Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

[Steve_MN]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

UNH fan but live in providence , go to brown or pc games , usualy $8 and your in for the game .... so $ 15 is considered a large jump ...

$8 bucks? That's what Area high schools charge and more. Wow! This is eye opening.

Wow, I didn't realize how cheap tickets were out east. If tickets were $15 for the Final Five, they would need to build a 50,000 seat arena to meet the demand.

Really pretty ridiculous. And I keep hearing how many options there are in an hour's drive, but what are the sizes of the arenas, and how many people live in that hour's drive? Yes, there may be 10 different arenas in that area to choose from (if you don't have a specific team that you follow) but the arenas are a quarter the size of Mariucci (to say nothing of REA/Kohl center) and you have what, 3 or 4 times the population in that same radius?

 

[kdiff77]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

Really pretty ridiculous. And I keep hearing how many options there are in an hour's drive, but what are the sizes of the arenas, and how many people live in that hour's drive? Yes, there may be 10 different arenas in that area to choose from (if you don't have a specific team that you follow) but the arenas are a quarter the size of Mariucci (to say nothing of REA/Kohl center) and you have what, 3 or 4 times the population in that same radius?

The population of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area is, according to Wikipedia, between 3 and 4 million. Mariucci seats close to 10,000. Let's use Boston as a comparison.

The greater Boston area (generally considered to be the North and South Shores) has 4.5 million people. Teams that are located in this area are (arena capacity in parentheses):

-Boston Univ. (6,200)
-Boston College (7,800)
-Northeastern (5,900)
-Harvard (2,850)
-Bentley (1,000)
-Umass-Lowell (6,400)
-Merrimack (3,700)

That's 33,900 seats to fill. Throw in an assortment of D-III schools (Wentworth, Babson, Curry, etc.), the Bruins or Celtics playing almost every night at the Garden, the fact that it is a pain in the buns to get into Boston (you either drive and can't park or you take the T, which takes hours)...

I don't know how many other programs are in the same area as the Gophers. I don't particularly care. The fact of the matter is, there are a LOT of teams around here, and I would argue that most people are casual fans with no emotional ties to any particular team. For instance, when BU does well, everyone jumps on the bandwagon; when BC does well, everyone jumps off the BU bandwagon and onto the BC wagon.

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

I don't know how many other programs are in the same area as the Gophers.

There are zero teams within 70 miles of Mariucci. By comparison, all of the schools you listed, plus Providence and Brown are within 70 miles of Boston. Throw in UNH who is exactly 70 miles from Boston. Leaving out the Whit's capacity, and you've got 38,000 seats to fill in that radius (NU and MC have lowered capacity through renovations). If you want to add in UNH, you've got upwards of 45,000 in a 70 mile drive of Boston. The poster's argument about the Kohl Center and the Ralph is really irrelevant since they're both 275+ miles away so adding them in to this argument is stupid.

And if everything is so stir crazy out there, how come an NCAA regional final in Minneapolis between MN and UND barely draws more than 10K? Something tells me a BU-BC regional final at TD Garden would be able to garner more than 10K.

 

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

There are zero teams within 70 miles of Mariucci. By comparison, all of the schools you listed, plus Providence and Brown are within 70 miles of Boston. Throw in UNH who is exactly 70 miles from Boston. Leaving out the Whit's capacity, and you've got 38,000 seats to fill in that radius (NU and MC have lowered capacity through renovations). If you want to add in UNH, you've got upwards of 45,000 in a 70 mile drive of Boston. The poster's argument about the Kohl Center and the Ralph is really irrelevant since they're both 275+ miles away so adding them in to this argument is stupid.

And if everything is so stir crazy out there, how come an NCAA regional final in Minneapolis between MN and UND barely draws more than 10K? Something tells me a BU-BC regional final at TD Garden would be able to garner more than 10K.

Because NCAA prices are ridiculous, it's short notice, and UND is 5 hours away...

 

[kdiff77]

Because NCAA prices are ridiculous, it's short notice, and UND is 5 hours away...

...but it's somehow reasonable to fill the amount of seats in Fenway Park for college hockey every weekend? If there were ONE team in New England, they would have to play at the TD Garden and would still probably sell out every game. But since there are about ten in the same radius that UM has sole possession of, the product is considerably less in demand and ticket prices are generally low.

 

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

...but it's somehow reasonable to fill the amount of seats in Fenway Park for college hockey every weekend? If there were ONE team in New England, they would have to play at the TD Garden and would still probably sell out every game. But since there are about ten in the same radius that UM has sole possession of, the product is considerably less in demand and ticket prices are generally low.

And I'm sure they're all at home every weekend...

 

[brassbonanza]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

I certainly am not questioning the passion of hockey out in the upper Midwest, I saw it with my own eyes this past fall and it's great, I'd love to spend a few weekends out there. It's just comparing apples and oranges to say, well, Minnesota fills a 10K arena all the time! Boston doesn't! I can jog to four different arenas from my apartment, totaling over 21,000 seats. It's just two different atmospheres. The nature of sports in general here, much less the abundance of college hockey teams in the area means there's split alliances, and thus it sometimes ends up in a watered-down environment since Harvard and NU haven't been good for a long time, BU has had a few recent struggles, while BC has been dominating.

I'm also not sure I buy the whole NCAA price thing. I see the face value of a Final Five weekend ticket is $165 (taken from UND website), isn't roughly the same, if not more, than the NCAA regional weekend ticket? Heck, that's not much less than a Frozen Four ticket. So you can sell out the Final Five without issue, but a regional final gets not much past 50% capacity for the same two teams in a more important game?


Re: All being home the same weekend. I don't have the time now to look at the composite schedule, but you'd be hard-pressed to find very many weekends where a combination of two of BC/BU/NU are not at home. The capacities of any two of those is >10K, and in the case of BC and BU, it's more than just about every WCHA arena save the Kohl Center. And that's just arenas that require no more than two street turns to get between one another.

 

[MinnesotaNorthStar]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

I'm also not sure I buy the whole NCAA price thing. I see the face value of a Final Five weekend ticket is $165 (taken from UND website), isn't roughly the same, if not more, than the NCAA regional weekend ticket? Heck, that's not much less than a Frozen Four ticket. So you can sell out the Final Five without issue, but a regional final gets not much past 50% capacity for the same two teams in a more important game?

That's the lower bowl 5 game package for the WCHA. Plus, knowing so far in advance when/where the Final Five is helps a lot, when you don't know what regional you're going to until a week before.

And again, I don't think there are very many casual fans of college hockey who'll just go because they want to go to a college hockey game and it's the cheapest ticket.

 

[kdiff77]

And again, I don't think there are very many casual fans of college hockey who'll just go because they want to go to a college hockey game and it's the cheapest ticket.

This is where you're wrong. I get that this might not be the case in your region of the country, but here, it absolutely is true. No one on this board qualifies because we are all devoted to our own teams, but in the case of someone with no connection to any of these school who just likes watching quality hockey on the cheap, they're not necessarily going to stick to one team with so many options in the market.

 

[Patman]

Right, but a Northeastern fan isn't going to attend a Harvard game just because it's cheaper. If they make the decision to go to a college hockey game, it's going to be Northeastern's.

But how many fans are actually lock dedicated to one school?

----

I have gone to Merrimack games (when at Lowell) because I could and knew others were going... Not nearly as often as others but I did.

Fact is that there is a lot more competition for the entertainment dollar... And even the AHL is a competitor... There are 7 AHL teams in New England as well.

 

[nodak651]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

You guys are discounting the fact that metro area hs hockey, as a whole, probably sell at LEAST 15k tickets per week. Plus we also have the Wild and Timberwolves. There is competition out here as well... Edina, Hill-Murray, and some other area teams probably have better attendance than most of the non HE schools out East.

Edit: As for the low attendance at the regional, most UND fans can't afford to take two trips down to the cities in such a short period of time. The cost of gas, high ticket prices, hotels, and food gets to be very expensive. Most students who head down for the Final 5 don't have enough time to take off work for the regional, either.

 

[Steve_MN]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

You guys are discounting the fact that metro area hs hockey, as a whole, probably sell at LEAST 15k tickets per week. Plus we also have the Wild and Timberwolves. There is competition out here as well... Edina, Hill-Murray, and some other area teams probably have better attendance than most of the non HE schools out East.

Edit: As for the low attendance at the regional, most UND fans can't afford to take two trips down to the cities in such a short period of time. The cost of gas, high ticket prices, hotels, and food gets to be very expensive. Most students who head down for the Final 5 don't have enough time to take off work for the regional, either.

And most people don't realize this, but they didn't even OFFER tickets for the upper deck for the NCAA Regionals last year. They basically sold out the lower bowl for the weekend, then called it good and didn't open up the upper floor, or they would likely have sold at least a few thousand more tickets, especially once it was announced that North Dakota would be there. (Still don't understand the reasoning behind that...)

 

[Go-UML]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

And most people don't realize this, but they didn't even OFFER tickets for the upper deck for the NCAA Regionals last year. They basically sold out the lower bowl for the weekend, then called it good and didn't open up the upper floor, or they would likely have sold at least a few thousand more tickets, especially once it was announced that North Dakota would be there. (Still don't understand the reasoning behind that...)

Probably determined that amount of money to staff the upper level wouldn't have been covered by the revenue. Or by the time they figured out they could have, wasn't enough time to pull it off.

 

[Agganis]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

And most people don't realize this, but they didn't even OFFER tickets for the upper deck for the NCAA Regionals last year. They basically sold out the lower bowl for the weekend, then called it good and didn't open up the upper floor, or they would likely have sold at least a few thousand more tickets, especially once it was announced that North Dakota would be there. (Still don't understand the reasoning behind that...)

They sold the 2nd level (I know because I sat in it) and it was less than a quarter full. They were still selling tickets that day at the box office so please don't pretend thousands of more people wanted to go but couldn't get in.

And if everything is so stir crazy out there, how come an NCAA regional final in Minneapolis between MN and UND barely draws more than 10K? Something tells me a BU-BC regional final at TD Garden would be able to garner more than 10K.

Not Boston but within 50 miles which fits withing the arbitrary 70 mile range previously used. Just under 9k for this BU vs BC regional final.

 

[mookie1995]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

Tis true. Mookie was there and saw scattered peeps up top.

 

[kdiff77]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

Not Boston but within 50 miles which fits withing the arbitrary 70 mile range previously used. Just under 9k for this BU vs BC regional final.

That was an ugly game that I wish I hadn't wasted money on. But yes, the DCU center was plenty full, even though there was no BC student section besides their band. Had the school decided to organize a trip for their students (as it appeared BU did), I can imagine there would have been another 1,000 or so in attendance that day.

 

[4four4]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

The population of the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area is, according to Wikipedia, between 3 and 4 million. Mariucci seats close to 10,000. Let's use Boston as a comparison.

The greater Boston area (generally considered to be the North and South Shores) has 4.5 million people. Teams that are located in this area are (arena capacity in parentheses):

-Boston Univ. (6,200)
-Boston College (7,800)
-Northeastern (5,900)
-Harvard (2,850)
-Bentley (1,000)
-Umass-Lowell (6,400)
-Merrimack (3,700)

That's 33,900 seats to fill. Throw in an assortment of D-III schools (Wentworth, Babson, Curry, etc.), the Bruins or Celtics playing almost every night at the Garden, the fact that it is a pain in the buns to get into Boston (you either drive and can't park or you take the T, which takes hours)...

I don't know how many other programs are in the same area as the Gophers. I don't particularly care. The fact of the matter is, there are a LOT of teams around here, and I would argue that most people are casual fans with no emotional ties to any particular team. For instance, when BU does well, everyone jumps on the bandwagon; when BC does well, everyone jumps off the BU bandwagon and onto the BC wagon.

Since, you are comparing the two areas I would like to add some points. Currently, the major sports angle is a wash and probably the division III angle. Although, the Boston area has 7 Division 1 programs Minneapolis/St. Paul has three Division 1 programs and many highschool programs like Edina, Hill Murray, and others who draw pretty well in fact we have many high schools who out sell colleges out east.

 

[Agganis]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

That was an ugly game that I wish I hadn't wasted money on. But yes, the DCU center was plenty full, even though there was no BC student section besides their band. Had the school decided to organize a trip for their students (as it appeared BU did), I can imagine there would have been another 1,000 or so in attendance that day.

Well now we're just making up rationales as we go. How many student trips were organized for the St. Paul regional? That said WMU brought more to Minn than either UNO or Miami brought to Mass, so that affects attendance numbers, not sure what that means about anything, but it is a fact.

 

[kdiff77]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

Well now we're just making up rationales as we go. How many student trips were organized for the St. Paul regional? That said WMU brought more to Minn than either UNO or Miami brought to Mass, so that affects attendance numbers, not sure what that means about anything, but it is a fact.

I was just pointing out something that could have an impact on attendance; there really IS no rationale in this entire argument.

 

[Agganis]

Re: Wonder why hockey east attendance is down at 15$ a whack ?????

I was just pointing out something that could have an impact on attendance; there really IS no rationale in this entire argument.

Which day had nicer weather?
Was there a major traffic incident affecting either crowd?
Are there more birthdays that time of the year in Minn or Mass with parties that could reduce crowds, or would parties go to the game increasing the crowd?
What is the median income of the combined alumni population of the 4 schools at each regional?
If my great uncle had wheels how would they be mounted on him?