Re: RPI 2010-11 Part II: RPI, the Other Team, the Refs -- We're outnumbered 10 to 6.
I love it. The guy does more for coverage of college hockey and specifically the ECAC and even more specifically Union College, in this area, yet the hockey "experts" from the CD can do nothing but complain because he doesn't write about ior share the same opinions as some of you. Maybe you should not buy The Gazette or read his blog and instead read the 20 articles a week the local media prints about Siena basketball. We are lucky we have a writer in this area that covers college hockey like Ken does. And for whoever complained that Ken did not cover the RPI/Brown game, do you really think that was his decision? Call or email The Gazette if you think they should have spent the money to cover it. Also as long as I am venting, the Holiday Tournament is in danger and that is not speculation, that is fact. It is losing money, can't find a corporate sponsor and cannot get quality teams to commit. What have you heard about next years opponenets? Nothing yet. Not saying it is a done deal but won't be suprised if its on the way out or moved back to December in 2012-13. By the way, lets have more talk on how exciting this team is going to be when they are healthy, with a pile of home ECAC games after the new year!
I don't need to listen to a lecture about Schott, I've been a fan and supporter for a long time. If it weren't for the fact that Ken calls his column/blog the ECAC Week in Review, I'd have no gripe. But for accuracy sake, he might consider changing the name to the Union Week in Review.
I take no sympathy in the struggling tourney and lack of a tourney title sponsor. We've all sufferred through god awful teams and fields for the better part of twenty years. As a season ticket customer, I've swallowed hard every year. RPI has given lip service to the whole idea of marketing the program for about the last oh I dunno, 20 YEARS or so...Things are now changing under Appert, but you can't raise the Titanic overnight.
Now that the A.D. has someone paying attention to promotion & marketing (what a concept) things
might improve. Whether it will be in time to save the tourney is anyone's guess. As for opponents, as has been pointed out by several posters previously, we are not alone in the scheduling plight. Personally, I enjoyed seeing Bowling Green and UConn...I am apparently in the minority. Folks waiting around for Michigan or North Dakota to fall out of the sky and magically appear are in for a long wait.
One extremely basic and simple idea I've offered is to hand out a dozen tourney tickets to every g.d. one of the youth hockey teams within a 50 mile radius -- thereby helping to fill the rink (which looks good in photos when you're pitching sponsors). Yes,you sacrifice the ticket $, but you can recoup some/all of it in popcorn and pizza $$ sales AND you just might start growing a new generation of fans...heaven forbid.
