SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

[Pump It Up]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

Looks like I can get 1 month of Mavs All-Access for $10.95. Omaha! fans: I assume that includes the webcast for both games. How is the quality?

 

[scsutommyboy]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

I am one of those people that thinks the new arena is too small and I'll argue that point to my dying breath.

But, I agree that the "UNO Marketing Department" is an absolute utter joke (if it even really exists).

You don't build an arena that seats 7,399 (what it is now being said is the final capacity number) when you have averaged more fans than that per game in 9 out of 16 years of the program's existence. And, in many of those seasons, the team stunk to the high heaven. This is simple "Business 101" type logic. Plus, as you said, the team is poorly promoted. That's an understatement, in my book. Imagine what might be possible if the team was well promoted and was a consistent performer.

Building an arena this small in the middle of a major metropolitan area that has a 3 decades long history of outstanding support for hockey in general is going to a be an albatross around the neck of this program from the day it opens unless they build it so that it can be expanded, much the same way they did the Qwest (now CenturyLink) Center.

For those that don't know, UNO, in it's 16 season existence, has played to well over 150 nights where there were more than 7,399 people in the building, to give you some perspective. This program has played to numerous nights (more than a dozen) where there was more than 10,000 people in the building. They have played to crowds larger than 12,000 on at least 5 occasions and crowds over 15,000 on a couple of those.

The Omaha Storm Chasers built their own baseball stadium here in Omaha three seasons ago right here in Papillion, where I live. Their argument was that the Rosenblatt Stadium capacity was too large and this somehow hurt attendance (a specious argument of the worst kind). They moved into their new, much smaller digs when built and promptly won their first AAA Championship since 1990, and, attendance went down from the season before!. In a new stadium with a championship team!

In the FWIW department, there should more than 7,399 in the building both nights this weekend. Quite a bit more, maybe, on Friday night (although I will temper this by saying the weather is looking a little dicey this weekend, now).

At a minimum, UNO needs a building that seats around 10,000 people. I'd live with that. If it were up to me, I'd make it 12,000. 7,399 is ridiculous. UNO has a proven track record that they can put fannies in those seats. I also think attendance would be further helped by where the new arena is going to be (smack dab in the middle of the city's population center) as opposed to downtown, which is an enormous jaunt (by Omaha standards) back downtown for anybody living out west on a Friday night. This is the reason the reason UNO always has bigger crowds for Saturday night games than Friday night games. Better still, since the new arena is now on-campus, the student attendance (which is now poor) should be affected pretty dramatically.

I, for one, am very unhappy with the what is purported to be the new arena size and I have let the athletic department know it, too. And, I am FAR from alone on this topic.

I don't know UNO's situation, but in general it is always a good idea to create demand for a product. If they win and tickets are a hard thing to come by that is a good thing. They can always put every game on TV and make even more money because the demand is so high.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

According to this thread, they are discounting tickets. 7,400 x $30 > 10,000 x $21.

I am sure they didn't arbitrarily decide to build a new arena to hold less people than the current one. There are many reasons for why they did it in addition to the ones you listed like parking availability, the land area they are putting it on, etc.

For example, look at the Twins. The Metrodome could hold nearly 56,000 for baseball. Target Field only holds 39,000. They didn't build it smaller for the heck of it. The plot of land they had to build on was pretty small. But they probably knew they could make that up by increased ticket prices. Which I am guessing is in the future for UNO.

The general issue is that this is apparently all the school can afford right now, and, they have to do it.

UNO derives no revenue from hockey (now the school's "signature sport") other than from ticket sales. And, they do not even control all the seats at the Clink (by the way, this, and others, is the reason you see a wide variety of hockey capacities cited for the Clink--another story for another day). They get nothing from parking, concessions, souvenir sales, luxury boxes, etc. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

The athletic department's business model/budget going out the next few years and beyond requires that it start deriving significant revenue from these sources besides just tickets. It doesn't look like the school can pony up the additional monies required to build a larger facility so we are going to be hamstrung with just "what we can afford". Worse, the fan concern here is that long time supporters like myself are going to now have bear an unfair burden as a result. i.e.: Paying more for less tickets because the school can't afford to build a bigger facility that would spread this burden out more and potentially pricing themselves out of the ability or willingness of fans like myself to shoulder the load. (My season tickets cost $415.00 per year and it appears that they are going to at least double in price between the cost of the tickets, themselves, and mandatory contributions to get seats as good as what I now have. Myself, and other UNO fans are going to have big decisions to make).

This facility also has to meet some obligations to the city as far as accessibility to it to the public is concerned since the City of Omaha is footing more than 6 million dollars of the bill. That means it is going to be a dual rink facility that allows for significant public access to the auxiliary rink for public skating, something that cuts into the size of the main facility since monies that could be/would be used there aren't going to be as a result.

By the way, because of these circumstances, there is a also a pretty considerable cadre of UNO fans who feel that the university should wait a year or two to build the facility so as to perhaps raise more money. Unfortunately, since the university has been quite something-less-than-transparent about the whole dollars and cents of their thinking about what they are doing here, it's hard to formulate a truly informed opinion about what our best course really is here. Hence, there are a number of different camps about this entire matter, each grinding it's own axe.

Nevertheless, I still mantain that 7,399 is too small.

 

[SCSU BlackandRed]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

The arena debate is quite interesting. Does sound like being able to accommodate a few thousand more would be a better solution if you could make it happen. Then you get into the funding argument as well as space and all that. And yes, the true fan ends up getting screwed the most in the end. Similar situation going on with the Vikings move to their new stadium (yes, I know football in a hockey forum). My point is season ticket holders ALREADY are supporting the program the most (think requiring tickets to preseason games at FULL PRICE in the NFL to BS non-conference games against cupcakes you really don't care to see) and it is for little discount off the single game ticket. And add to that paying a seat license or mandatory donation to get the best seats.

On the hockey front, should be a good series. Hoping the Huskies can get it going a bit better for the balance of the back half. Decent weekend last weekend but need to start stringing together conference weekends of 4 points a series to start building a gap again. Not saying 5 because shootouts aren't our friends.

 

[HumRsky]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

Since this sorta already came up in this thread, I have a question for fellow SCSU fans regarding our attendance. I know our announced average has fallen, but is it being more accurately reported? I know that back in the days when we were averaging "6000+" per game every year, they were not only counting ticket sold, not tickets used, but also considering all 2000 (later 1500) student tickets as "sold" even if there were only 30 students in the building. Have they started counting, at least, only the student tickets used, and perhaps counting tickets used for all fans, which would mean that while official attendance has fallen to the mid-4000s, the actual attendance hasn't fallen as much? Or has actual attendance fallen off noticeably as well? Also, do we think that increased ticket prices means the program is making more money now than the late '90s, despite lower attendance?

 

[MAVFANJEFF]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

I think we should play some of the early season games in Ralston. I even like the idea of playing there for all of next season and tell meca to shove it. Sacrifice for one year to break the chains. Some double headers with the Lancers could be fun.

Forgot to mention, snow heading this way for the weekend. Not a lot but enough to make travel difficult.

 

[SCSU Euro]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

Will you be wearing some garish SCSU outfit that makes you as easy as to locate as Biddco was 3 weeks ago here in Omaha?

If you didn't see:

https://twitter.com/Biddco/status/422554772156477441/photo/1

No... I have self respect.

The section that SCSU shoots on twice is the goal in front of 128, right?

We can get $10 tickets in the 200 level but looks like we have to pay more for the lower level.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

I think we should play some of the early season games in Ralston. I even like the idea of playing there for all of next season and tell meca to shove it. Sacrifice for one year to break the chains. Some double headers with the Lancers could be fun.

Forgot to mention, snow heading this way for the weekend. Not a lot but enough to make travel difficult.

Jeff raises yet another school of thought that I have heard raised by UNO fans in this discourse around here that I didn't even touch on and have heard from a significant portion of the fans I have spoken to.

UNO currently plays it's men's and women's basketball games in brand spanking new Ralston Arena here in the Omaha suburb of Ralston:

http://www.ralstonarena.com/

This is also the home of the Omaha Lancers USHL team (this is the the 5th arena here in the Omaha metro the Lancers have played in since their establishment in 1986) who, besides UNO basketball, moved into this facility when it opened last season. It seats 4,000 or so for hockey. UNO basketball and Lancer hockey are the anchor tenants. It's a pretty good hockey venue but it is like a hospital operating theater, it is the brightest arena I have ever set foot in. It's located not terribly far from the UNO campus.

Like Jeff alluded to, there is an element of UNO fans that are angry with the City of Omaha and MECA (the Metropolitan Entertainment & Convention Authority):

http://www.omahameca.com/

.........that operates both the CenturyLink Center and the Omaha Civic Auditorium for the City of Omaha (BOTH of which UNO and Lancer have hockey have called home in the past).

This camp of UNO fans feels punitive towards MECA insofar as far as UNO hockey's lot in life is concerned at the CenturyLink Center and wanted/wants UNO to move, "now", to Ralston Arena. These people are angry at the city because of the financial issues UNO's hockey deal at the Clink has caused the athletic department there and most of them are also part of the "let's wait a year or two to build our arena crowd". Many of these folks actually do not want UNO to build a new on-campus arena at all and instead want the city to make it attractive to UNO to stay in the Clink, particularly since the school could NEVER duplicate such a venue, otherwise, on their own. FWIW, I'd be O.K. with this, and it would be my first choice, but, I don't see how it is financially or logistically possible both for the school and the city to make this "work".

UNO needs to have an on-campus facility such as this for more than just hockey reasons and Coach Blais has made it very clear that UNO's practice situation is a recruiting and logistical burden to the program. Because practice ice is a dicey proposition at the Clink, UNO has to practice where they can, when they can. The team has had to practice, since the inception of the program here in 1997 (are you sitting down?) at seven different venues in the greater Omaha area since then. Coach Blais has made it very very clear that this is one of the single biggest recruiting impediments he's facing here. The guys are constantly having to schlep gear all over town for practice. This adds hours to the practice regimen on a daily/weekly basis here. He's made it very clear to Trev Alberts (and the fanbase) that if we have serious hockey aspirations here this is something that needs remedied ASAP, and, permanently.

Obviously, playing in Ralston Arena is no long term solution but I totally understand the sentiment of the folks that want us to move there, short-term. Problem there is this facility is to too small, as to the Clink is to too large.

I must say, though, the concessions at Ralston Arena as well as the bar there blow away that of the Clink.

Not even a contest.

 

[Deleted member 3166]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

For those who don't know, Benik is back.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

No... I have self respect.

The section that SCSU shoots on twice is the goal in front of 128, right?

We can get $10 tickets in the 200 level but looks like we have to pay more for the lower level.

You are correct. You guys shoot on goal twice towards section 128.

By the way, garish is maybe a poor choice of words. My wife thought Biddco looked like like he was a wayward soul looking for a "Sesame Street Live" filming. From a distance, he looked like a Sesame Street character.

My tickets are in section 108, row BB, seats 10 & 11. I'll have a veritable armada there Saturday, since I pay the way a couple times per season for friends, family, and customers. Saturday night is the next such occasion. I buy seats in proximity to mine that are available for this purpose. In fact, I'll have my wife's sister and brother-in-law at the game Saturday night, their first college hockey game, ever.

Seriously, even though I personally frown on this, buy the cheapest ticket(s) you can get and sit where you want. The ushers in the Clink are absolutely awful in this regard. Sit where you want and act you like you own the place and nobody will say a word to you (much to my chagrin), trust me.

I think you know this, but, I have a very hard time time hating on SCSU on any level. My mom and her brother are both SCSU graduates and my great uncle (my grandmother's brother) played for SCSU in 1948 (Larry Anderson).

That said, I'll not be rooting for the Huskies on any level.

 

[Dude Love]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

Since this sorta already came up in this thread, I have a question for fellow SCSU fans regarding our attendance. I know our announced average has fallen, but is it being more accurately reported? I know that back in the days when we were averaging "6000+" per game every year, they were not only counting ticket sold, not tickets used, but also considering all 2000 (later 1500) student tickets as "sold" even if there were only 30 students in the building. Have they started counting, at least, only the student tickets used, and perhaps counting tickets used for all fans, which would mean that while official attendance has fallen to the mid-4000s, the actual attendance hasn't fallen as much? Or has actual attendance fallen off noticeably as well? Also, do we think that increased ticket prices means the program is making more money now than the late '90s, despite lower attendance?

They should honestly take a couple of those corner sections in the upper deck and actually put them up for sale rather than leave them empty for the students.

 

[scsutommyboy]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

Since this sorta already came up in this thread, I have a question for fellow SCSU fans regarding our attendance. I know our announced average has fallen, but is it being more accurately reported? I know that back in the days when we were averaging "6000+" per game every year, they were not only counting ticket sold, not tickets used, but also considering all 2000 (later 1500) student tickets as "sold" even if there were only 30 students in the building. Have they started counting, at least, only the student tickets used, and perhaps counting tickets used for all fans, which would mean that while official attendance has fallen to the mid-4000s, the actual attendance hasn't fallen as much? Or has actual attendance fallen off noticeably as well? Also, do we think that increased ticket prices means the program is making more money now than the late '90s, despite lower attendance?

I have asked my friends that have season tickets this question and they all say the building has people in it. there was a 4 or 5 year stretch the people in the stands were 90% full and all the seats were sold. I know that because I had season tickets for 14 or 15 years adn I ahd them during that time.

Heck I remember back in the early 90's there would be 1,500 students at every game and maybe 3,500 total people in the building for most games. From what I have heard from friends who live in St. Cloud is just not a hockey town. People there tend to be cheap and now that tickets are $25 a pop a family of four in that community doesn't want to spend that type of money. Where I live in the northern suburbs that is a steal of a price for a quality D1 game. I think if they show games on tape delay in Cloud like they use too and dial back the ticket prices more people will go to games.

 

[scsutommyboy]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

They should honestly take a couple of those corner sections in the upper deck and actually put them up for sale rather than leave them empty for the students.

Nobody is buying tickets so that won't help. Students stopped going to the games when Kurtz tried to contol the students on what they could say and then he shrunk the students section. There was a few years very few students even went to games because they were chased away and it has never recovered. Students don't support the team like when we were students and its sad. The team for the most part when I was a students was 4th or 5th plae team yet the student section had 1,500 people in it every game and 2,000 for the big games. they don't get more than 600 or 700 students for regular games now.

 

[Duder]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

I have asked my friends that have season tickets this question and they all say the building has people in it. there was a 4 or 5 year stretch the people in the stands were 90% full and all the seats were sold. I know that because I had season tickets for 14 or 15 years adn I ahd them during that time.

Heck I remember back in the early 90's there would be 1,500 students at every game and maybe 3,500 total people in the building for most games. From what I have heard from friends who live in St. Cloud is just not a hockey town. People there tend to be cheap and now that tickets are $25 a pop a family of four in that community doesn't want to spend that type of money. Where I live in the northern suburbs that is a steal of a price for a quality D1 game. I think if they show games on tape delay in Cloud like they use too and dial back the ticket prices more people will go to games.

I think they have been trying to address the ticket price issue for the casual fan. The family four pack (4 tickets, 2 popcorns, 2 drinks) is 50 bucks, they had a few series where they were selling tickets for 15 bucks.

Actually as a season ticket holder I am starting to feel like I am getting screwed a bit.

 

[Biddco]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

No... I have self respect.

You only gained that when you lost your SCSU hockey helmet.

 

[Pump It Up]

Looks like I can get 1 month of Mavs All-Access for $10.95. Omaha! fans: I assume that includes the webcast for both games. How is the quality?

Anyone?

 

[Tipsy McStagger]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

Faragher has been pretty bad the last two weekends. Maybe you could lay some of the blame on the defense for the Friday game against WMU, but last weekend he let in some really soft goals and gave up a ton of rebounds. If he doesn't play better this weekend I hope Bob thinks about giving Lindgren some starts because we won't win many games with Faragher playing like he has been lately.

 

[Dude Love]

Faragher has been pretty bad the last two weekends. Maybe you could lay some of the blame on the defense for the Friday game against WMU, but last weekend he let in some really soft goals and gave up a ton of rebounds. If he doesn't play better this weekend I hope Bob thinks about giving Lindgren some starts because we won't win many games with Faragher playing like he has been lately.

Nobody on the defensive side has looked very good since before Christmas. Blech.

 

[SCSU Euro]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

You only gained that when you lost your SCSU hockey helmet.

I didn't lose it, I sacrificed it to the college hockey gods and got a road sweep in Duluth for it.

That being said, I am more and more convinced one of you two stole it while I was passed out!

 

[SCSU Euro]

Re: SCSU @ UNO Fri/Sat Jan 31st/Feb 1st: We Wanna Fight, Where's Matt White?!?

By the way, garish is maybe a poor choice of words. My wife thought Biddco looked like like he was a wayward soul looking for a "Sesame Street Live" filming. From a distance, he looked like a Sesame Street character.

The important question is was he wearing maroon pants and UMD socks? The answer: Of COURSE he was!