Re: UNH Wildcats TD Garden and Beyond 2015
I agree. But "their" argument would be (as everything else) a revenue-based one. They need every seat they can get filled. $$$ drives every decision. There aren't enough hard-core fans to support what they are looking to do (or pay for). They need the "pink hats," so we have to accept it. It's just hard for me personally to understand why someone would pay (fill in price here) to sit there, talk all night to the person next to you and not watch the game, or get up and down 50 times to get food. But they're simply products of today's world. They weren't around when we used to go to the dingy Garden (or Fenway) and were perfectly happy to listen to John Kiley play the organ, or Sherm Feller announce "<i>Leading off for the Red Sox, #1, Joe Foy. Third Base. Foy.</i>" I know I will be accused of being a crusty old fart, but, as they say, you're most comfortable with what you grew up with. What's hard to accept for us is perfectly normal for them. I'm not constantly one of those "those were the good 'ole days people, but in a lot of ways I still am.
In the case of UNH Hockey, I'm not sure I agree with the need to chase casual "pink hats", chickod. We now have the benefit of hindsight to look back at how things have played out over the last 20 years at The Whitt with Men's Hockey to test some of the theories and preconceptions. And I'm convinced UNH has been extremely short-sighted in its overall marketing approach, especially over the last decade-plus. Of course, that time coincides almost entirely with the reign of the marketing pseudo-genius that is BS35+goingon2. Let's look back and see how things have unfolded ...
* You gotta start with the opening of The Whitt in late '95. They built the place at roughly double the capacity of the existing arena (Snively) and towards the end of the Snively era, they were pretty much filling every seat (or close) fairly regularly. The program was definitely on the rise competitively at the time, but they still had quite a ways to go to get to the top of Hockey East, not to mention making an imprint on the national scene. But the excitement (and fan support) was there in the late Snively years, and they carried it over in the year where they spent a full year away from Durham.
* Now for maybe THE most overlooked decision ever made to grow the UNH fanbase statewide ... in the '94/'95 season, UNH played a full season of home games at JFK Coliseum in Manchester. Smaller than even Snively, but smack dab in the middle of the biggest city in the State of NH. Most of the Durham diehards did the travel for that season, but the program also had a fabulous opportunity to market to what was then a fallow, underserved hockey market in the center of the state (Manchester/Concord/Nashua). Which then led to ...
* The Whittemore Center opens in late '95. In the offseason that year, UNH had concerns about whether they could fill the facility they'd just finished building. In the pre-Internet "dark ages" of print media, UNH was very active in running print and media ads for ticket packages to (most notably) the Boston area college hockey fans (i.e. BU, BC, NU and I believe Harvard as well). I thought it was visionary when the school built such a big building to begin with, and the ad campaigns almost seemed defensive to a degree, as if they were second-guessing the decison to build so big. But there was no need to worry, as the ticket sales ensured most of the seats were sold that season, and going forwards there were no weird out-of-state marketing efforts. I have to believe the buzz that came with the new building, the number of die-hards in the area AND the new fans they tapped into by playing that season at JFK all worked to fill that building in '95/'96 (BTW a rare losing season on the ice) AND the numerous full-capacity seasons that followed.
* The program continued to steadily build through the coming seasons, leading to the first trip to the Frozen Four in '98 and the first trip to the FF Finals in '99 of the Umile era. This was all pre-BS35, the program was hot AND facility was regularly filled. Home games were regularly on TV, whether it be NHPTV or other outlets. The radio network was probably at its apex as well. The legendary "waiting list" for the right to buy season tickets was steadily growing. The Internet had also arrived in earnest. UNH may not have been the most tech-savvy or marketing-savvy program at the time, but they were making great decisions, and revenue was not in short supply. And you could have discussions about the viability of adding a balcony to The Whitt without drawing strange "are you nuts?" glances.
* Amidst the amazing momentum that was going on around the UNH Men's Hockey program, events began to unfold that would change the hockey landscape around the program. Between the two build-ups to two consecutive Frozen Four trips ('98/'99 and then '02/'03), UNH AD Judy Ray was replaced by the current AD (who back then was only BSalmost25). Coach Umile's future had been solidified by the former in one of her last acts, which (like it or not) would produce the program's final two FF appearances. In the meantime, the Manchester hockey market was being transformed by the construction of the VWA and the arrival of the AHL's Manchester Monarchs, which both hit the ground running in 2001. UNH - selling out The Whitt regularly, and coming up with new and inventive ways to soak the season-ticket holding diehards - sat back and shrugged their institutional shoulders. "Solutions" were to *modernize* the look of the uniforms, tinker with the musical playlist, and try to enhance the "family atmosphere" at The Whitt (i.e. catering to casual fans).
* For NH hockey fans arguably these were the glory years, with UNH, the Monarchs, and not too far away the Lowell Lock Monsters all catering to the southern NH hockey market. And UNH fans who struggled to get home game tickets could travel less than an hour to see HE road games in Lowell, North Andover and the Greater Boston area. You don't get any more die-hard or hardcore than going on the road to follow your team. The UNH traveling contigent was legendary in its numbers in these years, literally turning road games in Lowell and at Merrimack into home games, and matching (if not exceeding) the much more local BU and BC contingents when it came to the HE Tourney at the then-Fleet Center.
* At first, UNH would pack out the VWA for annual games with Dartmouth in January, but as time passed, UNH grew satisfied with managing the "waiting list" and plugging in new season ticket holders in place of old-timers who were increasingly annoyed with the latest schemes to reach into their wallet, rather than to reward their dedication. Satisfaction turned into complacency, which seeped into the program as the 2003 FF Finals became smaller and more distant in the rear-view window. The atmosphere at The Whitt was increasingly sterile, and while revenue was no doubt steady, the rot was setting in below the surface.
* As the first decade of the century played out, UNH teams were still competitive on the ice, but not quite up to the levels of teams earlier in the Umile era. There were some recruiting issues that seemed relatively minor, but the UNH admin (who'd ridden happily on the coattails of Men's Hockey as the primary emissary for the school's PR/publicity needs) decided now would be a good time to make things more difficult for the program to maintain previous competitive standards. Well-known postseason shortcomings were taking their toll on the fanbase, and the "waiting list" gradually disappeared, while empty seats at The Whitt eventually took their place. A decade's worth of pandering to "casual fans" would not be able to stem the tide. The "buzz" was gone, and the momentum was going in the wrong direction. Again, the UNH AD's office shrugged, gradually and increasingly turning its gaze towards the Football program.
So here we are now. On the ice, arguably UNH is finally beginning to turn the tide, and to some degree, there seems to be the start of a favorable "buzz" of anticipation and expectation around the program for the first time in awhile. Off the ice though ... nothing I can see has changed. The complacency is astounding. And the opportunity is definitely there to win back fans, not the least with the looming departure of the Monarchs, to be replaced by a goon-league level team. We've asked some tough questions of Coach Umile over the recent seasons, and I think he's come through that process (at least in my mind) with renewed credibility.
Now it's time to ask equally tough questions of those people to whom Coach Umile reports. And burying their collective heads in the new toy that is the West Stadium project may have some validity, but it's a poor excuse for ignoring the program that put your school on the map in the first place. A generation ago, Men's Hockey was the transformational force that led UNH into a bold new era. Now on the doorstep of another transformational era, Hockey is being allowed to flounder without the necessary support of the folks at the very top of the food chain. Complacency towards the hockey program has already seen one highly respected head coach frozen out of his job opportunistically in the aftermath of a questionable *incident* last season. The head coach on the other side of the program now has to be wondering if the AD's strategy towards his future is to wait for an opportune time to arrange for his departure.
Just sayin' ... over to you, BS35+goingon2, time to show us your stuff.
Don't know? Pink hat.
