All I know is that the XL was rocking far more than anticipated and there was a true college hockey atmosphere. Somewhat abetted by a top line version of the hockey band which was close to the best in HE already by the end of the season.

Yes, and even once the team is fully scholarship funded and has been in the league a while UMass is a major example of what can happen. UMass' high point came in 2006-07 when they lost the HE semifinal in OT and then came within one game of reaching the Frozen Four. They got 4 seasons of good attendance out of it with so-so records the following 3 seasons, but then the bottom fell out and the attendance dropped as well. All with an on campus arena, not one in downtown Springfield. Here is UMass' attendance vs record.

Btw, was the average attendance in your spreadsheet calculated with only the XL center games or for all games including at Taft School and Bridgeport?

I took the attendance averages for 2014-15 from the Hockey East website (they are the same on USCHO). Looking closer that average does not include the Frozen Holiday Classic games, but does include the other 2 games at Webster Bank Arena and the game at Taft School:
home average overall (14 games): 5396
home average w/o Taft (13 games): 5745
home average at XL (11 games): 6061

An excellent average, only surpassed by BC and UNH (6 times each). Of the 11 games games at the XL, 5 games surpassed that average: the first ever home game as a member of HE vs BC (8089), vs BU (7712), vs UML (6855; the first game at the XL since the BU game, a 7 week gap), vs UNH (6887; second to last home game) and vs UMass (6298; last game of regular season). It will be interesting to see what happens this coming season with all home games at the XL. Note that an exhibition game vs Dalhousie at Freitas Ice Forum had an attendance of 759. It may not matter, but take a look at the attendance of the exhibition games for the other Hockey East schools. Only BC and UMass (no official attendance given) had lower attendance.

Sean

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: New Arenas

I took the attendance averages for 2014-15 from the Hockey East website (they are the same on USCHO). Looking closer that average does not include the Frozen Holiday Classic games, but does include the other 2 games at Webster Bank Arena and the game at Taft School:
home average overall (14 games): 5396
home average w/o Taft (13 games): 5745
home average at XL (11 games): 6061

An excellent average, only surpassed by BC and UNH (6 times each). Of the 11 games games at the XL, 5 games surpassed that average: the first ever home game as a member of HE vs BC (8089), vs BU (7712), vs UML (6855; the first game at the XL since the BU game, a 7 week gap), vs UNH (6887; second to last home game) and vs UMass (6298; last game of regular season). It will be interesting to see what happens this coming season with all home games at the XL. Note that an exhibition game vs Dalhousie at Freitas Ice Forum had an attendance of 759. It may not matter, but take a look at the attendance of the exhibition games for the other Hockey East schools. Only BC and UMass (no official attendance given) had lower attendance.

Great to be in HE where the passion is high enough that people get into this kind of analysis. Feels like the ECAC actually. (OK, flame away if you all must ....)

 

[Snively65]

Re: New Arenas

No flaming here. Just curious if anyone can provide an estimate on the number of UConn students per game who traveled to the XL either by bus or car this past year? Is that about a 30-minute trip?

 

[RSTuthill]

Re: New Arenas

No flaming here. Just curious if anyone can provide an estimate on the number of UConn students per game who traveled to the XL either by bus or car this past year? Is that about a 30-minute trip?

Guessing it was 500-1,000 but that is just a SWAG. The thing about an on-campus barn is that they will get a lot of students, but probably lose most of the west of the river audience. I am sure they have sliced and diced the Gampel data and put some hockey "windage" on them, however. UConn did not get where it is in sports by not knowing its market.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New Arenas

The University of Nebraska is currently building the Breslow Ice Arena adjacent to Haymarket Park (the Husker's baseball stadium) and the arena is also adjacent to Pinnacle Bank Arena (the Husker's newly opened basketball arena).

I took pictures of the construction of this facility in it's early stages in late April. I'd post them here if somebody would kindly divulge "the secret" of how you post pictures in this forum (I know it CAN be done). I purposefully took some pictures that have all three facilities visible in the same shot. That's how grouped they are. I drove by the facility again last week and the progress on the arena since then is borderline phenomenal.

The construction of this arena is so far under the radar around here (and here in the USCHO forum as well) that it boggles the mind considering that I personally believe it's construction portends the coming of D-1 men's (and, probably, women's) hockey at the University of Nebraska. With the completion of this facility, NU will have two giant pieces of the puzzle in place, a place to play games (Pinnacle Bank Arena--where ice making capability was a last minute addition to the building) and, a place to practice--the Breslow Ice Arena--right next door, which will also be a suitable place for a women's team to play in as well.

 

[blackswampboy]

Re: New Arenas

if somebody would kindly divulge "the secret" of how you post pictures in this forum (I know it CAN be done)

you can post images with the html img tag. it's easy, but you'll have to look up the syntax--can't post the syntax here.

<img src="http://www2.bgsu.edu/images/sa/img68872.png">

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: New Arenas

If you just quote swampboy's post, you should be able to copy the code and replace the URL of his image with the URL to your image(s).

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New Arenas

If you just quote swampboy's post, you should be able to copy the code and replace the URL of his image with the URL to your image(s).

These are pictures I took with my iPhone. I assume to "get" a URL I have to upload these to a host, somewhere, to obtain one, to follow these instructions.

I was thinking there was a way of uploading a picture that is resident on my actual hard drive--the picture actually becoming part of the post by being inserted from my local computer. This is what I thought was possible. I think I'd better reserve the right to be wrong about that, though.

Obviously, one could just use a picture host of some kind and just post the actual individual picture links as well, even without "inserting" them.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: New Arenas

I was thinking there was a way of uploading a picture that is resident on my actual hard drive--the picture actually becoming part of the post by being inserted from my local computer. This is what I thought was possible. I think I'd better reserve the right to be wrong about that, though.

vBulletin forum software has a method for attaching photos directly to posts, but Board does not allow it. You'll have to use an image host.

 

[PcFriars13]

Re: New Arenas

These are pictures I took with my iPhone. I assume to "get" a URL I have to upload these to a host, somewhere, to obtain one, to follow these instructions.

I was thinking there was a way of uploading a picture that is resident on my actual hard drive--the picture actually becoming part of the post by being inserted from my local computer. This is what I thought was possible. I think I'd better reserve the right to be wrong about that, though.

Obviously, one could just use a picture host of some kind and just post the actual individual picture links as well, even without "inserting" them.

You can upload to Facebook or Twitter and get an image code there.