Re: UNH Wildcats 2017 Off-season: The Clash Question
First of all, DU has an incredible amount of families attending games - including 5-6 youth hockey teams on comp tickets every night. I'm sorry for your experience 1932 - but again, I've attended all but a handful of DU games the last two years and never noticed an incident. I usually buy tickets and sit in a different spot each period, so it's not just my location.
They also announce pre-game that fans are welcome to report issues. All UNH games have security, so if a fan is unruly - report them and toss them. DU limits beer sales to two at a time and stops sales after the second period. Instead of just dismissing the idea they've worked to diffuse common concerns and still get the revenue. Intelligent and creative.
As far as DU being a comp for UNH - they absolutely are. In addition to coaching, I've also worked in sports information and marketing at the NCAA level, including for a prominent college hockey conference and a historically elite hockey program. Everyone faces the same obstacles - not enough money, competition, etc.
DU as a private school has to create all of its own revenue, they need to overcome smaller enrollment numbers, they need to deal with even more elitist admissions and BOTs than UNH and there are in fact, less people within 15 miles than the population of NH. Denver population is less than 700k. DU metro pop is larger, but outside your radius. UNH can compete with that by dipping into border towns in ME and MA that are within easy 30 min drives of campus.
They're also competing with the Avs, Nuggets, Broncos, CU, actual nightlife, easy downtown aces for students and there are a surprising amount of successful DII athletic programs in the area...
DU has to scratch and claw for what they get - and they only passed UNH (who's marketing dept sits on its hands) in attendance late last season. Let's consider something as simple as email marketing. I hear from DU all the time. I always purchased UNH hockey broadcasts. I buy tickets online every year. Do you know when I last received any contact from UNH? It's a trick question. The answer is never...
Better marketing would draw more fans at UNH just like it has at DU. Increased effort to give tickets away to youth teams and students would work at UNH would work just like it has at DU. Only for Rivalry games is not enough. Sitting in the ticket office waiting for students to come get tickets is not enough. Their small allotment for students is not enough.
Friday morning and you have 2000 extra tickets? Take 1700 and go hand them out to additional students for free. If only 400 come, that's a whole lot better than not having them. Like many UNH issues, it's just laziness and lack of ingenuity...
Beer sales would easily purchase couches, ping pong and pool tables, computers, tvs, etc to set up in an extra locker room and give the hockey programs the lounge they feel a lack of is responsible for their recruiting woes. If they're not willing to do this, figure out a way to make it work or come up with alternative ideas then I don't want to hear any whining about money.
I understand we're just debating on a message board - but this is what you're up against Zoofer. UNH doesn't get creative, they don't consider new ideas, they don't fight to make things work. They dismiss them as difficult, they focus on negatives, they don't overcome obstacles, they assume other schools who do these things have advantages they don't have and they feel sorry for themselves. Thus, nothing gets done. Until a woe is us attitude is replaced with a find a way attitude - the programs are on their own...
First of all, DU has an incredible amount of families attending games - including 5-6 youth hockey teams on comp tickets every night. I'm sorry for your experience 1932 - but again, I've attended all but a handful of DU games the last two years and never noticed an incident. I usually buy tickets and sit in a different spot each period, so it's not just my location.
They also announce pre-game that fans are welcome to report issues. All UNH games have security, so if a fan is unruly - report them and toss them. DU limits beer sales to two at a time and stops sales after the second period. Instead of just dismissing the idea they've worked to diffuse common concerns and still get the revenue. Intelligent and creative.
As far as DU being a comp for UNH - they absolutely are. In addition to coaching, I've also worked in sports information and marketing at the NCAA level, including for a prominent college hockey conference and a historically elite hockey program. Everyone faces the same obstacles - not enough money, competition, etc.
DU as a private school has to create all of its own revenue, they need to overcome smaller enrollment numbers, they need to deal with even more elitist admissions and BOTs than UNH and there are in fact, less people within 15 miles than the population of NH. Denver population is less than 700k. DU metro pop is larger, but outside your radius. UNH can compete with that by dipping into border towns in ME and MA that are within easy 30 min drives of campus.
They're also competing with the Avs, Nuggets, Broncos, CU, actual nightlife, easy downtown aces for students and there are a surprising amount of successful DII athletic programs in the area...
DU has to scratch and claw for what they get - and they only passed UNH (who's marketing dept sits on its hands) in attendance late last season. Let's consider something as simple as email marketing. I hear from DU all the time. I always purchased UNH hockey broadcasts. I buy tickets online every year. Do you know when I last received any contact from UNH? It's a trick question. The answer is never...
Better marketing would draw more fans at UNH just like it has at DU. Increased effort to give tickets away to youth teams and students would work at UNH would work just like it has at DU. Only for Rivalry games is not enough. Sitting in the ticket office waiting for students to come get tickets is not enough. Their small allotment for students is not enough.
Friday morning and you have 2000 extra tickets? Take 1700 and go hand them out to additional students for free. If only 400 come, that's a whole lot better than not having them. Like many UNH issues, it's just laziness and lack of ingenuity...
Beer sales would easily purchase couches, ping pong and pool tables, computers, tvs, etc to set up in an extra locker room and give the hockey programs the lounge they feel a lack of is responsible for their recruiting woes. If they're not willing to do this, figure out a way to make it work or come up with alternative ideas then I don't want to hear any whining about money.
I understand we're just debating on a message board - but this is what you're up against Zoofer. UNH doesn't get creative, they don't consider new ideas, they don't fight to make things work. They dismiss them as difficult, they focus on negatives, they don't overcome obstacles, they assume other schools who do these things have advantages they don't have and they feel sorry for themselves. Thus, nothing gets done. Until a woe is us attitude is replaced with a find a way attitude - the programs are on their own...
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