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WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

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Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

UpNorthHockey said:
I think Dan's blog post is interesting but I don't think we're going to see any significant realignment. NCHC may try to steal a team or two from the WCHA for political reasons but the toothpaste is out of the tube. The NCHC is here to stay because hockey has become a revenue generating sport for larger schools. TV visibility and name recognition outweigh travel, rivalries or any concerns of hardcore fans when it comes to revenue. Witness the attendance numbers at the B1G tourney vs. the NCHC tourney vs. the WCHA tourney last year. http://www.uscho.com/2014/03/25/int...urnament-down-40-percent-from-a-year-earlier/
NCHC filled slightly more seats than B1G, while WCHA, as expected, nearly dropped off the map. B1G is happy with revenue/attendance and NCHC is happy with revenue/attendance. The only ones not happy are some WCHA schools and the hardcore college hockey fans who miss the old days. I see no market driven reason for any realignment other than Kato and BGSU going to NCHC when and if NCHC thinks they will bring enough fanbase with them. If the trend continues (and I think it will because football and basketball have gone that way) college hockey conference alignment will be driven by market-share, with leagues stratified by name recognition and fanbase size. That's what the 2013 realignment was all about and it brought college hockey in line with other major college sports by favoring market commonalities over regional and historical commonalities. As an MTU fan, I'm not happy about it and I don't think it was good for college hockey, but I'm not naive enough to think that we're ever going to return to a conference paradigm based on the old regional rivalries.
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Now that the WCHA finals are in St. Paul, do you think the attendance will be higher?
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Mixed feelings on the article, as well as all the conference stuff. Certainly, it would have been nice from a revenue/excitement aspect to have the Gophers or NoDak come to Mankato the last couple years. But let's be honest - it would never be a "rivalry." We could beat the Gophers 10 times in a row, but they still wouldn't think, "Boy, we have to catch up to the Mavericks. Those are the most important games on our schedule!" Truth be told, I don't know that we had a "rival" in the oWCHA, other than one the league designated as such.
But I don't get where Myers thinks there was no excitement in the Verizon Wireless Center for last Saturday's game? There were 4000+ people there (Note: That's more than we drew for any Denver, Wisconsin, or UNO game we hosted the last year of the oWCHA), screaming loudly, celebrating joyously, and staying through the 3 star announcements at the end of the game. It was a heck of a fun game, and I didn't see people going away thinking, "Man, I miss Colorado College!"
Would it be nice to be in the same conference as Duluth and St. Cloud, like we are in other sports? Sure, and maybe in time that will happen. In the meantime, I really like participating in the WCHA, and can't wait until January to tell Ferris how much they suck. There's still plenty of excitement to go around, and rivalries are developing, as others have noted.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

purpleinnebraska said:
Mixed feelings on the article, as well as all the conference stuff. Certainly, it would have been nice from a revenue/excitement aspect to have the Gophers or NoDak come to Mankato the last couple years. But let's be honest - it would never be a "rivalry." We could beat the Gophers 10 times in a row, but they still wouldn't think, "Boy, we have to catch up to the Mavericks. Those are the most important games on our schedule!" Truth be told, I don't know that we had a "rival" in the oWCHA, other than one the league designated as such.
But I don't get where Myers thinks there was no excitement in the Verizon Wireless Center for last Saturday's game? There were 4000+ people there (Note: That's more than we drew for any Denver, Wisconsin, or UNO game we hosted the last year of the oWCHA), screaming loudly, celebrating joyously, and staying through the 3 star announcements at the end of the game. It was a heck of a fun game, and I didn't see people going away thinking, "Man, I miss Colorado College!"
Would it be nice to be in the same conference as Duluth and St. Cloud, like we are in other sports? Sure, and maybe in time that will happen. In the meantime, I really like participating in the WCHA, and can't wait until January to tell Ferris how much they suck. There's still plenty of excitement to go around, and rivalries are developing, as others have noted.
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Standing ovation for you, sir/ma'am.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

gfmorris said:
Even with Mankato very likely to be there, no. Will Tech fans make the commute?

GFM
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I think there are more Tech fans in the lower peninsula. Here in BG, Tech brought more fans than any school except Ohio State last year.
 
gfmorris said:
http://uahhockey.com/blog/2014/12/10/college-hockey-isnt-dead-or-dying-its-just-changing/ revises and extends my "we haven't had time to form rivalries" point. I can't really believe that's Dan's premise for arguing the change when there are so many better ones to be made.

At the end of that piece, I posited that an interlock would be helpful. I've tried to do that once before, but two 10-team leagues are a darn sight easier to interlock than an 8-team and a 10-team (trust me, I spent four or five hours on it last summer).

GFM
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The blogger in question (not you, the guy from Minnesota) took a completely myopic view of the WCHA and its rivalries.

UAF/UAA, UAH/BSU, and NMU/MTU may not get the national publicity but there's as much bad blood in each of those rivalries as any other.

Also, DU and UND re-joining a league with us peons is a pipe dream, in my estimation.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

bigblue_dl said:
Rich, coming from the likes od you.

I just see 0 benefit in having comments from the nacho peanut gallery.
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Looking back on most of your "contributions" negativity seems to be your common thread.
And that goes back 28,614 posts.
Just sayin.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Squarebanks said:
I have to give the Techsters credit, they travel well, relative to their school size.
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We do what we can ;). I try to do one away trip to a new place each year. Last year's Alaska trip was awesome and I'm pretty sure whenever get the double trip, we'll be doing it.
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

pdt1081 said:
Remind me again who Ryan Sat...however it's spelled is. The name doesn't ring a bell.
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He replaced Gordon at the Sentinel covering BG hockey. He also has a couple of articles a week that he writes for www.BGSUHockey.com. He started writing for that site a year ago when he lived in Denver. He never watched one BG game last year so he based all of his articles on statistics from the games. He graduated from BG a few years back.
 
UpNorthHockey said:
I think Dan's blog post is interesting but I don't think we're going to see any significant realignment. NCHC may try to steal a team or two from the WCHA for political reasons but the toothpaste is out of the tube. The NCHC is here to stay because hockey has become a revenue generating sport for larger schools. TV visibility and name recognition outweigh travel, rivalries or any concerns of hardcore fans when it comes to revenue..
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I agree with you the NCHC is here to stay and the WCHA will lose a team to the NCHC when they add ASU.

Will the CCHA ever reappear with BGSU holding the rights?
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

Squarebanks said:
The blogger in question (not you, the guy from Minnesota) took a completely myopic view of the WCHA and its rivalries.

UAF/UAA, UAH/BSU, and NMU/MTU may not get the national publicity but there's as much bad blood in each of those rivalries as any other.

Also, DU and UND re-joining a league with us peons is a pipe dream, in my estimation.
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Well, Dan's pretty clear that he's a Mankato guy. It would be interesting to do an analysis of attendance at VWC pre- and post-BTHC. I'll save that for after the season — it'd be a good look for all league members. (I'd obviously leave UAH out, but that leaves me to an analysis I'd like to finish of how UAH does better when not opposite football, but the effect is less strong when AU or UAT suck.)

GFM
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

BGFan said:
He replaced Gordon at the Sentinel covering BG hockey. He also has a couple of articles a week that he writes for www.BGSUHockey.com. He started writing for that site a year ago when he lived in Denver. He never watched one BG game last year so he based all of his articles on statistics from the games. He graduated from BG a few years back.
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That was the part that I couldn't get over. The second part was, after questioning that, finding out that the rest of the team didn't have AmericaONE access, either. I mean, if I can find a way to pay for it while unemployed just so I can cover the team... but at least they got one in the second half. (I think that they may have gotten leverage from the school — they get a handful for their use.)

GFM
 
Re: WCHA 2014-15: Semi-colons make things seem important

gfmorris said:
Well, Dan's pretty clear that he's a Mankato guy. It would be interesting to do an analysis of attendance at VWC pre- and post-BTHC.
GFM
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Geof, I look forward to the analysis of someone with statistical know-how. My quick and largely uninformed English degree analysis of this has been that we're down for a total, because we haven't had the MN or NoDak in here since the breakup of the oWCHA. But we tend to be up when comparing all of the other weeks.

I think Myers' "analysis" consisted of remembering that "Boy, when I used to come to Gopher games, this place was packed and buzzing. But now look at it!" As I noted earlier in this thread, the 4000+ we drew for Saturday night's game (the game that Myers and his Negative Nancy wife attended) stacks up pretty favorably to all the non-Gopher, non-NoDak games of the last couple of years of the oWCHA. Of course, winning helps.
 
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