Re: Quinnipiac Bobcats '11-'12 - Time to say bye?
Ok... I gotta ask. After following this team a few years longer than I have, what was you overall impression of this years effort? Excluding the magical '07 efforts, where would you rate this year?
I'll answer too, since I've been following them since '04.
I feel like there's a sense of "ho-hum" to everything around the program, now. In '04-'05, everyone was excited about the move to ECAC, we were dominating the AHA, it was a great year. In 05-'06, it was our first year in the league, we outperformed expectations, lots of student support, and I remember being surprised that so many non-students were showing up at the games.
Obviously, the arena opened in '06-'07, we went to the conference championship, was arguably the best year in program history.
Now, I look at the student support and I can't believe that it has taken such a negative turn. The TD Bank Sports Center used to be one of the top 2 or 3 arenas in the league, in terms of intimidation factor. The place ROCKED for every league game. It was Cornell, Clarkson, and Quinnipiac as the top intimidating rinks in the league. Now? We're at the bottom of the barrel. Attendance has dropped off, student support has dropped off, that excitement level just isn't there.
USCHO lists our average attendance this year at 2,524, and 81.8% of capacity. In 2007-'08, attendance averaged 2,922, or 94.8% of capacity. What has happened? Why have we lost an average of 500 fans/game. Something needs to be done about the lack of excitement people have regarding Quinnipiac hockey. This is the big program at this University. It's our football. I'd like to see the program really billed as THE exciting thing to do on campus. At the big football schools, they've marketed their football team to the students. Kids know that on Saturday afternoons, rain or shine, you go to the stadium to cheer on your classmates. There needs to be that excitement level around this program.
As I said, everything just feels "ho-hum" right now. I can't speak for the action on the ice because I really didn't have the ability to see a lot of games this year, but it's very sad to me to see how support has dwindled.
