Hockey East Tourney on the Move

[BoSox3066]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

No chance. None.

[Puck Swami]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

Boston is also the media center of New England. Any other venue would be a step down in visibility.

Frankly, I liked the early 1990s when both the ECAC and Hockey East held their tourneys at Boston Garden over the same weekend. There was a lot of hockey to digest...

[snwbrdr]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

UVM will bring more fans to the Garden in the future if their mens and womens hoop teams are not playing tourney games on the same day/night/weekend (as they were last year)

With the mens hockey program on the rise and some excellent, fun to watch inbound players the next couple of seasons the bandwagon should be overflowing soon and the fans will travel if the liberals don't shut down the border

[mookie1995]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

providence is the choice though for getting massages from hot asian girls with adams apples!

[acs64]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

Cumberland County Civic Center......everyone wins, especially the brewpubs.

[sterlippo1]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

UVM will bring more fans to the Garden in the future if their mens and womens hoop teams are not playing tourney games on the same day/night/weekend (as they were last year)

With the mens hockey program on the rise and some excellent, fun to watch inbound players the next couple of seasons the bandwagon should be overflowing soon and the fans will travel if the liberals don't shut down the border

i was wondering when this would be brought up and it's a good point, but you are a HOCKEY SCHOOL! there were ZERO UVM fans at last years HE semi's nice accomplishment though ,for you guys, both BBall teams in the tourney

[Patman]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

Boston is also the media center of New England. Any other venue would be a step down in visibility.

Frankly, I liked the early 1990s when both the ECAC and Hockey East held their tourneys at Boston Garden over the same weekend. There was a lot of hockey to digest...

if the hockey east is really making noises then I'm going to bet its a matter of haggling over rental rates. Not a lot of upsides to leaving the Garden.

[joegrav]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

I could see Tsongas as a possible venue. Plenty of BC and BU fans in the North Shore and Merrimack valley to make the trip, bus trips for BU and BC students aren't out of the question, and UNH fans would certainly jam the place. (Maine fans will travel anywhere.)

It definitely makes no sense to move in the opposite direction from NH and Maine if you're going to move out of Boston, that's for sure. Unless the Garden is actively seeking to drop the event in favor of something that brings in a bigger crowd that week (bouncy ball?), I just don't see why they'd do it.

Agganis would be fun, but having it in a 6,800 seat arena would be bush league (as would having it at the home arena of one of the schools).

Providence though? meh...

[Ralph Baer]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

if the hockey east is really making noises then I'm going to bet its a matter of haggling over rental rates. Not a lot of upsides to leaving the Garden.

I suspect that is indeed the case. Any move would result in a significant diminishing of the conference coverage.

[sterlippo1]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

Tsongas and Agganis both seat nearly the exact same amount, 6500 for hockey.......it's gotta stay at the Garden, to me there's no question here

[theprofromdover]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

providence is the choice though for getting massages from hot asian girls with adams apples!

Care to share your experiences?

[Cat lover]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

The league really should concider a move as the current set up gives the Boston schools a unfair advantage each year. Here are several reasons.
So nobody thinks I am bashing Boston let it be known I lived in Mass for most of my early years and am a fan of all Boston teams so this is not about Boston but what is fair for all HE teams

1. Home Ice

All 3 Boston schools get to play the 2 games at the Beanpot during the second half of the season which no one can say is not an advantage. Most of the upperclassmen on those teams probably already played there 2 to 4 times a year while other teams coming in might have most or all of their roster not having never played there.

2.Home Fans

While saying BC and BU make up a ton of the crowd when all they have to do is hop on a train for 15 minutes is true but really if UNH, Maine or Vermont were that close to the rink you would sell out much more often.

If you had the same distance to every school to the game site you would see a much different make up in the stands. Vermont and Maine would have had the most last year, heck Maine was very represented last year and Vermont
had a good showing despite having both BBall teams playing the NCAA's the same weekend. If you could move Vermont to Orono and build a rink you
would not even need 2 other teams to sell it out.

Think of this BU holds 6150 and BC 7884 when they sellout which they do, but the total attendance to the semis last year was 12544. And thats with
the Maine and Vermont fans included.

3. Home

Anyone who has ever traveled for sports knows one of the biggest advantages a team gets at home is sleeping in there own bed and being able to stick to the usual routine. Anyone who ever had a bad night sleep at a hotel knows this, and add the pressure of a big game to that.


So where should they have the final 4 to be fair to ALL HE TEAMS

needs
1. Site should be centered as best as possible to all HE teams
2. No team should have games there during the reg season
3. Location should be big enough for fans coming


The best place would be Manchester (UNH would have to move Dartmouth game) as it is close to all schools in Mass & RI while shortening the trip slightly for Maine and Vermont. The town host NCAA games so big games are nothing new.

Also a rotation that BC/HE brought up would be a improvement.

[theprofromdover]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

The league really should concider a move as the current set up gives the Boston schools a unfair advantage each year. Here are several reasons.
So nobody thinks I am bashing Boston let it be known I lived in Mass for most of my early years and am a fan of all Boston teams so this is not about Boston but what is fair for all HE teams

1. Home Ice

All 3 Boston schools get to play the 2 games at the Beanpot during the second half of the season which no one can say is not an advantage. Most of the upperclassmen on those teams probably already played there 2 to 4 times a year while other teams coming in might have most or all of their roster not having never played there.

2.Home Fans

While saying BC and BU make up a ton of the crowd when all they have to do is hop on a train for 15 minutes is true but really if UNH, Maine or Vermont were that close to the rink you would sell out much more often.

If you had the same distance to every school to the game site you would see a much different make up in the stands. Vermont and Maine would have had the most last year, heck Maine was very represented last year and Vermont
had a good showing despite having both BBall teams playing the NCAA's the same weekend. If you could move Vermont to Orono and build a rink you
would not even need 2 other teams to sell it out.

Think of this BU holds 6150 and BC 7884 when they sellout which they do, but the total attendance to the semis last year was 12544. And thats with
the Maine and Vermont fans included.

3. Home

Anyone who has ever traveled for sports knows one of the biggest advantages a team gets at home is sleeping in there own bed and being able to stick to the usual routine. Anyone who ever had a bad night sleep at a hotel knows this, and add the pressure of a big game to that.


So where should they have the final 4 to be fair to ALL HE TEAMS

needs
1. Site should be centered as best as possible to all HE teams
2. No team should have games there during the reg season
3. Location should be big enough for fans coming


The best place would be Manchester (UNH would have to move Dartmouth game) as it is close to all schools in Mass & RI while shortening the trip slightly for Maine and Vermont. The town host NCAA games so big games are nothing new.

Also a rotation that BC/HE brought up would be a improvement.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! It's not fair.

[Gibber]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

Manchester is too small (or at least should be) to host, as its just over 10k seats for hockey. I say keep it at the garden for as long as possible. Biggest event for the league in the biggest venue/city..

[J.D.]

Re: Hockey East Tourney on the Move

Sorry, there is no debate here. Much like there isn't a debate about the Final Five. The best venue for the Final Five is Xcel and for Hockey East it's the Garden. 6 of the 10 members are located in Massachusetts and Providence/UNH are close enough. The tournament is best in Boston. I wouldn't be opposed to an experimental rotation, but spare me this crap about the Boston teams having an unfair advantage.

Maine has done very well, UNH has a couple titles (including an all out of state game against Maine), and UVM has done well in recent years too.

It's less than 90 minutes from Durham to Boston. I think college kids can handle it, especially if they're driving down on Thursday (if they do).