That was actually my favorite part. Matt is not only into the game, but also the entire college hockey experience. I've campaigned before to build a mirror image to Shirley's palace at the east eng, but instead of a mostly unused function room in the middle we have a platform for the band. Above the glass and projecting down the rink would create a tremendous atmosphere. Skip the piped in music and just let the band play.
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RPI 2025 Off-Season: HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Thread starter Ralph Baer
- Start date
Game Atmosphere is a very underrated part of the player experience too. It exacerbates the rink problems and obviously makes it harder to bring in fans and players. If the players are having fun, that leads to success and energetic play. If the atmosphere isn’t there, well, you’ve seen what happens. For the past 20 seasons, playing at RPI was quieter than opening a tin can, wirh the exceptions of the Freakout games, with the crowd failing to gain the needed momentum. Granted, the opposing team scoring a goal a minute after RPI has a lot to do with that, but sometimes the crowd failed to materialize. Putting Wi-Fi in the Field House when not in the press box had a lot to do with that. When I walk around, all I see is college aged kids with their heads down on their phones during play. One puck to the kisser will take care of that.
Wicked Slappaahs
I miss Tie Domi
That would be great indeed. To execute, I believe that you'd need to bump out the rear of the building -- as the rink chiller mechanicals are on the exterior of that wall. As far as the game time "production" this too is in need of an overhaul. Not only do they play too much canned music, but they play BAD 80's hair band cuts which certainly don't add to the production value if you're trying to attract students and youths to the rink.,,, New game day production, P.A., hype man etc. Nothing against Al Shibley, but we need to reinvigorate the fan experience.... When I was at Colgate earlier this year, I noticed they had a media and production room with two kids in it running the scoreboard, fan cams, music, game day production, etc. We need this.
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Even though it's really early for us to be appointing a new coach I actually thought I'd found some breaking news. I went to the Penguins website and noticed someone missing under the WBS staff. Unfortunately, I went back to December in the Wayback Machine and saw that the same name was missing then too - they were just too lazy to update the staff directory.
Did the 12 fans that attend Colgate games enjoy the improved fan experience?
And for what purpose was the term 'Urchin' used?
Ralph Baer
Let's Go 'Tute!
I wonder if I would have thought of that word quickly if you had asked me what the corresponding word used to describe young males was. Probably not.
it has been so many years that I could only remember the word - was not quite sure of the use or meaning.
DavidNardolillo
Well-known member
I am glad to hear Colgate's gameday experience has improved. I've been out there for a few games versus RPI and the place was dead and maybe 15% full. Shame for such a nice rink.
RPI Hockey Guy
Member
Respectfully, I don't think I necessarily buy this argument. The field house feels empty most games because it's gigantic. It was built for a capacity of approximately 5200, and was reduced to approximately 4,700, which is by far the largest in conference. The only others that comes close in size are Dartmouth, and Cornel. Compared to other big rinks in the conference, RPI's seats are only on the sides of the rink as opposed to all the way around. This means, to fit the capacity of seats in the building, we need to have a high ceiling, making the room feel larger. In addition, the building's size is very noticeable, since you walk in on ground level. It's clear they tried to make the building seem smaller by covering the overflow seating with the blue curtains, but that only works so well. To illustrate my point, the year, at Blackout, the Field House didn't feel anywhere near full, even though we pulled approximately 2,931 fans. This would have been a sellout at Brown, Colgate, Harvard, Union, and Princeton, and a near sellout at Clarkson, Qpac, SLU, and Yale.
Granted, blackout is not a representation of the average RPI game. I don't have the exact number, but this season it seemed like we averaged just below 2,000 fans. This is enough to make a good atmosphere at all the stadiums listed above. It wouldn't be sellout atmosphere, but the stadiums would be majority full. The problem is, what feels like a good size crowd in a smaller below 3,500 fan arena, starts to feel empty when arenas get larger, and feel especially empty when you get to a building designed to be an over 5,000 fan arena.
I think RPI attendance will go up if we start winning at home again, and could probably average around 3,000 fans. Over the past 2 seasons, RPI has won 6 home games, only 4 of which happened with students on campus. In combination with the fact that RPI is a STEM school that has a reputation for putting large workloads on students, why would a student want to spend their limited time and money watching a team lose? If we hire the right coach that gets this team winning again, I think attendance and the student section goes back up.
RPI also has the unique problem where their special event games typically need the overflow seating, meaning they can't move to a smaller stadium. Blackout draws a lot of people due to both Union and RPI fans wanting to go. Attendance has dropped a lot since this game sold out The Field House two years ago, but it still has potential to sell out if RPI has a reputation that they stand a good chance. Likewise, Freakout historically comes close, if not sells out The Field House almost every year.
As for your point that people look at their phones while at a sporting event, that's true of every team, and it's never going to change. People want to take photos, and text about what's going on. I think the only way to minimize it, is if we get the right new head coach that puts a team that's both entertaining, and feels like it has a chance every game.
It's interesting to look at the annual attendance figures on USCHO here: https://www.uscho.com/stats/attendance/division-i-men/2024-2025/
Even ahead of COVID, three successive 11th place seasons saw attendance go from around 3,100/game in 2015-2016 (which is roughly where it had been for many years) to 2,671 in 2019-2020. More than a 10% drop in just a few years. Obviously way worse now. RPI's challenge is now to get it back up to that 3,000+ level that makes the Field House start to have an atmosphere, even though circumstances have changed significantly - aging population of local hockey fans, new competition (online, other sports in the area, etc.), seemingly lower level of student interest, etc.
Winning clearly makes a difference. Gameday experience makes a difference. Community engagement makes a difference. Student engagement makes a difference. Media engagement - and particularly social media - makes a difference (just look at how some NCAA and ACHA hockey teams do really creative stuff on Instagram and TikTok to build their profile). All of that requires resources into the team, the Field House experience, community outreach, top-class sports media/sports information operations, and more. So if RPI is going to get to a higher level, they have to do it properly in lots of areas.
I think the right coach will embrace the challenge and see it as an opportunity to build something with lots of dimensions to it - if he is given proper backing. I would imagine there will be tough questions from candidates about that, or at least I hope so.
(All that said, if they do build a new arena, I'd have to imagine you're looking at a substantial capacity cut - for better or worse. Hard to envision something more than 3,000. Scarcity of tickets would be seen as a benefit.)
Even ahead of COVID, three successive 11th place seasons saw attendance go from around 3,100/game in 2015-2016 (which is roughly where it had been for many years) to 2,671 in 2019-2020. More than a 10% drop in just a few years. Obviously way worse now. RPI's challenge is now to get it back up to that 3,000+ level that makes the Field House start to have an atmosphere, even though circumstances have changed significantly - aging population of local hockey fans, new competition (online, other sports in the area, etc.), seemingly lower level of student interest, etc.
Winning clearly makes a difference. Gameday experience makes a difference. Community engagement makes a difference. Student engagement makes a difference. Media engagement - and particularly social media - makes a difference (just look at how some NCAA and ACHA hockey teams do really creative stuff on Instagram and TikTok to build their profile). All of that requires resources into the team, the Field House experience, community outreach, top-class sports media/sports information operations, and more. So if RPI is going to get to a higher level, they have to do it properly in lots of areas.
I think the right coach will embrace the challenge and see it as an opportunity to build something with lots of dimensions to it - if he is given proper backing. I would imagine there will be tough questions from candidates about that, or at least I hope so.
(All that said, if they do build a new arena, I'd have to imagine you're looking at a substantial capacity cut - for better or worse. Hard to envision something more than 3,000. Scarcity of tickets would be seen as a benefit.)
Ralph Baer
Let's Go 'Tute!
Today is 19 March 2025. There are 199 days until RPI's next game.
This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.
This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.
Ralph Baer
Let's Go 'Tute!
For then they would raise the prices.
There has been zero innovation to getting students and the community to games over the past decade. I guess there is no real incentive if the team never wins so there is that. But come on students, get out of your dorms on Friday and Saturday, put the books away and go to games. At Providence for reference, promos like free ChickFilA for first x number of students, themes for the student section for every game, on ice gimmicks at intermission (including those 7u hockey games that entertain everyone, shooting at the empty net for prizes), players walking around campus giving out free tickets, social media presence, are all used to get the seats filled. They don't all cost much, just some creativity and innovation. I know RPI is all Stem, but surely there are some students with a digital media interest who they could pay minimally to help with some of this digital advertising. RPI had some combination of laziness, understaffing, and poor on ice play all of which have hurt attendance significantly. And it does matter, kids now a days want to play in front of a packed crowd. Who wouldn't? Look at Alfond, Lawson Lunatics, and the Children of Yost. The new coach should welcome this challenge and engage the students as much as he can (and combine it with some winning ways haha).
Wicked Slappaahs
I miss Tie Domi
Well we can do nothing and contiinue to have a dead game atmosphere or we can upgrade and attempt to make improvements
DavidNardolillo
Well-known member
I wasn't knocking your point...just agreeing that Colgate certainly needed an injection of resources to improve attendance and atmosphere. Also important to note Colgate has some barriers to attendance that RPI doesn't have (significantly smaller local and student populations, competition with Division I Basketball, etc.)
Perhaps Colgate offers a lesson for RPI as it contemplates renovations for HFH...it is not just the physical space, but the investment in marketing the program and the team that also needs improvement.
DavidNardolillo
Well-known member
Student attendance at sporting events is a major issue at many schools, not just RPI. Which is why I agree that the school needs to try to build that spirit, and will need to give serious consideration to some of these ideas.
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DavidNardolillo
Well-known member
Might need to raise prices at some point anyway in this new NIL world...To be fair to RPI, the existing ticket prices are generally reasonable, especially for season tickets, but I think they will need to be aggressive with pricing incentives to increase attendance.
Wicked Slappaahs
I miss Tie Domi
All true.. Union's new barn will weigh in somewhere around 2,200 for hockey which mirrors Colgate's '65 Rink (yes, I'm aware its usually empty) also at 2,200 give or take.
That said, I do not expect RPI will build a new rink.
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Ralph Baer
Let's Go 'Tute!
Today is 20 March 2025. There are 198 days until RPI's next game.
This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.
This is based upon 4 October 2025 for the start of next season.