Not an unusual phenomenon as far as Hockey East programs opening new enlarged facilities are concerned ... recall that when The Whitt was in its final stages of construction, the UNH ticket office - and remember, this was still mostly pre-Internet in '94/'95 - was running regular ads in the Boston newspapers' sports pages AND were reportedly sending mailers out to the season ticket holders of the Eastern MA schools trying to sell partial season ticket packages, presumably so they could ensure that if local demand was found out not to stretch too much beyond the 3,700-ish capacity of the old barn.
I suspect UMass Lowell probably did much the same, seeing that they opened their own new arena (Tsongas) a couple of years later, closing the much smaller Tully Forum in nearby Billerica.
This throwback article touches on the first-ever "White Out The Whitt" extravaganza back in March '99, and Jason Krog's role as captain in sticking around for his senior year. Krog's frosh year was the Whitt's inaugural season, which featured the start of a string of sellout crowds that far exceeded everyone's wildest dreams. It was a rare Umile losing season back then, but as the "new car smell" wore off the new arena, the 'Cats were more than compensating with their first run-up to a spot in the Frozen Four in almost 20 years, keeping all those "extra" seats filled.
http://unhmagazine.unh.edu/sp99/krogpond.html
