More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is...

[mnstate0fhockey]

Yes!!!!! Exactly!!!!! Finally, someone who has the ***** to say what the REAL problem is. Why do they call them "regionals" when Air Force has to travel to Worcester, Michigan State to Bridgeport, Cornell to Green Bay and BU to St. Paul???? I'm so sick of the NCAA copying the basketball "template." Like that ludicrous "pod" system where they play the EAST regional in Hawaii and the West regional on Mars. Basketball makes billions of dollars - it's not an analagous situation. Basketball is popular EVERWHERE in the country - hockey is a regional, niche sport. And two bottom seeds beat top seeds. When does that happen in basketball (NO #16 has EVER beaten a #1). The fact is, bracket integrity isn't as large a factor in hockey. Do you see any 32-0 teams? I don't. It's HOCKEY! The games aren't 73 - 65 - they're 2-1 and 4-3. Each score has WAY MORE proportional significance. One bounce or hot goalie can change a season. If you get one bad bounce in basketball, you have about 80 more chances to make it up. It's just like interleague play in baseball. What's wrong with just keeping everyone in their region? Have an East Regional (with all the teams from the East) and a West regional (with all the teams in the West) and let them meet in the Frozen Four.

And the thing is, it's NOT about money. Because the NCAA could care less about hockey. That's the point. It doesn't make money anyway. If they wanted to make money, they would do what Caustic Undertow said and go back to campus sites. At least Mariucci would be packed for Minn/BU and for places with smaller arenas like Maine, you could have the game in Portland, which is two hours closer than Worcester. Also, does anybody at the NCAA understand that we are in a RECESSION and GAS PRICES are HIGH?????? Do they understand that (especially if you're in the West) you have to make THREE TRIPS if you're going to go to all of your team's games if they make it all the way? And that probably two of them involve flying??????

The basketball East regional was in Boston yesterday. It was $195 for ONE TICKET. They announced 19,000 and it sure looked as if the place was almost sold out. We play hockey - it's a different sport with different circumstances. But until the schools that are MEMBERS of the NCAA that the organization is supposed to be listening to and serving (sort of like the government is supposed to be listening to the PEOPLE - how's that working out?), it will never change. I'm sure that BU was thrilled to see 200 people go to the game. That really made it exciting for them, right?Y

What a joke and it's never going to change.

Mariucci's capacity isn't much more than what was in the X for that game. The problem was the price of tickets, the fact that they didn't start selling single game tickets until the day of, and the fact that they wouldn't let people leave between games. It's hard to justify spending $500 + parking + food and beverage to bring a family of five to the games and sit there with kids 7+ hours when you can watch on TV. Not to mention the significant additional costs if you're coming from out of town.

[Greyeagle]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Games at the Ralph would draw 12,000.

Start sandblasting.

[5mn_Major]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Muddle about in confusion as for the first time in the history of Big Ten athletics, a market and the local media views their sport as an inferior pale comparison to the Junior leagues already there? You might actually have better luck pushing the "superiority" of Big Ten football in Alabama.

Not so sure about that. Just as with MN, Canada is immersed in hockey. I have little doubt that avid junior fans would turn on some college games (as much as folks turn on other non football, non basketball sports). Frankly, I could see the same thing happening in pro hockey towns like Philly and NYC. I have no illusions that college hockey is going to be huge. But we are likely entering a new era of hockey with an already continent wide reach in BTN...we'll see.

[Patman]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Not so sure about that. Just as with MN, Canada is immersed in hockey. I have little doubt that avid junior fans would turn on some college games (as much as folks turn on other non football, non basketball sports). Frankly, I could see the same thing happening in pro hockey towns like Philly and NYC. I have no illusions that college hockey is going to be huge. But we are likely entering a new era of hockey with an already continent wide reach in BTN...we'll see.

rephrase, and I know this will be disappointing... not everybody cares about the Big10.

[5mn_Major]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

1. Football
2/3 Men's/Women's basketball
4. Baseball
5. Lacrosse
6. Softball
7. Hockey

Maybe you can move it to 6th.

Would love to dive into these numbers. I have little doubt that the only reason that lacrosse and softball beat hockey in attendance is that hockey is regional...probably occupying 20% of the country. So you have all these tiny lacrosse and softball programs with small turnouts...but they appear to be significant because they're national. College hockey on the other hand is large in the markets it serves.

Do these above numbers include new television audiences of verses, nbc, btn and now even channels like altitude? Doubt it. And if nobody was watching these all these hockey games...why would they continue to televise and expand this coverage? I saw my first lacrosse game on ESPN 3 yesterday. Don't expect to see another one show up for awhile.

I would guess college hockey is already 5th on your list even though its regional...with the opportunity to extend enthusiam second only to football and basketball further into the NE and Canada.

[Greyeagle]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

rephrase, and I know this will be disappointing... not everybody cares about the Big10.

Surely you jest?

[JF_Gophers]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

10 of 12 games have been completed in mostly dramatic fashion. In front of mostly empty seats.

Yes, the NCAA regional disaster rolls on. The most important games of the season, featuring electrifying action, overtime, and bad officiating. And nobody goes to see the games.

I knew nobody would be in Green Bay. I took my wife and kids and we had a great time, but there were fewer than 3500 people there on Friday. There were whole sections that but for one or two people were totally empty. With four teams that weren't particularly close, this wasn't a surprise. Still, it's embarrassing to see the highlights of these "crucial" games play out in front of a sea of red seats.

Nonetheless, the real travesty was in St. Paul. St. Paul, a stone's throw from the University of Minnesota, who was in the game. St. Paul, a few hours of familiar driving away from Grand Forks. St. Paul, home to the best hockey arena in the world. St. Paul, which finally won the regional lottery and got both Minnie and NoDak, the two most prominent fan bases at the Final Five the week before. Both playing on a Saturday.

The attendance for day one of that regional: 9386.

I'm not going to blame Minnie or NoDak fans who just went to the Final Five and hope for a Tampa trip. I won't blame promotion of the games, though it doesn't seem to have been very good. I won't even blame the absurdly high prices. And, granted, there will be a huge walk-up tomorrow as fans look for a rematch of last week's see-saw WCHA title game.

But this, to me, is an absolute travesty. If you can't even draw 10,000 fans at the X for the two biggest fan bases in the WCHA, your regional system is broken. It is an insult to the players, the coaches, the fans, and the sport itself. It must change.

The NCAA must drop neutral-site regionals and play the first 12 games at the home sites of the higher seeds.

What they need to do is split the tickets instead of the 1 day pass crap. More fans would show up if they weren't force fed both games cost.

[BCeagle]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

The other thing is, they should not charge the same price for each ticket. How can you charge the same price for seats in prime locations and seats in the balcony or in the corners or in the last rows in the balcony???

I don't understand why I got bad seats when there were much better seats available near my section or in lower levels. There were plenty of empty seats all around. Fortunately, there were so many empty spots that I was able to sit in better seats and get a better view of the game.

On top of that, they charge you 12.50 for processing fees for each day for a whopping 25.00 in processing fees if you order online and can't make the long drive to the rink to buy tickets to avoid the processing fees !!!

Is it not better to sell tickets and fill the rink up and make more money in concessions if the rink is filled???

[4four4]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Games at the Ralph would draw 12,000.

If by chance UND does not make it and tickets are 56 dollars per game, hardly.

[Driftryder]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Mariucci's capacity isn't much more than what was in the X for that game. The problem was the price of tickets, the fact that they didn't start selling single game tickets until the day of, and the fact that they wouldn't let people leave between games. It's hard to justify spending $500 + parking + food and beverage to bring a family of five to the games and sit there with kids 7+ hours when you can watch on TV. Not to mention the significant additional costs if you're coming from out of town.

Bingo. This was the reason I didn't go, I went to the Final Five and forked out plenty of money just last week, the prices the NCAA was asking were crazy.

I like the idea of opening the upper deck and selling those tickets for 10-15 bucks, I would have went.

[wjefwhite]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

BTW, I wonder who came up with starting the Northeast regional final on a Sunday night at 8 PM EST...that just sounds like a brilliant idea.

It's called going up against the NCAA round ball regional finals. They're done when this starts.

The other thing is the coverage on ESPNU. How many like the no HD Look/ Step child to round ball tournament. Some network take charge. ESPN hates hockey. Just ask them. Why don't we try streaming and give up blurred TV coverage. Fire Melrose as well. NHL guy can't cover College Hockey with a 30 minute prep.

[LTsatch]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

C'mon, don't you like those $7.00 hot dogs and $8.50 beers????

Ha, I actually managed to escape the place and had a nice Sam Adams and a Chicken Parm at Ralph and Richs between games.

As to the single session tickets, BPT sold them about 5 or 6 days before the event.

[bik4u62]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

Bingo. This was the reason I didn't go, I went to the Final Five and forked out plenty of money just last week, the prices the NCAA were asking were crazy.

Yup. My party of 5 wanted tickets - decided it was ransom.

[shiftyjedi]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

It's the NCAA's fault that the Xcel Energy Center is not to capacity. They asked people to spend 7 hours in since the arena and without beer or anything to do outside watching the game. It was one of the most sterile atmospheres ever for a sporting event. The only excitement or energy came from the Sioux and Gopher fan bases. There was minimal to no merchandise for the regional itself. One table with one style T-Shirt for each team and a bunch of Frozen Four gear. If this was business and not a corrupt non-profit system where a few adults make a ton of money off of "student athletes" while screwing over the customer base (no you didn't see the a Final Four team play at Williams arena in 1997 for $25 dollars, but no you can't have your money back we gave it to Iona so their ****ty basketball team has the privilege of remaining D1) it would have been dead faster then a Sausage Vendor cart at a PETA convention. It was such a stark contrast to the final five just one weekend ago. Which left the Hockey Lodge open with a ton of merchandise for all WCHA teams and the final five itself, beer sales, a band (and I've had enough Uncle Chunk already to last me a lifetime, but it was still a nice way to connect people), you could go out and re-enter, and there were corporate sponsorships. I could even go on a whole other rant about the ticket pricing (I sold a 45 dollars ticket for $20 and the scalper still couldn't sell it), but suffice to say it's not necessary. The NCAA made the building people cover up the FSN North sign, but can't even get a student intern to change the Name Scramble from last year's Frozen Four. Cam Aiktinson and Adam Burish again, really the NCAA is like a Hooker who doesn't even give you the courtesy of moaning.

[FireKnight]

Re: More proof that the Regional system is a disaster: Today's attendance at the X is

3 game series for 2 weeks.

Lower seed hosts game 1 on Thursday, higher seed gets games 2 and 3 (if needed) on Saturday and Sunday.

No week off after round 2.

Frozen Four as is.

Easy, and NCAA, you're welcome.

You just doubled the cost of travel for the NC$$. Not happening.