Attendance

[J.D.]

Lots of empty seats at Worcester,MA for a Regional Championship game. Maybe some other city should host.

Check the box score from yesterday. Then factor in both Cornell and NU had good fan support yesterday. They're not here anymore and it's down to two teams. It's a decent crowd today. Not amazing but solid.

[ThePowerConference]

Re: Attendance

My biggest complaint about the attendance is when they put the games in a building that is too big for the crowd. 8,000 fans in a 10,000 rink isn't bad. If that rink holds 15,000+, or if you have 4,000-5,000 in a rink that holds 10,000, then there is no atmosphere at all. I was at both WCHA Championship games on campus this year and last and nothing beats a full building even though the crowds were less than 4,500 each time. They don't have to move the NCAA onto campus, just "right-size" the venue. In my opinion if you fill a 10,000 seat arena and turn 2,000 fans away that is a good thing. Better than 12,000 in an NHL rink.

I totally agree. NHL sized arenas should be for the Frozen Four, not regionals. They've had a west regional at Xcel Energy Center in St Paul a couple times in the past few years and although it was a good crowd (7,000-10,000) every time, it still looks empty in a 19,000 capacity arena. Stick to arenas that are 5,000 - 10,000 in size, lower ticket costs, and try to maximize attendance with local teams if possible.

[chickod]

I totally agree. NHL sized arenas should be for the Frozen Four, not regionals. They've had a west regional at Xcel Energy Center in St Paul a couple times in the past few years and although it was a good crowd (7,000-10,000) every time, it still looks empty in a 19,000 capacity arena. Stick to arenas that are 5,000 - 10,000 in size, lower ticket costs, and try to maximize attendance with local teams if possible.

Except you have to understand the history. Worcester WAS a medium sized arena (around 11,000) until the renovation to add the balcony seats. That’s most likely to attract concerts etc and now there’s an ECHL team here. They had already established themselves in the rotation. I get what you’re saying but where else are they going to have it? It’s right in the middle of a large population center and close to at least twenty schools.

[LTsatch]

Re: Attendance

Not sure why they never use Springfield? Medium size ala Bridgeport

[chickod]

Not sure why they never use Springfield? Medium size ala Bridgeport

Further away from all the Hockey East schools. I mean if you’re concerned about attendance why would you move it further away?

[chickod]

Re: Attendance

No difference for Yale or Quinnipiac really

[WeAreNDHockey]

Re: Attendance

Are attendance figures based on tickets sold or scanned?

That depends on the honesty of those reporting the attendance. Officially, they will tell you it is tickets sold and rarely (if ever) is it tickets scanned. I have my doubts sometimes about the "tickets sold" because I have first hand knowledge of SIDs flat out making up figures to distribute to the press.

To me it looks like the figures I have seen reported in box scores for the last 3 days are probably an honest reflection of tickets sold. And that's because the regions did seem to perform a little better, ticket-wise, this time around.

[LTsatch]

Re: Attendance

[QUOTE=chickod;6645582]Further away from all the Hockey East schools. I mean if you’re concerned about attendance why would you move it further away?[/QU

I was more concerned about building size, and not all the hockey East Schools are going to make the tourney. When it comes down to it, the only sites to consider for the Northeast are Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Manchester,and maybe Portland. You can't base the location on one conference.

[chickod]

Re: Attendance

[QUOTE=LTsatch;6645663]

Further away from all the Hockey East schools. I mean if you’re concerned about attendance why would you move it further away?[/QU

I was more concerned about building size, and not all the hockey East Schools are going to make the tourney. When it comes down to it, the only sites to consider for the Northeast are Providence, Worcester, Springfield, Manchester,and maybe Portland. You can't base the location on one conference.

Not basing it on one conference. I said it's about the same distance for Quinnipiac and Yale (and really UConn too). Portland is too small...Worcester had 10,000 yesterday and Portland only holds 6,700. As it is they rotate Manchester and Worcester every other year. Maybe Springfield doesn't bid.

And frankly, for those complaining about Worcester. The MassMutual Center (Springfield) is a dump.

[CLS]

Re: Attendance

That depends on the honesty of those reporting the attendance. Officially, they will tell you it is tickets sold and rarely (if ever) is it tickets scanned. I have my doubts sometimes about the "tickets sold" because I have first hand knowledge of SIDs flat out making up figures to distribute to the press.

To me it looks like the figures I have seen reported in box scores for the last 3 days are probably an honest reflection of tickets sold. And that's because the regions did seem to perform a little better, ticket-wise, this time around.

I'd guess almost certainly they use tickets sold, because they know that there are going to be people how buy tickets for the finals that don't use them if their team loses in the Regional semis. And as for comparing crowd size with tickets sold, the semifinals are typically single admission, so the number of folks in the seats at any one time is quite a bit less than the number of tickets sold.

Not sure why they never use Springfield? Medium size ala Bridgeport

Probably because Springfield doesn't submit bids. Worcester has evidently determined that NCAA Regionals are good business for them, and submit a bid every other year. Springfield evidently hasn't done so.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Attendance

8 hours from Boston to Buffalo? Good lord, what are they driving a 1980 Chevy Chevette? ... Doing 70 mph on a 65 mph highway you can do Boston to Buffalo easily in 6 hours and 15 minutes. Even quicker if you don't mind going faster than that. I think your friends might need to learn how to drive!

Tell Google. I suppose Google is assuming driving the speed limit. But you've just made my case even stronger. Now my friends stand guilty of complaining about a 6.25 hour drive!

Can't speak for pgb, but at my age there's no way I make it to Buffalo without two, maybe three, potty breaks.

I'm with you.

But Saints #1 definitely has a point. On further review, it's more like 7 hours, even with the potty breaks. But when you add a meal break... well, you get the idea.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Attendance

There are. But here’s the difference. There are a billion schools here and none have anywhere near the fan base that North Dakota does. None are capable of selling out the arena by themselves. UND is. That’s the difference.

Spot on.

When a poster make the effort to understand how the "other half lives" and gets it right... well, there's actual hope that things can get better.

[The Rube]

Re: Attendance

There are. But here’s the difference. There are a billion schools here and none have anywhere near the fan base that North Dakota does. None are capable of selling out the arena by themselves. UND is. That’s the difference.

UND doesn't really travel. They move once done with college. It's the dirty little secret (no, I don't blame them). The running joke is they move to either Denver or Minneapolis. Flip a coin.

[pgb-ohio]

Re: Attendance

One thing I'd like to see is all conferences go to a home ice format for their conference tournaments. You eliminate the travel required for half the fan bases to see their team play the weekend before the NCAAs and that alone may make people more willing to make a drive, spend a night at a hotel and all of the other costs associated with traveling to see your team.

The home ice format works really well for our conference. I'm not going to look up numbers tonight. But the attendance total for the 2018 B1G tournament must have shown a spectacular improvement. 100% thumbs up.

Part of that is due to ND joining, of course. Really glad to have you back in the same conference, btw.

With all that said, I'm going to gently dissent on the idea of pushing our format on other conferences. I'm just going to say to each their own.

My mindset is to try to make the best of all things. But I still can't help but feel that it's really lousy that a regional format poorly suited to the West has been imposed upon us. For better or worse, I don't want to be guilty of the same transgression. Learn from other conference tournaments? Sure. But leave the ultimate decision to the conferences themselves.

[chickod]

Re: Attendance

The home ice format works really well for our conference.

Did I miss something here? I thought we were talking about the NCAA regionals. The conference tournaments (as far as I know) are not "directly" under the jurisdiction of the NCAA in the sense that they don't dictate the format, so each conference can do what they want. We were discussing the viability of putting the regionals in NHL arenas and whether they should be moved to smaller venues to reduce cost and at least give the "perception" of a more "full" arena to improve atmosphere. Weren't we????