SNC Regular Season 2009-10

[GB Puck Fan]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

When the "Bud Song" gets played you'd think people would clap along. Maybe I'll try once more tonight.

I clapped along!

A nice, solid, comfortable win tonight. Nothing spectacular, nothing horrible. Just a good win. Hopefully some good mo for the playoffs.

[Toe Blake's Brother]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

I clapped along to the "Bud Song"as well.

Nice win by SNC highlighted by what I thought was a very classy move by starting Skudder in net and then following up with O' Brien, who was simply in the groove with some absolute stunning saves! Nice shut out! O' Brien deserves consideration for POTW.

As far as the crowd, I would like to take credit for my rant on Friday night as being the difference. However, SNC security must have been handing out 5 hour energy drinks to the Oldsters as it was a much better effort on crowd participation as far as the Oldsters. I saw many people including SNC posters making some noise and acting like hockey fans. Way to go!

As far as the students, they still look like they are worrying about a paper that is due or dreaming of Spring break. Hopefully, the playoffs will lead to better efforts from the student section.

[2TinyRFFansMom]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Us few Falcon fans in attendance last nite couldn't BELIEVE how quiet the crowd was. Sure is a big change from a couple years back when the place rocked...sad. Given the choice, I'd take less wins and more crowd passion for the game. Hope that fire returns for your fans in the near future.

[MW4Bucky&SNC]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

The older crowd was pretty decent on Saturday, although Pete's blatant lack of participation in the Bud Song was disturbing. Unfortunately the students were non-existent. If I had a nationally ranked program to cheer for when I was in school you can bet I would have taken advantage, but I guess not everyone thinks that way.

Saturday's game didn't have playoff intensity by any means, but after a slow start to the first period I thought both teams brought it pretty hard relative to the meaninglessness of the game. You never know what to expect with those. It was a little bit of the opposite of Friday's game. Puck luck kept Friday's game from being even worse than a 5 goal difference. River Falls played well enough last night not necessarily to win but to make the game a lot closer than the 4 goal margin. Some great saves from O'Brien and some unlucky bounces for the Falcons made the margin of victory a little wider than it easily could have been. River Falls isn't a bad looking young team and they could have some good seasons ahead of them.

I'm really impressed with the results this group got in the regular season. It wasn't always a cakewalk, but I didn't see them going 14-2-2 even without some of the personnel losses last off-season. I really think the home game in the NCAA Quarters has to be sewn up at this point regardless of what happens in the NCHA playoffs.

[MW4Bucky&SNC]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Just for fun I went back and compared the coaches' Pre-season poll with the order of finish. It wasn't exactly a match.

Poll Actual Finish
1) Stout 1) St. Norbert
2) St. Norbert 2) St. Scholastica
3) Superior 3) River Falls
4) Point 4) Stout
5) River Falls 5) Point
6) St. Scholastica T5) Eau Claire
7) Eau Claire 7) Superior

Since it isn't an exact science you can hardly fault anyone for missing a spot with Eau Claire, Point, or St. Norbert. However, they badly overshot on Stout and Superior and really underrated St. Scholastica. I guess those guys get paid to coach and not predict or opine. A good thing to remember when someone gets self-righteous on here and says or implies we don't know because only the coach knows.

[GBhockeygal]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Thought we were making some pretty good noise down in section E..........

[Toe Blake's Brother]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Thought we were making some pretty good noise down in section E..........

Ya, we could tell that your whole section stood up and cheered after a goal. We could smell the bengay rub!

[SNChockey]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

The older crowd was pretty decent on Saturday, although Pete's blatant lack of participation in the Bud Song was disturbing. Unfortunately the students were non-existent. If I had a nationally ranked program to cheer for when I was in school you can bet I would have taken advantage, but I guess not everyone thinks that way.

Unfortunately, I think students are sick of paying for a ticket and then getting told they have to sit and be quiet. Once a few students get tossed for heckling the goalie or something, that kind of kills the mood for most...Especially since they sometimes threaten to kick you out for good. Hopefully more students show up for playoffs...

[GBhockeygal]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Unfortunately, I think students are sick of paying for a ticket and then getting told they have to sit and be quiet. Once a few students get tossed for heckling the goalie or something, that kind of kills the mood for most...Especially since they sometimes threaten to kick you out for good. Hopefully more students show up for playoffs...

I had actually emailed Tim Bald after our weekend up to Duluth; Scholastica has a GREAT student turn out and it was because they got a free bus ride to the game (and either free or greatly reduced ticket price); mostly freshmen but they were behaving nicely with no incidents; I actually got a phone call from him, but no real results to help drive participation. I don't think we're looking for an over the top obnoxious student section, but I agree they are squashed to the point they think why waste their time........it would be curious to know that since hockey players are typically "older" than their classmates, do they not have a peer group that wants to support them? Just tossing that comment out there...........

[SNC23PRIDE]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

I had actually emailed Tim Bald after our weekend up to Duluth; Scholastica has a GREAT student turn out and it was because they got a free bus ride to the game (and either free or greatly reduced ticket price); mostly freshmen but they were behaving nicely with no incidents; I actually got a phone call from him, but no real results to help drive participation. I don't think we're looking for an over the top obnoxious student section, but I agree they are squashed to the point they think why waste their time........it would be curious to know that since hockey players are typically "older" than their classmates, do they not have a peer group that wants to support them? Just tossing that comment out there...........

Never really had this probably when they were still playing at the DePere Ice Center and the program was still in its building years, and even then students had to drive to the rink...

[stnicx]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

This is my first time posting, and I am not usually one to talk. I have spent the last five years learning about hockey and really coming to love it as a sport. Mostly by listening to all of you talk and going to all the games when I can. What always impressed me was how most of you spoke from a place of experience and validated your opinions and predications with good hard facts, statistics and valid experiences. I am afraid the recent discussion about student attendance at the SNC games is troubling me and why I am now posting for the first time. I find that most of you are reacting from an emotional place and don't have enough hard facts. I have a lot more information than I can share, but I can tell you that I know about this problem intimately. I want to keep my anonymity so I can continue to speak without jeopardizing my job, but I also understand how that means my anonymity may invalidate what I say as you would have to trust that what I am saying is true. So here is my two cents to help the conversation a bit:

1. St. Norbert is the smallest school in the conference. Section A seats 260 persons. You would need 12.5% of the current student population to fill that section for every game. I don't think it even remotely reasonable to expect that level of attendance. My experience tells me that 3%-5% of the available population should be more than possible on a regular home game basis, but anything beyond that is not a reasonable expectation without some other mechanism to bolster attendance.

2. You could fit 94.5% of the student population in the entire arena (graduation on ice anyone?). That is how small the school is and yet it has remained at the top of the conference and been dominating for the last decade and half or so. That should say something about the quality of coaching and the resources that St. Norbert is putting into the program to keep it healthy. However, that domination and high level of play doesn't mean the student's pay any more attention. Actually, since I am around the students all the time, my observations tell me the students are generally complacent about hockey. Most of them don't even know when the games are; I often hear, "what... there's a hockey game tonight?". They expect the team to dominate therefore no excitement truly exists for them. It doesn't get exciting until something is on the line. That is why student interest goes up during playoffs. During the 2007-2008 season the average number of students attending games during the fall semester was 62 students. During J-term that average fell to 19 students per game. During the spring semester the average rose to 96 students per game peaking with the Peter's Cup game attendance at 210. The majority of students who may even be remotely aware of the hockey team are mostly fair weather fans.

3. The hockey program carries more expenses than any other sport at SNC. SNC pays a high 5 figures to rent ice for practice and games which is going to double this coming fall. The athletic department is required to make that cost up in ticket sales (except women's hockey for the short term duration, need to build a fan base first). Sometimes they make it and sometimes they don't. Budgets have been rough at the College for sometime and having revenue fall short of the expense comes with consequences. There is an exceedingly large amount of pressure on Tim Bald to make ends meet. It becomes very hard to justify letting SNC Students in for free, but I know he has gone to great lengths to keep their cost low. $5 bucks is cheap; you have to admit that.

4. An experiment was tried to boost student attendance. During the 2007-2008 tickets, all regular season games were sold at $3 a tickets if the students came to the Box Office during their regular office hours to get tickets. The theory being that if money was the issue, the students would buy more of the $3 tickets than going to cornerstone the night of and paying $5. The information was passed out in a variety of ways to spread the word, but it was especially pushed hard by all the RA's in all of the dorms. They needed to make sure the students knew. That policy remained in effect for all of regular season play. 74.75% of all tickets sold to SNC students were the $5 tickets. Money is not the issue for the students. Convenience wasn't the issue either as the Hall of Fine Arts (where the Box Office is located) is right next door to the student union and dining services.

5. The NCAA and NCHA put a lot of pressure on the school rinks to generate dollars. They like it when SNC hosts playoffs; big rink and lots will attend the games at that point. That is why ticket prices went up a dollar this year; an effort to create minimums to a guarantee a certain amount of cash flow regardless of location and to even out prices across the conference during playoffs. SNC is only allowed to pay its direct costs as called out in its bid and then every dime after that is turned over. SNC doesn't keep a penny more. Even though the prices went up Tim Bald kept the SNC student prices at $5 for NCHA playoffs.


Now I can't speak to the mood of the students and how they feel when they are at a game, but I know they need leadership. Leadership from within the students is impossible to sustain as there is a constant four year turnover. Leadership needs to come from a 3rd party independent of the athletic department. The students need to be shown how to have a good time without going too far violating NCAA rules, and they need to be rallied to learned about hockey and to support their team. If you really want to boost student attendance, join together and form a booster club to rally the students. Make it fun, promise free food, and work with the athletic department to create a support structure to nurture the situation. I bet you would hold more sway, if your actions guaranteed high level of turn out and could possibly gain enough leverage to deal the cost situation. With a constant presence of leadership from supporters such as yourselves, they will follow your example. Do it right, and it becomes infectious and it become the "it" thing to do. I guess I am saying investigate more and understand more and actually do something before you start blaming Tim Bald for the student attendance levels.

[stnicx]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Just in case anyone is curious (student population numbers were found on each school's website):

School = (# of Undergrads) = (% to fill Section A)
SNC = 2084 = 12.5%
UWS = 2800 = 9.29%
CSS = 3250 = 8.0%
UWRF = 6600 = 3.93%
UWST = 8416 = 3.08%
UWSP = 8800 = 2.95%
UWEC = 10487 = 2.48%

[GKP Radio]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

I too am a first time poster, just like the previous. I have to say I have watched this board and enjoyed the level of respect and knowledge that is posted on here. You're all great fans of the program and the game and your opinions are valued by even those who have not posted here, like myself and the previous.

Like the post before mine I have had many conversations with Tim Bald regarding the program and the participation of the fans and students. Even prior to other avenues which I am involved with in the program at this time. I suggested a move of the visiting fans from next to the visiting tunnel (why would you want the visiting fans to energize their guys before and after each period?). A little background on Tim is he comes to SNC from the UW Madison, a location where school officials have battled with students to "clean-up" certain levels of disrespect for years. That being said Tim is very proud, and protective if you will, of the image that is put forth by the SNC faithfull at each game. There have been past situations with students who have been asked to leave the rink in years past, due to their verbal conduct from the student section, those students were presented with the opportunity to return to the rink if they would in turn observe the action and respond to it in a respectful manner. Mr. Bald never said to not be boisterous or supportive of the team on the ice, but only to do so in a way that would not involve profanity or personal attacks on a visiting player or fan(s). The fact is, as stated in the prior post, the students are not going to do this on their own. They have tried, there was even a small group of students in the past who worked hand-in-hand with Tim Bald to try and increase student involvement.

There is also some level of division between the hockey program and other athletic programs from a player standpoint. Some of the other student athletes do not have "warm fuzzy" feelings about some of the hockey players, this same thing can be said for some students, mainly female. Lets be fair, hockey players have some stereotypes, I myself experienced that in my playing days.

I'm sure all of us here on this board have seen the participation from students of other NCHA institutions and we can become frustrated, or maybe even jealous to a certain level, that we dont have that at SNC or the CCC on game nights. This season two small steps forward were taken with the pep band and a fan van dubbed "the knight rider" (name from a prior effort as well). The fan van was only given to the students for two games due to funding, and the pep band was a huge hit but had limitations as to how many games they could attend due to prior commitments (which is what we were told).

If we want this enviroment we need to create it, hand in hand with the students. I would be more than willing to take part in this for sure. I do have obligations on gamedays but I would love to see the atmosphere turn for the better for the players. The fans can make a difference in a game, even if it's a small difference.

[pete99race]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Thanks to GKP Radio & stnicx for your insight on this topic.
In thinking about this issue again this week, it doesn't appear that any of the SNC teams get much support from the student body.
I also get to the basketball and football games on a regular basis and there never is much of a student turnout. Normally, an older audience....just like the hockey games in recent years...

[SNC23PRIDE]

Re: SNC Regular Season 2009-10

Thanks to GKP Radio & stnicx for your insight on this topic.
In thinking about this issue again this week, it doesn't appear that any of the SNC teams get much support from the student body.
I also get to the basketball and football games on a regular basis and there never is much of a student turnout. Normally, an older audience....just like the hockey games in recent years...

It's too bad, really. I have such fond memories growing up at SNC hockey games. Remember back at the De Pere Ice Center when the original SNC "Super Fan" was a student and all the kids would line up with him during the second intermission to dance the YMCA?