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Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Timothy A said:
I'm curious if anyone knows if the seating @ LaBahn will be benches or seats....

I'm pretty excited to have tickets in hand for Saturday's game @ the Eagle's Nest. Is the Nest a typical rink where your are actually chilly sitting there and you have to bring in blankets to put on the aluminum benches?

Let's go RED!
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I sure don't remember the Nest being particularly cold. All seating is on one side of the ice, with some standing room at one end. I do remember that one year in particular they had a small band, probably band alumni, at the far end of the rink, and we sat about 20 feet from them. Do not do this unless you wish to be deaf for the rest of your years. Man, it was painful. Great to have a band there, though. The place certainly does get pretty packed, and by all means get there early. Parking fills up very fast.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Badger Booster said:
That's definitely cool, but I'm surpirsed why the new arena wouldn't have been named after him. It's probably as simple as the LaBahn family offered the most money, but still curious.
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Doesn't it make sense for Bob Johnson's name to appear where the men play, given that is the team with which he is most associated? I get the connection through Mark, but I think the Kohl Center is more fitting.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

This is very similar to Notre Dame, where they named the main rink the "Charles W. 'Lefty' Smith Jr. Rink" which is located within the new Compton Family Ice Arena that was opened during the season.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Ultimately, it doesn't really matter, but the arena will be the main practice facility for the men's team and the LaBahn family has no direct connection to hockey that I know of. Mr. LaBahn (cannot recall his first name) was a former UW swimmer and the facility will house offices for the swim/dive teams (I think). Again, I'm not losing sleep over it and I think LaBahn Arena is a cool name (for lack of a better term), but I'm surprised the naming rights didn't go to someone with hockey ties.

ARM said:
Doesn't it make sense for Bob Johnson's name to appear where the men play, given that is the team with which he is most associated? I get the connection through Mark, but I think the Kohl Center is more fitting.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

"Johnson took his players aside before practice Monday and outlined how the regular season has been rendered meaningless, emphasizing the winner of the WCHA playoff title gets an automatic berth into the eight-team NCAA tournament. 'Everybody comes back to the starting line today,' he told them. 'Everybody starts off with zero'."

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com...offs-begin?odyssey=mod|defcon|text|GPG-Sports
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

I'm guessing that after the Senior Day loss to the Buckeyes last weekend, the Badgers will be very focused this weekend. That probably does not bode well for the Mavericks in keeping it competitive.

While the Eagles Nest does offer a packed arena and will be loud, I'm glad it will (probably) be the last year out there. It's miles away from campus and is simply not an appropriate arena for a major D-1 program to be playing in. I'm sure there are logistical issues, but I'd rather see them playing at the Dane County Coliseum with the Kohl Center being used. Could still draw a big crowd and could crank up the old beer garden. Anyway, it should be a moot point after this year with LaBahn opening up.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Speaking of the new arena...

Is it correct that the new rink is only going to have seats for about 2500? Seems like a very bad decision when they've even been able to draw more than 2000 fans for Friday Afternoon games, and 3500 for some of the weekend games. If they start selling out games on a frequent basis, I'm curious how it would affect casual fans. It could increase interest by making it a hard to get ticket, but I'd worry that it could really turn away the fan who go for the laid back atmosphere where they can take their family and walk up to get a ticket.

Also, based on the articles about the WIAA BB Tourney's to Green Bay stories, it sounds like UW is pretty confident that they will be hosting the 2014 Frozen Four at the Kohl.

Which I suppose also begs the eventual question is would MJ be coaching the badgers in 2014, or will he be spending his winter in Russia?
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Original plans were for an arena that seated over 4,000 and would have probably been the nicest women's hockey-specific arena in the country. Unfortunately, the UW wasn't able to raise the kind of money needed. With the men's team needing an on-campus practice facility, it's my opinion that they decided to built what they could for what they could raise. It's unfortunate for the reasons you stated. There is no room for attendence growth. I think over continued time (and presumed continued success) the women's team could have averaged 4000-5000 per game.

Yeah, the UW seems to think that a women's final four is coming their way. If the Badgers make it that year, I'll be very interested to see how big of crowds they get. If not, it's going to look barren inside the Kohl Center. Having at an arena that holds around 4,000 makes more sense...but that's out of the question now.



Nowheresville said:
Speaking of the new arena...

Is it correct that the new rink is only going to have seats for about 2500? Seems like a very bad decision when they've even been able to draw more than 2000 fans for Friday Afternoon games, and 3500 for some of the weekend games. If they start selling out games on a frequent basis, I'm curious how it would affect casual fans. It could increase interest by making it a hard to get ticket, but I'd worry that it could really turn away the fan who go for the laid back atmosphere where they can take their family and walk up to get a ticket.

Also, based on the articles about the WIAA BB Tourney's to Green Bay stories, it sounds like UW is pretty confident that they will be hosting the 2014 Frozen Four at the Kohl.

Which I suppose also begs the eventual question is would MJ be coaching the badgers in 2014, or will he be spending his winter in Russia?
Click to expand...
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Saturday's game is already sold out, looks like there are still tickets available for tonight though.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Was there last Saturday for Senior Day and man was it ugly. I guess it's good to get that out of their systems prior to the playoffs, but it's also disconcerting to see it happen so late in the season. I sincerely hope they snap out of it and it motivates them.

Attendance at the last NC game was under 5,000, which worries me about the Badgers hosting a Frozen Four. If they're in it, I think the Badger fans make a good showing, but I doubt they sell out. They Fill the Bowl at $1 a ticket, but can't imagine at the $30-40 price range it will be the same situation. I'm excited for them to host, but am wary of how poor the showing could be. That being said, the small attendance numbers at previous FF's mean there's not really a high standard.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

tristarscoop said:
Attendance at the last NC game was under 5,000, which worries me about the Badgers hosting a Frozen Four. If they're in it, I think the Badger fans make a good showing, but I doubt they sell out. They Fill the Bowl at $1 a ticket, but can't imagine at the $30-40 price range it will be the same situation. I'm excited for them to host, but am wary of how poor the showing could be. That being said, the small attendance numbers at previous FF's mean there's not really a high standard.
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Attendance for the past five Frozen Four championship games:

2011 3,956 Erie, PA
2010 1,473 Minneapolis, MN
2009 2,437 Boston, MA
2008 4,031 Duluth, MN
2007 3,355 Lake Placid, NY
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Standing room only in Verona as the Badgers get back on tracking by beating down Mankato 7-0. Three quick goals chase Butters out of goal. Brooke Ammerman scores 4 goals in her first game after getting snubbed for a Patty Kaz nomination.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

My first trip to the Eagle's Nest, it was a very good atmosphere. We got here an hr early, thinking were were going to get near prime seats, and the place was 2/3 full, which was awesome. It was cool being so close to the ice with players of this caliber. Phil was down to our right, the little band was great, Bucky was in the stands, really just a great experience. Hopefully UW's schedule for the NCAA's will be such that we can attend that game as well.

The game...Kato played very well in the 2nd and 3rd periods, I was impressed by that. UW better tighen up a bit in the D and N zones for the elimination games coming up, they allowed Kato too many good scoring chances. They are a pretty physical team. The refs sucked as usual. There were 2 instances where a UW player ended up on the ice, but the ref's matched them up, which was ridiculous. They also missed a clear CFB/boarding call against Kato as well. UW had an open ice checking call go against them, but all the UW player did was brush past the Kato gal and she fell.

Onto Duluth to take on the Dawggies.

Let's go RED!
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Congratulation on multiple Badgers collecting some hardware at the WCHA awards. Decker takes Player of the Year, McKeough takes Defensive Player of the Year and Rigsby takes Goaltender of the year. Plus, at least 4 made WCHA All-Academic team (though it's too late to look up the names tonight).

Hopefully, Badgers can take care of business this weekend and bring one another WCHA championship. Will be watching on-line this weekend and hoping to make it up to Duluth In a couple of weeks.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Not too surprisingly, it sounds like Duluth is playing like their season is on the line...which it is. Badgers need to match their intensity in the third. It's probably for the best I can't get the video feed. It's frustrating enough just following the action on the UWBadgers blog.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2011-12 - The Drive for Five

Feel like I've said this at least 5 times in the past two weeks, but I really hope this lights a fire under the ladies.

I'll totally admit that I'm nervous about their NCAA chances after the uninspiring regular season finale loss to Ohio State and today's loss to Minnesota-Duluth. The Badgers swept Duluth during the regular season. I know UMD is playing for its life, but the Badger have to be able to win big games like that. They had a 5 on 3 in the waning minutes of the third as well as a pulled-goalie 6 on 4 in the closing minute and it felt like they barely got a shot off.

They cruised Friday night against Mankato, but we were there Saturday and I wasn't particularly impressed. They have played much better hockey than we saw that night, especially on the power play.

I'm not sure if they're complacent or what the situation is, but something has to be a wakeup call. They are too good to let this season slip away so easily.

If UMD does win out and get into the NCAAs, it'll be interesting to see how the rest of the pairwise shakes out. North Dakota is currently tied for 7th so has a slight chance of a big. UW and Minnesota will likely be 2 and 3. Seeding in the NCAAs will clearly be interesting, especially after last year. Seems highly possible that UMD and Wisconsin will meet again in the NCAAs.
 
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