The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

[alfablue]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Anyone else have parking wiz problems for today’s game? We bought them, but they didn’t show for today. When we called Ticketmaster, they claim we parking for 1/1/21

 

[The Meal]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Nice.

 

[manurespreader]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Here's a few things to think about concerning the GLi.
what was the attendance? I'd bet based on Monday that total attendance was 33,000 some odd fans. Where else you going to get that. It's a big, high pressure, high visibility event.
NHL scouts, plenty of them. More than any other College Hockey event? close. Maybe the tournament is bigger, but not by much. Most of these holiday tournaments are played in front of like 3000 fans, and 1 or two scouts. There are two Big Ten, high vis teams in this every year. There is a lot of media and a lot of ink. And not just in Detroit.
If I was some other school this is the kind of event my players want to be in, it's big-time..If I was anyone else, anywhere else, I'd be calling MTU and trying to get in. I think other schools such as BG who have been here can attest to what it does for a program. I'm proud that MTU has been involved all these years. There is great hockey and a great time.

 

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Congrats to MTU on the win. How many were in the building for the game? The USCHO boxscore has a dummy attendance of 0 for both games.

 

[MTUHuskies]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Congrats to MTU on the win. How many were in the building for the game? The USCHO boxscore has a dummy attendance of 0 for both games.

Day One attendance was listed at 16k. Day Two seemed a couple thousand fewer. My guesstimate would be about 13-14k.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[alfablue]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Day One attendance was listed at 16k. Day Two seemed a couple thousand fewer. My guesstimate would be about 13-14k.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

I thought that was odd that there were so many people on Monday v Tuesday- could be that MSU lost their first game, could be that the game was 12/31, could be a lot of things. More Tech fans than Michigan, from what I could hear.

 

[wolverineTrumpet]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Congrats to the Huskies on the win. Michigan was outplayed in the 3rd.

Tuesday's attendance could have had the upper bowl curtained off. When I got to the building (3rd period of the State vs. Ferris game) there were upper level ushers discussing how many fans were in their sections (2, 0, and 8) and that they were telling people they could go sit in the lower level.

 

[davyd83]

Subplot: Will anyone from MSU or Michigan actually show up to watch their teams play?

I think it is long overdue for Tech to take over the tourney as sole hosts and make it three invites each year, at most ONE other from the state of Michigan each year. Going to a 4th Michigan team as the invite every year was the biggest mistake in the history of the GLI. I get that they want more local attendance, but there are plenty of other teams that can be invited that will draw more fans than Michigan or State put in the seats.

Do you think Olympia would be amenable to eliminating Michigan, MSU or both?

 

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Do you think Olympia would be amenable to eliminating Michigan, MSU or both?

I would be more than happy to see Michigan and State ALTERNATE years coming to the tourney and opening yet another slot for OUT OF STATE invites. Michigan and MSU see enough of each other in the Big Mistake regular season and maybe again in the playoffs. No reason for them both to be in the same tourney as well. From what I've seen, maybe only being in it every other year will get their fans to actually show up when they play?

As a grand vision, I would love to see Tech take over this tourney and start running it on their own. It is clear that the Tech fan base views it as an even they look forward to and Michigan / Michigan State fans generally could care less. Their bands don't show up. Their student sections don't show up. And their fans barely show up. They are either watching football bowl games, men's college basketball, women's college basketball and eventually their hockey team comes in somewhere in the top 10 things that get their fans' attention.

I think a better GLI field would be Tech every year, MSU/Michigan alternate as team #2, #3 is a local team from within a 3-4 hours of Detroit (so the marketing folks don't panic about attendance) and the 4th team drawn from anywhere (hopefully from ECAC, AH, HE or we'd even settle for an NCHC team). The tourney's footprint has gotten too local and it is time to push it back onto the national stage. Want to minimize the Michigan feel even more, replace the MSU/Michigan two-team alternation with ANY Michigan D-I team. So everyone in Michigan gets a shot at the GLI, but your chance comes up once every five years (assuming all of the teams even want a spot).

 

[giwan]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Do you think Olympia would be amenable to eliminating Michigan, MSU or both?

There is a great misnomer of Detroit being a Hockeytown. This is false it is a Red Wing Hockeytown. Most are clueless when it comes to college hockey. Take a look at what was written in the local online papers. I could be wrong but I would state easily 2 MTU fans to 1 UM and MSU fan. For those two bases to show up the teams have to be very good that year.

Bring a team from out east is great if it brings some name recognition. ie UMass will not.

What other rink options are there if any? LCA is nice and new BUT no impressed with the service or the Ilitches way of doing business.

 

[manurespreader]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

There is a great misnomer of Detroit being a Hockeytown. This is false it is a Red Wing Hockeytown. Most are clueless when it comes to college hockey. Take a look at what was written in the local online papers. I could be wrong but I would state easily 2 MTU fans to 1 UM and MSU fan. For those two bases to show up the teams have to be very good that year.

Bring a team from out east is great if it brings some name recognition. ie UMass will not.

What other rink options are there if any? LCA is nice and new BUT no impressed with the service or the Ilitches way of doing business.

Not to beat a dead horse but for financial reasons, the present format is the best. Though I doubt Ferris brought very many it has to have been better than the pittance that Harvard or CC brought in the past. The truth is very few fan bases travel very well. We want the tournament to keep going. if that means the present format stays, then it stays. Especially if OE continues to ask for more money to allow it to be there.
I'd love to see other teams, but I also want there to be a tournament.

 

[Dirty Dream No. 2]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

I would be more than happy to see Michigan and State ALTERNATE years coming to the tourney and opening yet another slot for OUT OF STATE invites. Michigan and MSU see enough of each other in the Big Mistake regular season and maybe again in the playoffs. No reason for them both to be in the same tourney as well. From what I've seen, maybe only being in it every other year will get their fans to actually show up when they play?

As a grand vision, I would love to see Tech take over this tourney and start running it on their own. It is clear that the Tech fan base views it as an even they look forward to and Michigan / Michigan State fans generally could care less. Their bands don't show up. Their student sections don't show up. And their fans barely show up. They are either watching football bowl games, men's college basketball, women's college basketball and eventually their hockey team comes in somewhere in the top 10 things that get their fans' attention.

I think a better GLI field would be Tech every year, MSU/Michigan alternate as team #2, #3 is a local team from within a 3-4 hours of Detroit (so the marketing folks don't panic about attendance) and the 4th team drawn from anywhere (hopefully from ECAC, AH, HE or we'd even settle for an NCHC team). The tourney's footprint has gotten too local and it is time to push it back onto the national stage. Want to minimize the Michigan feel even more, replace the MSU/Michigan two-team alternation with ANY Michigan D-I team. So everyone in Michigan gets a shot at the GLI, but your chance comes up once every five years (assuming all of the teams even want a spot).

Have you been living under a rock the past 5-10 years? MSU or UM fans aren't showing up because their teams have been terrible. If these two teams ever come close to their past greatness, attendance will rebound.

I attended plenty of GLIs when they were inviting the non-regional guests and you never saw any of their fans. Just face it--the GLI is not the GLI without MSU or UM.

 

[Dirty Dream No. 2]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Not to beat a dead horse but for financial reasons, the present format is the best. Though I doubt Ferris brought very many it has to have been better than the pittance that Harvard or CC brought in the past. The truth is very few fan bases travel very well. We want the tournament to keep going. if that means the present format stays, then it stays. Especially if OE continues to ask for more money to allow it to be there.
I'd love to see other teams, but I also want there to be a tournament.

I've said for years I'd like to see some real reporting behind the GLI's finances. Does Tech take a loss on it? How much more is Olympia charging them to play at the Oven and have their crappy Monday/Tuesday time slot compared to when they were at JLA and playing in the prime time Friday/Saturday slot? The Monday/Tuesday time slot is lame IMO. I wonder if Olympia is really putting the screws to Tech on the rent.

 

[giwan]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Have you been living under a rock the past 5-10 years? MSU or UM fans aren't showing up because their teams have been terrible. If these two teams ever come close to their past greatness, attendance will rebound.

I attended plenty of GLIs when they were inviting the non-regional guests and you never saw any of their fans. Just face it--the GLI is not the GLI without MSU or UM.

The GLI can easily be THE GLI without one of those two. They are quite the fair-weather fans.

 

[devildog]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

Do you think Olympia would be amenable to eliminating Michigan, MSU or both?

I thought Tech and Michigan were the hosts? MSU got invited every year for obvious reasons and then one additional was invited. Could be wrong, but that was what I thought was going on. I don't think it would go if both were out. Certainly attendace will always be directly proportional to how well a team, or teams are doing.

 

[Biddco]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

The GLI can easily be THE GLI without one of those two. They are quite the fair-weather fans.

Uhhh no...there are SO many State and Michigan fans. Besides it being cohosted by Michigan, having them out would be a disaster for attendance.

 

[jsmithe]

Re: The 55th Great Lakes Invitational

I've said for years I'd like to see some real reporting behind the GLI's finances. Does Tech take a loss on it? How much more is Olympia charging them to play at the Oven and have their crappy Monday/Tuesday time slot compared to when they were at JLA and playing in the prime time Friday/Saturday slot? The Monday/Tuesday time slot is lame IMO. I wonder if Olympia is really putting the screws to Tech on the rent.

I don't know how set your hearts are on Detroit, but if the screws are genuinely being put to you, perhaps Van Andel would be a good change of venue after the contract expires.