Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

Yeah, you're right. Wait...didn't you guys schedule a figure skating competition that bumped the UW/Minnesota game to the target center?

LOL

We probably had more tickets sold for the Target Center contest. Win-win.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

Considering the rate at which they are losing them, they won't in a few years.

Last year, for the first time since the KC was built, UW didn't lead the nation in total attendance (NoDak did) but still held the per game average attendance lead (UND had 2 additional home games). I don't see any way that UW doesn't fall to 3rd after this season behind both UMN and UND in both total attendance and per game attendance. The only reason that they likely don't fall beyond 3rd is that few other teams have the capacity to exceed about 8,500/game in their regular arena. Considering that UNO is playing an outdoor game at home, they might also be able to jump UW depending on how far UW falls.

I think that says all that needs to be said about how disillusioned the fan base is with the current athletic administration.

If attendance is so directly tied to performance—which many here say it is—I wouldn't expect it to drop any further than last year. This is a team that should theoretically battle for a top 3 spot in the league. On that factor alone I don't see attendance to continue to decline unless there is a significant hangover effect from the previous two seasons.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

Considering the rate at which they are losing them, they won't in a few years.


I think that says all that needs to be said about how disillusioned the fan base is with the current athletic administration.

Do you really think that fans aren't going because of Barry & Co? I don'y buy that at all.

They're still going to football and hoops games.

Most people I ever talk to about Barry, including hockey fans (outside of here), rarely understand why I dislike him. I can tell they're thinking I'm being unreasonable. At worst, they are usually neutral in their view of him.

I think the hockey team has lost the casual and multi-sport fans. This could be due to the economy, the up and down records and the lack of marquee players (to people who aren't hockey nerds like us) or interesting personalities.

I remember wanting badly to be at games with the Reinprecht/Heatley teams as well as the Burish-led 2006 team and those building to that season. Haven't felt that way since including our last Finals team. It's been a parade of players that aren't particularly memorable on inconsistent teams.

Can't market your team around stellar defensemen.

Also - if you have tickets to football and/or basketball in addition to hockey but can only afford to keep one due to the economy, why would you hold onto hockey? It's hard and expensive to get basketball or football tickets with waiting lists, priority points and required donations. Hockey on the other hand is readily available and will be in a few years when the economy has (hopefully) recovered.

I've had my football tickets for almost 20 years now and we still go to maybe one game a year (used to go to all of them), but I won't let the tickets go because we may want to start going again when life slows down and I don't want to have jump through all those hoops to get them again. I easily sell the games that we don't want.

If there are hockey games that I can't attend, I often have to eat those tix. Obviously if forced to choose, I'm keeping my football season tix.

And from the other side, what's the incentive right now to even have hockey season tickets. Good seats are available for every game pretty much up to game time. And if I don't have season tickets, it's a whole lot easier to leak out at the last minute and just stay home - no obligation as I haven't already paid for the tickets.

.02

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

One other thing that has to be seriously considered, the Wisconsin football and basketball teams are in an unprecedented run of greatness right now (together). When your top two revenue producing sports are winning Big Ten titles left and right, it shouldn't come as a surprise that hockey is going to take a back seat whether we like it or not.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

One other thing that has to be seriously considered, the Wisconsin football and basketball teams are in an unprecedented run of greatness right now (together). When your top two revenue producing sports are winning Big Ten titles left and right, it shouldn't come as a surprise that hockey is going to take a back seat whether we like it or not.

Even I find this logical.

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

Even I find this logical.

I'm surprised you can even imagine it.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

i'm surprised you can even imagine it.

zing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

One other thing that has to be seriously considered, the Wisconsin football and basketball teams are in an unprecedented run of greatness right now (together).

Historically speaking, we're long overdue for this to 180 itself into decades of futility that would be great for the hockey program. And probably nothing else.

[Almington]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

If attendance is so directly tied to performance—which many here say it is—I wouldn't expect it to drop any further than last year. This is a team that should theoretically battle for a top 3 spot in the league. On that factor alone I don't see attendance to continue to decline unless there is a significant hangover effect from the previous two seasons.

Any hangover effect is going to be most pronounced early in the season (particularly with season ticket renewals) and it is in the 2nd half of the season that they player the games at the Dane. To me that does not sound like a winning mix to sell tickets.

[burd]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

I remember wanting badly to be at games with the Reinprecht/Heatley teams as well as the Burish-led 2006 team and those building to that season. Haven't felt that way since including our last Finals team. It's been a parade of players that aren't particularly memorable on inconsistent teams.

Can't market your team around stellar defensemen.

And from the other side, what's the incentive right now to even have hockey season tickets. Good seats are available for every game pretty much up to game time. And if I don't have season tickets, it's a whole lot easier to leak out at the last minute and just stay home - no obligation as I haven't already paid for the tickets.

.02

It might help get back in the mood if you and your son blocked off a saturday and Sunday and went traveled to the UW/UND game this year--the last of the in-conference rivalry. You might even find a UND fan willing to share some expenses.

[Innova]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

I'm surprised you can even imagine it.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Gurtholfin again.

But I want to give Gurtholfin more rep for this comment!

[Carter]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

I remember wanting badly to be at games with the Reinprecht/Heatley teams as well as the Burish-led 2006 team and those building to that season. Haven't felt that way since including our last Finals team. It's been a parade of players that aren't particularly memorable on inconsistent teams.

Every season it seems we sit out a game or two, but last year I'll bet we missed 80% of the Saturday night games. Just didn't have the energy or weren't inspired to go, so we ate the tickets. So this year, after having both series since the '77 season, we dropped one night. Part of it was certainly financial, and part was forcing myself to look honestly at how many games we blew off last year. But I'll tell ya, it was really difficult and it hurt to let them go. After all this time, it felt like a step closer to death.

[Timothy A]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

One other thing that has to be seriously considered, the Wisconsin football and basketball teams are in an unprecedented run of greatness right now (together). When your top two revenue producing sports are winning Big Ten titles left and right, it shouldn't come as a surprise that hockey is going to take a back seat whether we like it or not.

I wouldn't categorize it as winning titles left and right, the mbb hasn't won anything. I think it's all about the economy, the age of the core fanbase and the inconsistant levels of success. The core fan base is getting older and not quite so rabid, see Gurt and Carter's posts. I'm just as rabid now as I was 25 yrs ago, but I get to 1 game a year, so it maintains a "specialness" to me. Everytime I sit through the intro at a game, I'm like "holy crap, this is the most amazing thing I've ever seen". I think the casual fan is not as motivated to go see a 10-16 team play. There's no juice there and they really don't know there are sure-fired NHL players wearing the cardinal and white. If the women's team would ever take a crap, I'd attend less games for sure. It's an event to go see some of the very best women's players in the country play; they make amazing plays. If there's nothing special there, why invest the 5 hours in seeing it? Kinda like why watch the Crew now? I would attend 1 UW men's game a year and follow them closely no matter how good or bad they are. That's the difference between the rabid fan and the casual fan.

[Chuck Schwartz]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

Updates on Hockey City Classic. LINK

Some important stuff:

Lauren Price, the director of communications for Intersport noted in an e-mail this afternoon, "Hockey City Classic tickets are ranging from $15-$85 and the ticket is good for both games."

Price also added that more than 60% of the 60,000 seats will be priced at $40 or less.

We've also learned the game times for the double-header. The first game will pit Miami vs Notre Dame starting at noon on February 17th. Wisconsin and Minnesota will take the ice shortly after, with an expected start time of 3:30

[Gurtholfin]

Re: Wisconsin Hockey: Vol. XXI - For every dark night, there's a brighter day

Updates on Hockey City Classic. LINK

Some important stuff:

Lauren Price, the director of communications for Intersport noted in an e-mail this afternoon, "Hockey City Classic tickets are ranging from $15-$85 and the ticket is good for both games."

Price also added that more than 60% of the 60,000 seats will be priced at $40 or less.

We've also learned the game times for the double-header. The first game will pit Miami vs Notre Dame starting at noon on February 17th. Wisconsin and Minnesota will take the ice shortly after, with an expected start time of 3:30

Good!. That sounds much better. Hope it's full.