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Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

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Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

Does anyone know if there are any additional recruits coming in this fall? Badgers graduate five, but only Shaver and Cogan are listed as commits for the fall. Both are listed as forwards, so it seems we are a bit short on defense.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

Badger Booster said:
In addition, I'm more aggrevated after the fact that a small allocation of FF tickets weren't made available to the general public of each school. Yes, had I wanted to, I could have paid 3x face off of Stubhub or gotten tickets off the street and attended the game. But there is no excuse why zero tickets (at face value) were available. Not sure if that's the fault of the NCAA or Minnesota athletic department (or perhaps UW if they chose to keep all tickets in-house while the other schools didn't).
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Or you could have bought tickets in advance on faith that your team would advance to the Frozen Four. That's what Minnesota fans had to do if they wanted to make sure they'd get tickets. Why should fans who live farther away get an opportunity to buy tickets that local fans don't get? I don't see why the NCAA will change the way this is being done when the tickets are selling out.

I wish that the NCAA would go back to putting the tickets on sale even earlier. I think the average fan can afford to buy tickets a year in advance. I'm not sure that scalpers can. Why would scalpers want their money tied up for a year in a ticket that may or may not turn a profit down the road? The hardcore fans of teams like Wisconsin could buy tickets a year in advance, knowing that the odds are they would make it more years than not, and when they did, they'd come out ahead by buying the tickets in advance. If their team doesn't qualify or they are unable to attend for some reason, the ticket would still have some value. IMO, that's the best way to limit the number of tickets that pass through the hands of scalpers before winding up with fans that want to watch the games. The shorter the window, the more likely that the scalpers can decide to become involved and ratchet up the price.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

ARM said:
Or you could have bought tickets in advance on faith that your team would advance to the Frozen Four. That's what Minnesota fans had to do if they wanted to make sure they'd get tickets. Why should fans who live farther away get an opportunity to buy tickets that local fans don't get? I don't see why the NCAA will change the way this is being done when the tickets are selling out.
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I think the system sucks. It would be easy to set aside a at least couple hundred tickets per school, so 800 total. The final 4 schools could get 48 hrs to sell them after they win their game, then after the 48 hrs is up, they go to the host school to sell. That would give the locals plenty of time to gobble up the released unused tickets. This system would have easily worked this year.

Some people for whatever reason can't buy ahead. I didn't have the extra cash, and I did not know even how many people could come with me (1 or 6?). Maybe it's easy, but I have no idea how to list tickets online and sell on Stubhub. The schedule was also stupid. Friday/Sunday would have forced me to miss a day of work and stay an extra night in a hotel/pay for food, a triple financial whammy. It should be Sat/Sun.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

ARM said:
Or you could have bought tickets in advance on faith that your team would advance to the Frozen Four. That's what Minnesota fans had to do if they wanted to make sure they'd get tickets. Why should fans who live farther away get an opportunity to buy tickets that local fans don't get? I don't see why the NCAA will change the way this is being done when the tickets are selling out.

I wish that the NCAA would go back to putting the tickets on sale even earlier. I think the average fan can afford to buy tickets a year in advance. I'm not sure that scalpers can. Why would scalpers want their money tied up for a year in a ticket that may or may not turn a profit down the road? The hardcore fans of teams like Wisconsin could buy tickets a year in advance, knowing that the odds are they would make it more years than not, and when they did, they'd come out ahead by buying the tickets in advance. If their team doesn't qualify or they are unable to attend for some reason, the ticket would still have some value. IMO, that's the best way to limit the number of tickets that pass through the hands of scalpers before winding up with fans that want to watch the games. The shorter the window, the more likely that the scalpers can decide to become involved and ratchet up the price.
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Doesn't really answer why the NCAA doesn't set aside tickets for fans of the qualifying teams. As a very moderate donor of the athletic department, I at least had the opportunity to apply for tickets for the men's basketball Final Four. Pretty sure my donation level isn't high enough to get said tickets, but at least there was a chance.

At the very least, the UW could have done Badger season ticket holders a favor by giving us a heads-up that the only way to get Frozen Four tickets is by buying them whenever they went on sale. Unless I missed that e-mail, I never knew about it. It was maddening seeing the ¨Ticket Information" tab on the UW website after they beat BU. Was constantly misleading that tickets were ever available. They never were at any point after they were originally sold out.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

A lot of systems could have worked. The one in place worked for a lot of people, it just didn't work for either of you because you didn't want to take the chance on not having your team be there. Suppose Wisconsin hosts some year at LaBahn. A couple hundred tickets are already reserved for each participating school for tickets for department insiders. It sounds like you want that increased. So if you start reserving 300 or 400 per qualifying team, there aren't going to be that many tickets available up front to fans.

No matter what system is in place, it's never going to work for everyone, especially if you have a lot of constraints on when and for how much you are willing to buy a ticket.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

ARM said:
A lot of systems could have worked. The one in place worked for a lot of people, it just didn't work for either of you because you didn't want to take the chance on not having your team be there. Suppose Wisconsin hosts some year at LaBahn. A couple hundred tickets are already reserved for each participating school for tickets for department insiders. It sounds like you want that increased. So if you start reserving 300 or 400 per qualifying team, there aren't going to be that many tickets available up front to fans.

No matter what system is in place, it's never going to work for everyone, especially if you have a lot of constraints on when and for how much you are willing to buy a ticket.
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We'll have to agree to disagree. The system in place this year worked well for Minnesota fans. Take away my Badger bias. Would your advice had been the same had an underdog (RIT or Quinny) sprung an upset in the quarters? Sorry dude, you should have known to buy tickets ahead of time and hope on the off-chance that that your team qualifies.

If/When LaBahn ever hosts a Frozen Four, I would have zero problem with qualifying teams having additional seats made available to them. Let's say the number is 300 (200 for inside family/staff and 100 for general fan base) for each team. That would still leave over 1,000 seats available (more if they sold SRO) for first-come, first-serve sales in December or whenever. Plus, any returned seats can go back into the general pool and easily re-sold the week of the Frozen Four to fans of any teams. Seems like a much more equitable distribution of tickets.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

Badger Booster said:
Doesn't really answer why the NCAA doesn't set aside tickets for fans of the qualifying teams. As a very moderate donor of the athletic department, I at least had the opportunity to apply for tickets for the men's basketball Final Four. Pretty sure my donation level isn't high enough to get said tickets, but at least there was a chance.

At the very least, the UW could have done Badger season ticket holders a favor by giving us a heads-up that the only way to get Frozen Four tickets is by buying them whenever they went on sale. Unless I missed that e-mail, I never knew about it. It was maddening seeing the ¨Ticket Information" tab on the UW website after they beat BU. Was constantly misleading that tickets were ever available. They never were at any point after they were originally sold out.
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When the Womens ice hockey draws nearly 18000 there will be plenty more tickets set aside for participating team's fans. TIll then the NCAA is going to be limited. They have to set aside for wch team plus the home town and in a place that only seats 3500 that does not leave many left overs. It will be even fewer i Madison unless they use Kohl's.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

Badger Booster said:
At the very least, the UW could have done Badger season ticket holders a favor by giving us a heads-up that the only way to get Frozen Four tickets is by buying them whenever they went on sale. Unless I missed that e-mail, I never knew about it. It was maddening seeing the ¨Ticket Information" tab on the UW website after they beat BU. Was constantly misleading that tickets were ever available. They never were at any point after they were originally sold out.
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To me, this is the biggest problem - UW did nothing to let its fans and ticket holders that tickets were ever available. The post-season ticket info letter was sent out after the games were already sold out, and the "ticket info" link provided after the quarterfinal was just an added insult to fans. The letter to season ticket holders was sent in February, so I could see that just being a mistake where they didn't realize it was sold out, or even that the letters were printed when there were still some tickets available, but keeping the same info up a week before the games when everyone knew there were no tickets available is a sign that the athletic/ticket office simply didn't care about the event.

Still, I think much more could have also been done on Minnesota's end too. I started looking for ticket info at the beginning of the season, and for the longest time, no information was available. When tickets finally did go on sale, it was in the middle or end of December - in the middle of the Holiday break, when hockey season isn't exactly top of mind - and I don't recall the Gopher's ever posting ticket sale info on facebook, nor do I recall ever seeing anything about it on the handful of GWH games I watched on BTN+. Obviously, the tickets sold out, and they sold out quickly so word did get out there. I assume Gopher Ticket holders were directly informed about the on sale date, but even as someone who was watching fairly closely, getting tickets wasn't that easy. I don't think selling tickets earlier would really help though, as I think that would actually give a bigger advantage to scalpers, compared to fans who want to be able to commit to going before buying tickets.

I do think more should be done to set aside tickets for each school, and it isn't fair to say that fans in Minneapolis had the same opportunity, and were taking the same risk that their team would make it as everyone else. If the Gophers had missed the FF, fans in the Twin Cities could still go and enjoy the games and it takes no effort at all. It's quite a bit different than fans who have to take time off work, travel, pay for a hotel, etc. I had to take 2 days off of work (thanks in part to the Sunday evening snowstorm that made it impossible for me to get home Sunday night.) It's an even bigger commitment if the event wasn't within driving distance. If we saw the exact same situation at next year's Frozen Four, how many fans in Minnesota or Wisconsin are really going to make the investment of going to New Hampshire if their team doesn't make it - but might make the trip to see their team. Of course, holding more tickets for each school would be a big problem at LaBahn, which is one of the reasons I think LaBahn is just too small to be a good host site.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

As of right now I believe that Shaver and Cogan are the only 2 incoming freshman to UW this upcoming season. If I do the math correctly that means there will be 12 forwards and 6 defensemen on the roster.. They may sign someone late as a depth move but, you have to believe that all the top recruits out there are already committed somewhere! Bottom line is that the team will lose around 50 goals from the 5 graduated seniors. (Turnbull, Sylvester, Ammerman, Zgraja, and Josephs). Shaver and Cogan are both quality recruits that should contribute some next year. I like the chemistry that the Clark, Wellhausen, Pankowski line had over the last 3-4 weeks of the season. We will see if Coach Johnson keeps them together on a consistent basis next season. I think both Clark and Wellhausen will increase their goal production and Pankowski will continue to get better and better. And she is already great! That line could be really scary for teams to match up against. Nurse and McKibbon are a great pair together and it will be interesting to see who the coaching staff puts on that line to replace Josephs. My guess is Shaver. You have to think that Sowchuck will move up to center the third line. Probably either Cogan or Jones on a wing and either Mikayla Johnson or Molly Doner of on the other wing. On defense the top 4 are pretty solid. Burke with Rolfes and Channell with Ryan. Drake and Williams are the third pair..Of course all of this is just speculation on my part!! What thoughts do any of the other Badger fans out there have??
Badger Booster said:
Does anyone know if there are any additional recruits coming in this fall? Badgers graduate five, but only Shaver and Cogan are listed as commits for the fall. Both are listed as forwards, so it seems we are a bit short on defense.
Click to expand...
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

Badger Booster said:
Does anyone know if there are any additional recruits coming in this fall? Badgers graduate five, but only Shaver and Cogan are listed as commits for the fall. Both are listed as forwards, so it seems we are a bit short on defense.
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I'm back to "only 18 scholarships" (again, unless I'm mistaken on that). Having carried 14 forwards and seven defense (and three goalies), that has to mean that some were playing on half-scholarship this year. Based on nothing, my guess is Mark Johnson told some of them 'hang in there with the half-scholarship this year (2014-2015), and next year I'll get you on a full scholarship". 12 and 6 is more 'normal' with 18 scholarships going 'farther'.
 
Nowheresville said:
Of course, holding more tickets for each school would be a big problem at LaBahn, which is one of the reasons I think LaBahn is just too small to be a good host site.
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This. With it's seating capacity I hope the NCAA never allows the FF to be played at LaBahn. Worst possible scenario in a facility you're guaranteed many who would hope to attend would be unable to. Have to be Kohl for UW to host. I don't see how the complaints with Ridder, the U of M and ticket availability would not be considerably aggravated at LaBahn
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

brookyone said:
This. With it's seating capacity I hope the NCAA never allows the FF to be played at LaBahn. Worst possible scenario in a facility you're guaranteed many who would hope to attend would be unable to. Have to be Kohl for UW to host. I don't see how the complaints with Ridder, the U of M and ticket availability would not be considerably aggravated at LaBahn
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Two different arguments. My stance on the FF ticket issue at Ridder hasn't changed. In my opinion, it was handled poorly by everyone involved.

As far as LaBahn hosting the Frozen Four, I can't really debate the fact that it is too small for a NCAA championship event. Not too small for the WCHAs, but that's a different discussion. I would be surprised if the UW ever bids out Kohl Center for if no other reason, it's usually tied up for a state tournament.

Only other Madison arena is the Dane County Coliseum. Not in love with the facility, but seats around 7,000 (with plenty of on-site parking) and has strong historical ties to UW hockey. However, I don't think there is much of a positive relationship between the university and the people that run the Coliseum.

All I know is that I'm frustrated that the closest tournament final four (WCHA or NCAA) in over 15 years has been 5 hours away.
 
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Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

Timothy A said:
I just filled out my season ticket holder survey. My comments were about the band needing to be there every game, the concession getting too backed up, Friday aft games being bad and there needing to be more red and white and less beige in the color scheme. Hopefully I didn't miss any of the main points.
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BTW, How did you receive this survey? I haven't seen one, and I don't think I've ever got one in my several years of being a season ticket holder.
 
Badger Booster said:
Two different arguments. My stance on the FF ticket issue at Ridder hasn't changed. In my opinion, it was handled poorly by everyone involved.

As far as LaBahn hosting the Frozen Four, I can't really debate the fact that it is too small for a NCAA championship event. Not too small for the WCHAs, but that's a different discussion. I would be surprised if the UW ever bids out Kohl Center for if no other reason, it's usually tied up for a state tournament.

Only other Madison arena is the Dane County Coliseum. Not in love with the facility, but seats around 7,000 (with plenty of on-site parking) and has strong historical ties to UW hockey. However, I don't think there is much of a positive relationship between the university and the people that run the Coliseum.

All I know is that I'm frustrated that the closest tournament final four (WCHA or NCAA) in over 15 years has been 5 hours away.
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LaBahn only has one locker room for visitors. Visiting teams would have to setup at the Kohl, but that is a long long walk to the ice.
 
Badger Booster said:
Does Ridder have multiple locker rooms and/or are the Mariucci locker rooms in close proximity?
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Ridder has 5 total, but teams use 2 each. Generally during
tournaments 2 teams (3 if mn is in) will be in Ridder with the
other teams in Mariucci. The walk from Mariucci to Ridder is much shorter than the Wal from the Kohl Center to LaBahn.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

fantasticfrito said:
Ridder has 5 total, but teams use 2 each. Generally during
tournaments 2 teams (3 if mn is in) will be in Ridder with the
other teams in Mariucci. The walk from Mariucci to Ridder is much shorter than the Wal from the Kohl Center to LaBahn.
Click to expand...

That's a sweet set-up for sure.
 
Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015

fantasticfrito said:
LaBahn only has one locker room for visitors. Visiting teams would have to setup at the Kohl, but that is a long long walk to the ice.
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The FF would have to be played at the KC. They are connected, don't LB's dressing rooms have a connection to the KC or vise verse? There's no way I'd want the FF played at the Coliseum. I think the HS championships should be at LB or the KC. Labahn would be a great atmosphere for HS hockey.
 
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