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Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Thread resurrection material has arisen.

No less than Gopher Head Coach Don Lucia thinks it should be the Huskers:

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/audio-on-demand/sports-huddle-with-sid-and-dave/#

"You know what, there's been some talk (about Nebraska adding hockey). Personally, I think it'd be a natural. I think that when you look at how well the junior team has done there (they draw over 4,000 fans a game) I think its a sport that they could add to make money on. And that's gonna be the big thing with hockey, you're gonna have to add a women's sport and a men's sport...but that's an area I think that they have the facility that they could draw. I mean, look what they draw for their women's volleyball team and football and basketball and everything else -- they have very passionate fans there. I think it'd be a natural, and they are within the footprint of junior hockey down there, and I think they could really make it a go..."

He has apparently never been to a Husker hoops game. I wonder where he has heard this "talk"?
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

Basically just posting in this thread just to say that I did.

Though I do believe another member school will eventually make the jump to D-I and thus the B1G Hockey Conference, Nebraska, Indiana and Purdue I'd superglue into the "Not a chance. Never, ever, ever, and you're on drugs if you say otherwise..." tier.

If there's a team within 100 miles of "close" to jumping to D-I, it's Illinois. Maybe Northwestern further down the road if one of their billionaire alums gets ridiculously drunk.
 
aallenpollreisz said:
If there's a team within 100 miles of "close" to jumping to D-I, it's Illinois. Maybe Northwestern further down the road if one of their billionaire alums gets ridiculously drunk.
Click to expand...

Aren't members of the Wirtz family Northwestern alums? Pretty sure that covers billionaire alum and drunks (Liquor distributorship) in one.

If they haven't added D1 hockey with the popularity of the Hawks and interest in hockey in Chicagoland, it ain't happening.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

You'll need to see a repeat of the Penn St Scenario. A good club team with rich benefactors able to reduce school risk. Wish I knew who...
 
aparch said:
Aren't members of the Wirtz family Northwestern alums? Pretty sure that covers billionaire alum and drunks (Liquor distributorship) in one.

If they haven't added D1 hockey with the popularity of the Hawks and interest in hockey in Chicagoland, it ain't happening.
Click to expand...

Bill Wirtz opposed the NHL in Milwaukee and refused to televise games because he didn't want competition. I'm sure opposing Northwestern having a team wouldve fit the same bill.

I know that that Bastard's kids don't share his views (and you can see it in how the Blackhawks have been run since that old jerk died), so it remains to be seen what they would or wouldn't do for Northwestern.
 
aparch said:
Aren't members of the Wirtz family Northwestern alums? Pretty sure that covers billionaire alum and drunks (Liquor distributorship) in one.

If they haven't added D1 hockey with the popularity of the Hawks and interest in hockey in Chicagoland, it ain't happening.
Click to expand...

I remember a time not too long ago when the Hawks were last in the NHL in attendance (in this country's 3rd largest city). Let's not fool ourselves, Chicago is NOT a good hockey town, and the Blackhawks fan base is awfully fair weathered.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

JDUBBS1280 said:
Token comment from gopher fan about how terrible other hockey fanbases are
Click to expand...
True though that may be, the Hawks were last in NHL attendance after Bill Wirtz spent the last 15 years of his life actively hurting the Blackhawks and purposefully damaging their PR with the locals. I get that you can't label the Chicago fanbase as a "through thick and thin" type, but I also don't think you can hold their attendance issues against them until after Wirtz died.
 
ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
True though that may be, the Hawks were last in NHL attendance after Bill Wirtz spent the last 15 years of his life actively hurting the Blackhawks and purposefully damaging their PR with the locals. I get that you can't label the Chicago fanbase as a "through thick and thin" type, but I also don't think you can hold their attendance issues against them until after Wirtz died.
Click to expand...

Excuses, excuses, excuses. And this has NOTHING to do with the Gophers and EVERYTHING to do with some NHL fan bases losing their teams while other fan based kept theirs and didn't appreciate them. And if you think it's just Minnesota fans that feel that way about the Hawks fan base, you're clueless.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

JDUBBS1280 said:
Excuses, excuses, excuses. And this has NOTHING to do with the Gophers and EVERYTHING to do with some NHL fan bases losing their teams while other fan based kept theirs and didn't appreciate them. And if you think it's just Minnesota fans that feel that way about the Hawks fan base, you're clueless.
Click to expand...
Wait, what city lost their team that supported them better than the Hawks? You certainly don't mean the North Stars.
 
JF_Gophers said:
Wait, what city lost their team that supported them better than the Hawks? You certainly don't mean the North Stars.
Click to expand...

Are you going to try and suggest the North Stars EVER had attendance as Bad as the Hawks have had? Every club outside of Canada has attendance swings, but the North Stars were NEVER last in the league in attendance or had the level of general apathy towards the team that you saw with Chicago towards the Hawks. In this country's third largest market, that's a joke.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

JDUBBS1280 said:
Are you going to try and suggest the North Stars EVER had attendance as Bad as the Hawks have had? Every club outside of Canada has attendance swings, but the North Stars were NEVER last in the league in attendance or had the level of general apathy towards the team that you saw with Chicago towards the Hawks.
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Really? You mean like in 90-91 when they (north stars) averaged 7800, or in 88-89 when they averaged 9700?

Chicago has certainly had poor attendance, but even in the last 20 years, they haven't been that poor. From 81-82 to 92-93, there is only 1 season where the North Stars averaged more fans, and that was that first season.
 
JDUBBS1280 said:
Excuses, excuses, excuses. And this has NOTHING to do with the Gophers and EVERYTHING to do with some NHL fan bases losing their teams while other fan based kept theirs and didn't appreciate them. And if you think it's just Minnesota fans that feel that way about the Hawks fan base, you're clueless.
Click to expand...
The only reason that I mentioned the gophers is because OF COURSE a gopher fan (specifically you, since you have a habit of doing this) would be the one to make the kind of comments that you did. And I didn't say that I wasn't wary of the Hawks fans, all I said was that I can be fair and understand them on account of what Bill Wirtz did to them for 15 years.
 
JF_Gophers said:
Really? You mean like in 90-91 when they (north stars) averaged 7800, or in 88-89 when they averaged 9700?

Chicago has certainly had poor attendance, but even in the last 20 years, they haven't been that poor. From 81-82 to 92-93, there is only 1 season where the North Stars averaged more fans, and that was that first season.
Click to expand...

Are you using % capacity? You forget, the Met Center had a much smaller capacity and Minnesota is a much smaller market.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

I have little respect for the Black Hawks fanbase either, but they are much better than Pittsburgh's.
 
JDUBBS1280 said:
Are you using % capacity? You forget, the Met Center had a much smaller capacity and Minnesota is a much smaller market.
Click to expand...

All the same, it doesn't change that the Hawks did have very good support until the mid-90s or so. Take notice of how fast things changed there after Wirtz died and the team actually showed interest in its own fans. You'd be hard pressed to find another pro franchise that had a situation like Chicago had with Wirtz. You can't compare it to anything, which is why it probably shouldn't be terribly relevant in the discussion about whether Northwestern could support a team that wouldn't need more than 5,000 fans/game for 16-18 games.
 
Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

JDUBBS1280 said:
Are you using % capacity? You forget, the Met Center had a much smaller capacity and Minnesota is a much smaller market.
Click to expand...
Met Center was 15k and Chicago Stadium was 17k for hockey (18k SRO). Not exactly a huge difference. United Center opened in 1994 and holds 19k.

In the timeframe mentioned, the Hawks averaged over 16,500 every single season except that first one, and were over 17k for most of them. So even at % capacity they weren't that far from full.
 
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Re: Who will be the 7th member of the Big Ten Hockey Conference?

I fail to see what the Blackhawks have to do with who the 7th member of the BTHC will be....?:confused:
 
ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
All the same, it doesn't change that the Hawks did have very good support until the mid-90s or so. Take notice of how fast things changed there after Wirtz died and the team actually showed interest in its own fans. You'd be hard pressed to find another pro franchise that had a situation like Chicago had with Wirtz. You can't compare it to anything, which is why it probably shouldn't be terribly relevant in the discussion about whether Northwestern could support a team that wouldn't need more than 5,000 fans/game for 16-18 games.
Click to expand...

Do we really need to get into some of the ownership the North Stars had and what they did to that franchise? Wirtz was an angel in comparison.
 
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