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Re: Union College Hockey 2009-2010: Playoff series win? Check. Albany? This is the year.
Re: Union College Hockey 2009-2010: Playoff series win? Check. Albany? This is the year.
Consideration most definitely has to come in not only to RPI or Union showing up, but who they happen to be playing. The RPI/Clarkson matchup draws significantly higher attendance, though this year that happening in Albany is a longshot. Union will show up in droves if they're playing RPI (OK, maybe a thousand more than usual). However you're right in that it's on a whim, and you probably won't get usage of the upper bowl (with the exception of the bands) unless it's 4 really big drawing schools.
Re: Union College Hockey 2009-2010: Playoff series win? Check. Albany? This is the year.
But that's not how it actually works. The BRF is essentially RPI's homecoming, scheduled months in advance, so everybody plans for it.
How many RPI fans will show up at the ECACs regardless of who is playing - the types who have already bought their tickets? Based on my observations in past years when RPI wasn't there, I'm guessing 500 at the very most (and that's pretty generous). That means that the remaining 4500 are at the very best waiting to make a last minute decision about whether to go depending on if RPI makes it, and a lot of them probably were out-of-town alums who already made their one trip back to Albany for the year and won't make it even if RPI is there. If you get 75% yield out of that, I'd say you're doing really well. That puts RPI's attendance around 500 + .75*4500 = 3875.
Last year there was 4857 attendance for Saturday. Figure 1000 of those go no matter what, maybe 2000 that Cornell drew (tops), 1000 for Yale and 800 for SLU (wasn't there, just outlining my thought process - please correct me if I'm wrong) with only a few dozen for Princeton. Replace SLU and Princeton with RPI (their 500 always-goers are already included, so their "draw" is 3375) and Union (call it 2000 even though they're on spring break), and my estimated total attendance peaks out at ~9375. But I think I've been awfully generous with RPI's and Union's last-minute-notice draws. In this breakdown, I'm only assessing perennial-power and certain 2009 NCAA participant Cornell's draw at 2000, and I just can't see a still-up-and-coming RPI beating that by more than 50% just because they're local. For a Cornell-Yale-RPI-Union final weekend, I'd guess 8000 attendance for Saturday, and that's only if two of (RPI, Union, and Cornell) win on Friday night to drive some good walkup sales.
Consideration most definitely has to come in not only to RPI or Union showing up, but who they happen to be playing. The RPI/Clarkson matchup draws significantly higher attendance, though this year that happening in Albany is a longshot. Union will show up in droves if they're playing RPI (OK, maybe a thousand more than usual). However you're right in that it's on a whim, and you probably won't get usage of the upper bowl (with the exception of the bands) unless it's 4 really big drawing schools.