What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

playoff attendance

D

DLG

Registered User
When are the leagues going to streamline the playoffs and have less teams-At least Hockey East has done it somewhat
If you compare playoff attendance to regular games last night the playoffs have pathetic attendance
400 people at Harvard and only 2,000 at Minnesota
both could be record lows for both schools
 
Re: playoff attendance

All the ECAC games had under 1000 people last night. Pretty pathetic.
 
Re: playoff attendance

I wonder if MN did the same thing that Michigan did- where you could "pre order" your playoff tickets. And if not, you had only 24 hours to get them on Monday.

What was really odd was that they were digital tickets, so I didn't even remember that I bought them. Had I not called well... Some people near us could not tell, and they thought their seats were sold and bought a second set. On top of that, our usher told us that a LOT of people had digital ticket issues, too.

Add in that spring break is right now, attendance was very much down at Yost. Props to the COY for their response last night.
 
Re: playoff attendance

I know that NMU includes first round tickets in your season ticket price & if they don't host, the cost is forwarded to your next season ticket. Of course, when you don't know until less than a week before (NMU clinched home ice with a final minute win last Saturday), it can be hard to expect a sellout in such a short period of time. Officially, NMU/Tech had 3209 last night.
 
Last edited:
Re: playoff attendance

Terribly frustrating and disappointing last night at three-year old Class of 1965 Arena in Hamilton, N.Y.
With 18 minutes before puck-drop, I counted 76 people in the stands and maybe an equal number milling around and standing.
In the third period, I estimated 250 in the stands and another 100 up top. Maybe there were 405 people total, but no more in an arena that holds 2222 and averages 1208.
I realize it is 2020 and several friends watch it on PPV on ESPN+, but still...
 
Last edited:
Re: playoff attendance

We had officially 1694 at our game last night against Wisconsin and people missed our best game of the season with a 9-1 win so I say SHAME ON THEM!
It was only $18.00 a ticket and free parking and we have beer there SO WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?
 
Re: playoff attendance

All you need is a good rivalry and the fans will show up, playoffs or regular season.

ECAC... no excuses. They're a 50+ year old conference. If you don't have rivals by now, can't help you.

What's killing the Big10 is that the teams got thrown together from three conferences and their rivalries are gone. Other than really die-hard hockey fans that never miss a game, how many people in MN care about playing Notre Dame? Ohio State and WI... sure that would be a big game if it was football. The one game that should have been packed due to long standing rivalry, Mich v MSU, only managed 3200 - pretty sad showing.

Any casual fans are too busy watching Big10 basketball this time of year as underscored by the fact that the hockey playoffs are displaced on their network by women's basketball. I understand that a Big10 hockey conference was inevitable once PSU showed up, but it continues to be the lukewarm fan support disaster everyone predicted and Western college hockey is still rebuilding from that shake-up. It will be interesting to see if the new CCHA impacts teams outside of the initial 7 and if changes ripple to other conferences with more minor shuffling.

To show how a good rivalry swings attendance, here are the last five NMU v MTU games (Tech normally averages about 3,100):
Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan 03/06 - 3209 (Official capacity 3802)
Northern Michigan @ Michigan Tech 02/29 - 4053 (Official capacity 4466)
Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan 02/28 - 4030 (Official capacity 3802)
Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan 11/23 - 3945 (Official capacity 3802)
Northern Michigan @ Michigan Tech 11/22 - 3337 (Official capacity 4466)
 
Re: playoff attendance

JohnsonsJerseys said:
All you need is a good rivalry and the fans will show up, playoffs or regular season.

ECAC... no excuses. They're a 50+ year old conference. If you don't have rivals by now, can't help you.

What's killing the Big10 is that the teams got thrown together from three conferences and their rivalries are gone. Other than really die-hard hockey fans that never miss a game, how many people in MN care about playing Notre Dame? Ohio State and WI... sure that would be a big game if it was football. The one game that should have been packed due to long standing rivalry, Mich v MSU, only managed 3200 - pretty sad showing.

Any casual fans are too busy watching Big10 basketball this time of year as underscored by the fact that the hockey playoffs are displaced on their network by women's basketball. I understand that a Big10 hockey conference was inevitable once PSU showed up, but it continues to be the lukewarm fan support disaster everyone predicted and Western college hockey is still rebuilding from that shake-up. It will be interesting to see if the new CCHA impacts teams outside of the initial 7 and if changes ripple to other conferences with more minor shuffling.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with any of that.
JohnsonsJerseys said:
To show how a good rivalry swings attendance, here are the last five NMU v MTU games (Tech normally averages about 3,100):
Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan 03/06 - 3209 (Official capacity 3802)
Northern Michigan @ Michigan Tech 02/29 - 4053 (Official capacity 4466)
Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan 02/28 - 4030 (Official capacity 3802)
Michigan Tech @ Northern Michigan 11/23 - 3945 (Official capacity 3802)
Northern Michigan @ Michigan Tech 11/22 - 3337 (Official capacity 4466)
Click to expand...

As mentioned, NMU got the 3209 last night on basically 5 days notice. And that's about 200 over season average. Students should be filtering back from Spring Break today (and hopefully tomorrow), so attendance should be strong as well.

Overall, the WCHA did pretty well on attendance last night, with only Alaska under 2000, but they were basically at their average. BSU & Mankato underperformed, but I wouldn't be surprised if fans were holding out for the second round or championship game if money was tight for fans of those two.
 
Re: playoff attendance

MN had a couple of issues. The first round of playoff tickets weren't included in the season ticket packages. And there were 19,000 people a couple miles down the road watching High School Hockey. It's also spring break. That explains some of it Friday and Saturday, no idea about Sunday though. If I were in town I would have gone down there.
 
Re: playoff attendance

Magoo said:
All the ECAC games had under 1000 people last night. Pretty pathetic.
Click to expand...

Spring break hurts it, no doubt, but another issue is that the ECAC playoffs operate under different ticketing rules which basically set a minimum price tickets must be sold at. The net effect is that this essentially wipes out group discounts and price incentives that teams use during the regular season to boost attendance.
 
Re: playoff attendance

About 500 at Union vs. Yale tonight. It might have something to do with the quality of the product with those two teams. They have certainly become have lower-tier teams recently.
 
Pardon a visit from the D-3 side but last night in Northfield, Vermont (population 6,000) Norwich and Hobart packed the place (2,000) for the NEHC title game ... oh, and the students were on break.
 
Last edited:
Re: playoff attendance

EAinEagan said:
MN had a couple of issues. The first round of playoff tickets weren't included in the season ticket packages. And there were 19,000 people a couple miles down the road watching High School Hockey. It's also spring break. That explains some of it Friday and Saturday, no idea about Sunday though. If I were in town I would have gone down there.
Click to expand...
You hit on the Top Three reasons. It seems like every year the playoffs fall on the same weekend as the high school state championship. And it's not just the fans who fill the X, there are many thousand more (like me - and I'm a Gopher season ticket holder) who watch all the games I can on TV. I'm also a big fan of the Gopher women's team who were in the WCHA "Final Faceoff" next door at Ridder Arena ... there was just too much hockey going on all at once this past weekend here in the Twin Cities that forces hockey fans to decide which venue(s) to attend or stay home and watch on the tube. I know that by Sunday evening I was a little burnt out so I decided to stay home and watch the Gopher men on TV. And that turned out to be the highlight of the weekend for me! :)
 
Re: playoff attendance

PuckVoice said:
Pardon a visit from the D-3 side but last night in Northfield, Vermont (population 6,000) Norwich and Hobart packed the place (2,000) for the NEHC title game ... oh, and the students were on break.
Click to expand...

2,100 in Geneseo for the SUNYAC championship. Also, students on break. Also, standing room only.
 
Re: playoff attendance

There's also, in many cases, an additional cost, which for some students means they have to pay for a seat that was previously free. You're also looking at potentially a long run of games, with this weekend coming up, perhaps next weekend, maybe regionals, and perhaps Frozen Four. My wife is pretty reasonable to deal with, but even for her, this time of year is a bit taxing, financially and time-wise.
 
Re: playoff attendance

purpleinnebraska said:
There's also, in many cases, an additional cost, which for some students means they have to pay for a seat that was previously free. You're also looking at potentially a long run of games, with this weekend coming up, perhaps next weekend, maybe regionals, and perhaps Frozen Four. My wife is pretty reasonable to deal with, but even for her, this time of year is a bit taxing, financially and time-wise.
Click to expand...
My daughter had the "free" (i.e., prepaid by student fee) season tickets for NMU, but was slightly annoyed by having to pay $5 for each game this last weekend. Students were on break, but most of her friends were back in time for the games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top