What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

One has to imagine that if our offices are in the building, the Xcel is going to get used for the league tourney at some point. The same story also stated that the X is getting a new center ice video board this season that is the length of the full neutral zone (blue line to blue line). :eek: Can't wait to see Tech claiming the WCHA tourney title on that screen.

Ryan J
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

JohnsonsJerseys said:
One has to imagine that if our offices are in the building, the Xcel is going to get used for the league tourney at some point. The same story also stated that the X is getting a new center ice video board this season that is the length of the full neutral zone (blue line to blue line). :eek: Can't wait to see Tech claiming the WCHA tourney title on that screen.

Ryan J
Click to expand...
At some point meaning this coming season?
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

gfmorris said:
Don't forget Mississippi. Everyone can make fun of Mississippi.

GFM <— with family and a HS diploma from the Magnolia State
Click to expand...

Well maybe, but at least in Mississippi they don't send kids home for having red hair. ( since I have two red headed daughters this could be a problem)
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

JohnsonsJerseys said:
Well, I meant down the road for future seasons, but yes, my original post does not clearly state the obvious fact that it is going to be at the X at the end of this season.
Ryan J
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see how attendance works out at both venues, and if they choose to go to a more permanent site in '18. If there's no BSU, Tech, or (I hate to even type this) Kato at the X in March, will anyone be there? How many will come even if all 3 of those schools are there? And if Grand Rapids gets its dream field in '16 (4 Michigan schools, or 3 Michigan schools and BGSU), and still no one shows up, it's hard to justify going back there again. I do think, because of a much larger population base and airport access, the Final 5ish eventually ends up permanently in the Twin Cities, provided the conference still has the same makeup in '18.
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

purpleinnebraska said:
It will be interesting to see how attendance works out at both venues, and if they choose to go to a more permanent site in '18. If there's no BSU, Tech, or (I hate to even type this) Kato at the X in March, will anyone be there? How many will come even if all 3 of those schools are there? And if Grand Rapids gets its dream field in '16 (4 Michigan schools, or 3 Michigan schools and BGSU), and still no one shows up, it's hard to justify going back there again. I do think, because of a much larger population base and airport access, the Final 5ish eventually ends up permanently in the Twin Cities, provided the conference still has the same makeup in '18.
Click to expand...
How does it end up permanently in the Twin Cities? NCHC has Target Center and Big Ten has the X if they want it. You think the Big Ten abandons the X for something more neutral?
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Shirtless Guy said:
How does it end up permanently in the Twin Cities? NCHC has Target Center and Big Ten has the X if they want it. You think the Big Ten abandons the X for something more neutral?
Click to expand...

I do think the Big will move it around. Detroit, Columbus and Pittsburgh also have NHL arenas and hometown alumni. I just can't think anyone in WCHA headquarters is happy with last year's Final 5 attendance. If St. Paul also proves to be very disappointing, they may look for another solution (#1 seed hosts?). But I can't think another year of a few hundred people in the stands bodes well for Grand Rapids as a host site.
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

purpleinnebraska said:
I do think the Big will move it around. Detroit, Columbus and Pittsburgh also have NHL arenas and hometown alumni. I just can't think anyone in WCHA headquarters is happy with last year's Final 5 attendance. If St. Paul also proves to be very disappointing, they may look for another solution (#1 seed hosts?). But I can't think another year of a few hundred people in the stands bodes well for Grand Rapids as a host site.
Click to expand...
I think they will continue to have attendance issues until they pick a location and give it a chance to grow.
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

The Bi6 has the advantage of EVERY team making the event EVERY season (at least until the league gets bigger) and tens of thousands of fans behind every program. Fans can decide well in advance if they plan to attend and that (IMO) is a huge advantage in terms of how many fans show up. They could move every year and I don't think it impacts their attendance as long as at least one program is local to the playoff location. Comparing the nWCHA and Bi6 playoffs is like comparing an NCAA regional and the Frozen Four. One will have a basically "walk-up" attendance and the other will have fans who planned their trip well in advance.

When you don't know for sure who will be in the tourney until 5 days in advance, you're not going to get many fans to show up that are outside driving distance unless they are just die-hard college hockey fans who will attend no matter who they will be watching. In the nWCHA, even as the #1 or #2 seed last year, making the tourney was not a given. The league was too tight top to bottom. Most fans won't attend unless their team is playing.

The oWCHA had the huge advantage of 9 teams (Team-hrs from Xcel... MN-0, SCSU-1, MSU-1.5, UMD-2, BSU-2, UW-4.5, UND-5, UNO-5.5, MTU-6) within "reasonable" driving distance of the playoff location and you could easily count on four of those nine teams being regulars. Even though the actual teams were unknown until 5 days prior, those top 3-4 teams were a given most every year. It was usually seeds #5 and #6 that were the unknowns. With only three teams being a great distance away (DU-13, CC-14, UAA-infinity), the odds of having lots of local teams in the tourney was very high. That alone gave the oWCHA playoff attendance high numbers every year (IMO).

Maybe someone could repost that maps graphic showing all nWCHA team locations, but even without seeing it I'm sure most of us realize there is no easy solution when it comes to geography for the nWCHA and a central location. Since there is no location which makes sense to get a lot of fans to drive to the event, Minneapolis is as good of a location as any - big airport, lots of hotels and things to do other than hockey if you want to come early or stay later. You always have the chance that some Bi6 or NCHC might show up as well if you host it in their backyard. That won't happen in Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Duluth, Grand Forks or some of the other locations that have been mentioned in the past.

Ryan J
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

JohnsonsJerseys said:
The Bi6 has the advantage of EVERY team making the event EVERY season (at least until the league gets bigger) and tens of thousands of fans behind every program. Fans can decide well in advance if they plan to attend and that (IMO) is a huge advantage in terms of how many fans show up. They could move every year and I don't think it impacts their attendance as long as at least one program is local to the playoff location. Comparing the nWCHA and Bi6 playoffs is like comparing an NCAA regional and the Frozen Four. One will have a basically "walk-up" attendance and the other will have fans who planned their trip well in advance.

When you don't know for sure who will be in the tourney until 5 days in advance, you're not going to get many fans to show up that are outside driving distance unless they are just die-hard college hockey fans who will attend no matter who they will be watching. In the nWCHA, even as the #1 or #2 seed last year, making the tourney was not a given. The league was too tight top to bottom. Most fans won't attend unless their team is playing.

The oWCHA had the huge advantage of 9 teams (Team-hrs from Xcel... MN-0, SCSU-1, MSU-1.5, UMD-2, BSU-2, UW-4.5, UND-5, UNO-5.5, MTU-6) within "reasonable" driving distance of the playoff location and you could easily count on four of those nine teams being regulars. Even though the actual teams were unknown until 5 days prior, those top 3-4 teams were a given most every year. It was usually seeds #5 and #6 that were the unknowns. With only three teams being a great distance away (DU-13, CC-14, UAA-infinity), the odds of having lots of local teams in the tourney was very high. That alone gave the oWCHA playoff attendance high numbers every year (IMO).

Maybe someone could repost that maps graphic showing all nWCHA team locations, but even without seeing it I'm sure most of us realize there is no easy solution when it comes to geography for the nWCHA and a central location. Since there is no location which makes sense to get a lot of fans to drive to the event, Minneapolis is as good of a location as any - big airport, lots of hotels and things to do other than hockey if you want to come early or stay later. You always have the chance that some Bi6 or NCHC might show up as well if you host it in their backyard. That won't happen in Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Duluth, Grand Forks or some of the other locations that have been mentioned in the past.

Ryan J
Click to expand...
Makes the most sense to me of any of the posts so far.
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

If the big ten tournament doesn't make it in Saint Paul it's not going to make it anywhere.
 
JohnsonsJerseys said:
Maybe someone could repost that maps graphic showing all nWCHA team locations, but even without seeing it I'm sure most of us realize there is no easy solution when it comes to geography for the nWCHA and a central location. Since there is no location which makes sense to get a lot of fans to drive to the event, Minneapolis is as good of a location as any - big airport, lots of hotels and things to do other than hockey if you want to come early or stay later.
Click to expand...
<IMG SRC=http://www.nmubaseball.net/uscho/1314AvgDistance.jpg>
As noted when the map was first posted (prior to UAH joining) the size and midpoint doesn't change with the addition of UAH.

<IMG SRC=http://www.nmubaseball.net/uscho/WCHAMap3.jpg>

*edit* This weekend I'll try to whip together a better midpoint map that is based off the Non-Alaska WCHA schools, since they're a flight to anywhere.
 
Last edited:
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Thanks for posting those again. Clearly based on the center point graphic, we should be looking to expand the league in Winnipeg and move the league offices there. It also makes me think that college hockey conference names are headed the way of football where the conference name is in no way an accurate indication of its member schools. The Big Ten is neither large nor have 10 teams, the "National" is a small regional conference in the rust belt of America and the "Western" conference has only four teams West of the Mighty Miss, and two are so far West they are almost in the Far East. In hind sight, we really should have gone with West Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Or as Brick calls it, the "Middle East".

Just a rough guess, if you remove the two AK schools from the calculation, I would expect the average distance of the WCHA to be even less than the National by several hundred miles. I'm guessing the WCHA comes in at about 250-275 miles with the center point near Green Bay / Milwaukee. Alabama is still out there but the other 7 are pretty close together.

Ryan J
 
Last edited:
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Not including the Alaska's since they're a flight, but the including Huntsville because they're "close," the geographic midpoint of the WCHA is Chilton, WI; geographically 35 minutes due south of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

(Removing Huntsville moves the midpoint to Crivitz, WI (technically, the Cauldron Falls Reservoir 20 miles west of Crivitz. Outdoor championship pond hockey?))

I'll come up with the adjusted midpoint averages later, using Green Bay as the center.

Even just using the "eyeball" test to see where a centrally located neutral site venue could be picked from, I see: Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, Rockford, Quad City, Peoria, Des Moines, Indianapolis, and St. Louis.

I know we've debated to death the specific venues each city hold and the pros/con's of each city.


(For sh*ts and giggles, adding Tuscon, AZ to the WCHA moves the geographic midpoint to Prairie du Chien, WI...)
 
Re: The New WCHA, 2014 Offseason: See-ya, Bruce

Using the Non-AK WCHA schools, I ballpark the average distance to all the schools to the midpoint (Chilton, WI) as 400 miles.

Thus, the revised halfway ring would circle Chilton in a radius of 200 miles, including Marquette, MI (almost); Eau Claire, WI; LaCrosse, WI, Joliet, IL; Kalamazoo, MI; Grand Rapids, MI; Claire, MI; Manisique, MI.


On the first map, the WCHA's midpoint would nestle between where the NCHC and B1G intersect in Appleton, WI and the ring would neatly fit between the NCHC and B1G schools midpoints.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top