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pgb, in fairness, he did say
(emphasis mine)
My drafting may not have been perfect. I originally had a couple of sentences acknowledging the potential problem at campus sites, but I deleted those sentences in the belief they were irrelevant. Note that unless the USCHO article is simply wrong, campus sites now ARE irrelevant; the idea has been rejected out-of-hand. I was focusing on the tweaks I thought might be viable, and arguing that the tweaks wouldn't create the "locked out" problem -- with the possible exception of a one year overcorrection.
Again, we can trouble over whether my drafting was perfect. Also, I do understand that in specific scenarios, a coach might find a mausoleum atmosphere to be advantageous for his club, that weekend. But from the perspective of designing the best possible tournament, having fans is better than not! "Better" was, in fact, the word I used. If it's really necessary, I can add "IMHO"...
Not sure what you're getting at; I'm sure we agree on the bottom line -- they should act in their economic self-interest. You thought my comment was too spirited? I'm not offended, but you're getting a little nit-picky this time...
I didn't want to be too specific because there's so much variation from state-to-state. But sure, the USHL rinks mentioned by Red Cows would be an example. Some communities have rinks run by counties. Others have rinks built by specific suburbs. Still others might be private enterprise. These buildings stand in contrast to "flagship" arenas that are designed to host the biggest events in their market. Using the flagship buildings generally hasn't worked in the West. But if we're willing to consider buildings in the 1,500 - 4,000 range, there would be many new possibilities to consider. I presume St. Paul's Aldrich Arena still exists. Built by Ramsey County, I'm guessing it would hold 4,000. Don't know who originally built the rink complex in Fraser, Michigan, (once known as Belle Tire) but I've got to believe their main rink would hold 2,000 or more. Mentor, an East Side suburb of Cleveland has a nice facility that would undoubtedly satisfy a 1,500 threshold. I have no idea if any of those places would be candidates. My only point here being that such facilities do exist throughout the Midwest.
Basically yes. Learn from history. Put the games where you have reason to believe that actual in-house attendance will be a respectable percentage of capacity. If that means a smaller capacity, so be it.
I've always assumed that the Friday afternoon timeslot was utilized to maximize the number of games available on live TV. Again, my suggestion is to spread the regionals across more days so you could keep the number of live telecasts up, but avoid the problems you've described with workday start times.
A year ago, I'd have strongly agreed. A month ago, I'd have agreed. Now, I'm just searching for a viable Plan B; trying to think outside the box. Trouble is, we've been trying to find those "acceptable venues" in the West for many years. My first instinct is to agree with you; better to search for smaller venues in the West before overloading the East with additional tournaments. But it's also my instinct that we should leave no stone unturned as we try to fix the mess we find ourselves in.
Self-correcting if we're willing to learn from experience. Beyond that, yes.
Excellent point. Of my casually offered examples, Fraser (MI) probably has enough food counters to handle a sellout in its main arena. The other two may not. Food carts might be an answer in those cases. But allowing people to leave between games might be an easier solution, as you mention below. Regardless, this needs to be taken into account.
With smaller venues, I presume that clearing and refilling the building wouldn't take as much time. Beyond that, if the first game of a doubleheader goes into multiple overtimes, you've got a major problem on your hands regardless of the time between games. If you keep everyone in the building for both games, you can start the second contest 50 minutes after the first game ends. Clear the building, and I suppose that becomes at least two hours, even at smaller sites. For regionals opting for the latter, you'd want the first round games on a Saturday or Sunday. Otherwise you're back to having the first game face-off during the work day.
Sigh. This has been covered... But at least you're now focused on the issue; asking relevant questions. Good things. Short version:
Fine post. None of this is a huge surprise to me. But having actual data to work with is much better than mere speculation, no matter how carefully the speculators think things through. GFM has given us a look at what regional at a USHL rink might look like. Each of us should ask ourselves if it sounds like something we'd want to pursue.
In terms of the political realities, I agree with you that this isn't happening.
Continuing to put a product on the market that customers have clearly rejected is a terrible idea. (referring to neutral site Western regionals) "Conference champs only" would fix that problem, hence the appeal. It would raise other issues, to be sure. But I'm not at all sure massive realignment would be one of them.
Most of the small rinks aren't going to have the scanning equipment needed to do re-entry. Hiring an outside firm to do that would increase overhead, which cuts the wrong way. For me, a major reason to go to small rinks would be to slash overhead so that ticket prices could be reduced.Of course one alternative to separate admissions is to allow re-entry, assuming the ticket prices are reasonable, and there are restaurants nearby. That way, the fans who only are interested in one game can come for just that game, the folks who want something better than the rink concessions provide can leave and come back, and the folks like me who don’t want to miss anything can just eat hockey rink pizza or chicken fingers off paper plates. Yum.
This is a really good example of why the regional attendance problem may not be one that is solvable.
