BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

[D2D]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

7 team tournament next year (Notre Dame joins as affiliate member

Best of 3 first round at higher seed arenas: 2v7, 3v6, 4v5

1 hosts single-elim semifinals and championship game the next weekend.

Basically a mini-CCHA playoff but no Joe Louis.

Wow, HUGE reward for finishing first in the regular season:

> Bye in first round (rest!)
> Home ice (and crowd) in the semi's and championship game

And I assume #1 plays the lowest seeded team that advances to the semi's?

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

I don't dislike any fan base other than some of the jerks in Colorado Springs for Colorado College. Now that their team sucks, they've chilled a lot though.

From my perspective I think the same could be said about Miami! At least their online fans.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Wow, HUGE reward for finishing first in the regular season:

> Bye in first round (rest!)
> Home ice (and crowd) in the semi's and championship game

And I assume #1 plays the lowest seeded team that advances to the semi's?

I still can't imagine what the conference would do if Ohio State was #1 and the Schott is being used for high school tournaments and the B1G is forced to hold their championship in the old 800 seat barn if the Blue Jackets home ice wouldn't be available. Would they dare even show that on the B1G Network?!

[D2D]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

I still can't imagine what the conference would do if Ohio State was #1 and the Schott is being used for high school tournaments and the B1G is forced to hold their championship in the old 800 seat barn if the Blue Jackets home ice wouldn't be available. Would they dare even show that on the B1G Network?!

Do they really need an arena as large as the Schott for high school tournaments that same weekend? And isn't there another mid-sized arena in the greater Columbus area? As always, a packed smaller venue is much preferred over a mostly empty NHL-sized facility.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Do they really need an arena as large as the Schott for high school tournaments that same weekend? And isn't there another mid-sized arena in the greater Columbus area? As always, a packed smaller venue is much preferred over a mostly empty NHL-sized facility.

OSU is ALL about the money they get for leasing the Schott and the B1G told OSU & Wisconsin they're OK with both the school's honoring their HS contracts.
Other than Nationwide Arena, the Blue Jacket's ice, and OSU's old building, the only other arena in town that can have ice is the State Fairground Coliseum and when I say it's an old barn I actually mean it's an old barn!
They hold horse & livestock showings in it. The Charleston Chiefs would have too much class to play there!
Back in 1966 Columbus had their first NHL game with the Columbus Checkers playing the Chicago Blackhawks in an exhibition and the yahoos at the coliseum didn't know you had to take the dirt up before laying down the ice. Let's just say it was a fiasco of Biblical proportions!

[D2D]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Well fortunately, I guess, the odds of OSU finishing first in the B1G regular season remain pretty low....for the time being. But given the new playoff format they really do need to develop a plan for when OSU hosting becomes a realistic scenario.

[Hockeybuckeye]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Well fortunately, I guess, the odds of OSU finishing first in the B1G regular season remain pretty low....for the time being. But given the new playoff format they really do need to develop a plan for when OSU hosting becomes a realistic scenario.

Yeah, was just speaking hypothetically of course.
We're going lose a lot of our top talent to graduation so who knows how good we'll be next season?

[John J. MacInnes]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

At the MHSAA hockey finals last weekend in Plymouth, the Detroit Sports Commission was in the USA Hockey Arena offering free tickets to the Big Ten tournament. All you had to do was walk up to the table and say you wanted 4, and they handed them right to you no questions asked. In the two games I attended we stood right next to the table, and I can't remember more than 10 people who even approached the display, let alone took the ticket offer. There was a rubber-banded stack of at least 1000 tickets just sitting there next to the poor forlorn attendant, who must have thought he was a leper the way people were avoiding him.

[alfablue]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

At the MHSAA hockey finals last weekend in Plymouth, the Detroit Sports Commission was in the USA Hockey Arena offering free tickets to the Big Ten tournament. All you had to do was walk up to the table and say you wanted 4, and they handed them right to you no questions asked. In the two games I attended we stood right next to the table, and I can't remember more than 10 people who even approached the display, let alone took the ticket offer. There was a rubber-banded stack of at least 1000 tickets just sitting there next to the poor forlorn attendant, who must have thought he was a leper the way people were avoiding him.

What I've complained about a few times- those tables were not set up in ANY B1G rink, ever. Offer tickets to people who don't really care, ignore the fans of the teams that are going.

It's almost as if the intention was to make the system fail.

At least the CCHA had people at rinks, they showed the trophy off. They could have done a better job making Detroit more appealing (and it is).

In the last 3 weeks of the season, camp people out at the 6 B1G rinks. Done.

Drove me crazy that they spent zero effort promoting it.

[Nowheresville]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

7 team tournament next year (Notre Dame joins as affiliate member

Best of 3 first round at higher seed arenas: 2v7, 3v6, 4v5

1 hosts single-elim semifinals and championship game the next weekend.

Actually, that's not quite right. It will actually be a 3 weekend tournament, with no neutral site games.

The first weekend is best of 3, with the 1 seed getting a bye, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5.

The second weekend is single elimination at the 1 seed and the highest remaining seed. So 4@1 and 3@2 if the high seeds win.

The third weekend would be low seed at high seed.


Personally, I think that's pretty moronic. Yes, you'll have home crowds, but if you're the 1 seed, you'll be getting warmed up for the NCAA by playing 2 games in 3 weeks. It could be even worse, the 1 seed could have an off week right before the conference playoffs start (quite possible with a 7 team league and the difficulty of scheduling a nc game in late February), lose their single elimination game, and literally play 1 game in the month before the NCAA tournament.

And it certainly makes it more likely that that we'll see exactly what Ohio State does if they have to host a game, although I think the potential conflicts are one of the reasons the semi finals will be single elimination.

[wolverineTrumpet]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

What I've complained about a few times- those tables were not set up in ANY B1G rink, ever. Offer tickets to people who don't really care, ignore the fans of the teams that are going.

It's almost as if the intention was to make the system fail.

At least the CCHA had people at rinks, they showed the trophy off. They could have done a better job making Detroit more appealing (and it is).

In the last 3 weeks of the season, camp people out at the 6 B1G rinks. Done.

Drove me crazy that they spent zero effort promoting it.

Why reward your loyal fans/customers? The money is in getting new customers. Just look at how every other business does it...especially cable companies. I understand the idea, but agree with alfa that there really should be some promotion and attempts to keep the fans/customers you have.

The husband and I are headed to the Joe tonight (will miss the early game as neither of us wanted to take off work). I haven't bothered with obtaining tickets for Friday or Saturday because: a) my team is horrible b) there's no excitement to the B1G tourney

[gopher wes]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

If Sparty & UM get kicked on Thursday, the BIG 6 may have trouble drawing a better crowd at the Joe than the 4400 sellout they'll have at the WCHA Final in Houghton. And I'm talking actual butts in seats. Not tickets distributed.

Michigan was in the championship game two years ago and the attendance(butts in seats) still wasn't even that great so.....

[KaMiGo]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Actually, that's not quite right. It will actually be a 3 weekend tournament, with no neutral site games.

The first weekend is best of 3, with the 1 seed getting a bye, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5.

The second weekend is single elimination at the 1 seed and the highest remaining seed. So 4@1 and 3@2 if the high seeds win.

The third weekend would be low seed at high seed.

Yes, this is the correct format. It is odd to see so much incorrect information floating around about this.
3 weekends, 2nd and 3rd weekends being single game match-ups
So the league that is trying to expand their presence will offer 3 total games over the final 2 weeks of the season.

I actually got some feedback from an e-mail that I sent to the league office and the reasoning for this is that they wanted to ensure that every game is played in front of a home crowd.

As it stands right now, there would be two possibilities for games to be played outside of the normal hockey buildings. OSU and UW both play in multi-use facilities. UW has a long-standing arrangement to host the high school boys basketball tournament in March. If this presents a scheduling conflict I believe that the hockey games would be moved to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center. This was the home of UW hockey before the Kohl Center was built in the very late 1990s.
There was a scheduling conflict 2013 that resulted in a late-season match-up against SCSU being played at the Coliseum. I kind of liked it. It was a very different atmosphere from the Kohl Center.

[gopher wes]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

I still can't imagine what the conference would do if Ohio State was #1 and the Schott is being used for high school tournaments and the B1G is forced to hold their championship in the old 800 seat barn if the Blue Jackets home ice wouldn't be available. Would they dare even show that on the B1G Network?!

With a couple weeks of planning you'd think they'd be able to approach CBJ and figure out if there was a conflict. CBJ plays an afternoon game, B1G championship game in the evening, or vice a versa. It's not like these game times are set in stone, especially with a one game 'series' in those semis and final. I know there's a whole lot more that goes into it than that but it should be doable.

[alfablue]

Re: BTHC Tourney '17: The Stands May Be Empty, But The Games Still Matter

Michigan was in the championship game two years ago and the attendance(butts in seats) still wasn't even that great so.....

Again, zero promotion.

All they had to do was exactly what the CCHA did, and more people would show up. Nothing was done.

People had no idea that Michigan was in the championship game, let alone there was even a tournament of big hockey schools. Kinda hard to attract eyes when you don't tell anybody about it.

I suspect the same thing was done when the games were in Minneapolis.

Otherwise, how do you completely miss an audience that has been used to going to some kind of tournament for a few decades?