mksioux

That already happened and the MVFC still had no interest in UND. I don't mind if those conversations are taking place behind the scenes, but UND absolutely cannot even think about leaving the Big Sky without firm invitations from both conferences. That would be insane.

I've said this a million times. But this thread has made clear many times that we're discussing a hypothetical (an invitation from both leagues). If anyone thinks the Summit without the MVFC is a good idea, they're on crack.

Did Dean Dziedzic start this thread?

I don't think the details of the contract have been released publicly, except that it was a 5-year deal. Schlossman speculated at the time that the NCHC had opt-out clauses in the contract, but I don't know if he ever reported on the details of those. Depending on the contract details, it might be possible for the NCHC to opt-out without penalty before the 5 years is up. http://undhockey.areavoices.com/?p=91210

If all the MVFC games are on ESPN3, then that would be perfectly fine with me. I've grown accustomed to free internet viewing of all UND football games (except when Root picks up the game, which has only happened once) and I wouldn't want that to change.

Two SRO tickets for sale. $250/per ticket OBO. Text only to 701-226-0793 if interested.

My brother-in-law is selling two SRO ticket packages (all 3 games). $250/per ticket, OBO. TEXT ONLY 701-226-0793. He is flexible on delivery in the Fargo area. Enjoy.

The NCHC knows where their tickets are purchased from. I don't have that information, but I suspect a big portion of their tickets were sold to people that live in the Twin Cities area. Sioux Falls is closer to Omaha, but I doubt you're going to get more than a few Omaha fans that will go to Sioux Falls that wouldn't go to Minneapolis. As for Denver and CC, Sioux Falls may technically be closer to Colorado, but that doesn't mean more Denver and CC fans would go there than Minneapolis. Denver and CC have almost no fan following and you're basically just going to have the players' parents regardless of whether it's in Minneapolis or Sioux Falls. In sum, you're not going to add hardly any new fans by placing it in Sioux Falls, but you'll lose lots of Minnesotans. The hardcore Sioux fans will still travel there, along with the players' parents, but that's about all you'd get. I'm not an expert on Sioux Falls' airport, but I suspect you'd also make air travel more difficult (and expensive) for those that fly. In other words, I think attendance would be worse, perhaps significantly worse, in Sioux Falls. Of course, unless you have access to the data, it's all just speculation. I just think that only a very small percentage of ticket purchasers from the Twin Cities would go to Sioux Falls. And I think that would end up being a pretty big hit.

Good point. I agree 100%. Watch Big Sky is the best part about the Big Sky.

Yes, UND has alumni out west, but more alumni live in North Dakota and Minnesota than any other state, and I'm sure more than the other states combined. The MVFC/Summit offers more for those fans than the Big Sky.

What are the chances the WCHA, as a whole, would be willing to have their tournament in Minnesota every year? Wouldn't that upset the Michigan schools?

I'm not privy to these contracts, but I don't believe the financial value of these contracts to the venue are exclusively determined by the number of tickets sold. The Big Ten can afford to make guarantees to the X. If the Big Ten makes financial guarantees to the X, the Big Ten can still be financially more attractive to the X even with fewer tickets sold. Moreover, while the attendance was horrible at the Joe this year, I don't think it was that bad at the X last year. If I recall, it was comparable overall to the NCHC.

Like you said, there are a number of ways you could make the logistics work. A big question is whether each league wants to keep their third place games. If so, you'd have eight total games for the weekend. If not, you'd have six. Six would be much easier to manage than eight, but eight wouldn't be impossible. If six, I think you'd do 2-2-2. Two semi-final games on Thursday, two on Friday, and the two championship games on Saturday. Leagues would take turns on the Thursday/Friday semi-final slots and would take turns on who gets the late game on Saturday (the Thursday semi-finals would go with the early Saturday game and the Friday semi-finals would go with the late Saturday game). Eight games would be more complicated, but not impossible: If eight, you could do 2-3-3, with the third-place games taking place in the early game on Friday and Saturday. However, that would lead to some really quick turnaround times and I'm not sure the coaches would like that. As for tickets, perhaps each league could sell their own packages, plus offer an overall package to both. Based on what I saw, take UND out of the picture and the NCHC tournament isn't looking so hot either. Granted, Duluth hasn't made the tournament yet, so it's tough to gauge that fan base, but I was underwhelmed with the number of St. Cloud fans.

As a fan, that's not my personal opinion. But what matters is money. And the Big Ten has a hell of a lot more of it than the NCHC. I guess it's not impossible, but I don't see a scenario where the Big Ten leaves the X unless they want to leave the X.

The NCHC may have the financial ability to outbid the WCHA, but it definitely won't have the ability to outbid the Big Ten. Despite attendance, the Big Ten has way more resources than anyone else. If the Big Ten wants to have the X host their tournament every other year, then that is exactly what will happen. The NCHC wants to have their tournament at the same place every year, which is why the X isn't an option. The only thing that can change this dynamic is if the Big Ten doesn't want to be a the X anymore and voluntarily goes in a different direction.

When the team "burned the ships" after arriving in Minneapolis, apparently nobody told them they needed to take their weapons out first.

I didn't see the story. What is being contemplated? I can envision a jumbo NCHC/WCHA tournament at the X. But what would they do during the off-years when the Big 10 is at the X?

To me, the lack of St. Cloud fans was a concern for the future of the tournament. Their team was there. They're only an hour away from Minneapolis. They have lots of alumni in the Twin Cities, Yet they barely showed up. Very poor performance by the St. Cloud fans. Will Duluth fans do better once their team finally makes it? I hope so.

It was a 5-year agreement, but I don't know if there are opt-out clauses. The Target Center is obviously not as good as the Xcel Energy Center, but I have a feeling that if UND didn't play so poorly there, our fans would feel a little better about the venue. Having said that, here's my two cents: The NCHC, not the Target Center, is responsible for the stupid policy of having two games per session, which requires some sort of wristband re-entry procedure. Perhaps they could implement a hand-stamp system rather than wristbands, which might speed up the process. But ultimately the NCHC is at fault for this problem with their stupid policy of having two-games per ticket. Yes, it allows the afternoon game to take place later, but I think it's more about a money-grab by the conference to force UND fans to pay for games they may not want to attend. I don't believe the WCHA ever did this for the Final 5 (at least I don't ever recall that in the years I attended, but I didn't attend the last couple years). I agree completely about not having the Gopher-fan foil in the fan contests. That marginalizes the conference and it's a cheap attempt to get some boos. However, it would be easier for the staff to fill out these contests if other conference teams' fans cared enough to come. The old-style plexi glass is bad for viewing. I moved up a few rows so I didn't have to look through that glass. Fortunately, there were many unused seats in my section. The other stuff mentioned on this thread didn't bother me much. The ice/boards/glass for competition seems like sour grapes to me. But yes, that needs to be improved if the Target Center wants to host this tournament for the long term. Other than combining with other conferences and going back to the X, there really are no better alternatives to the Target Center. Denver U. isn't going to support it at the Pepsi Center. Denver averaged something like 3500 fans at their home games. The Pepsi Center would still be dominated by Sioux fans, just fewer in number. Plus, the Pepsi Center is more isolated from downtown than the Target Center is. Omaha has a great set-up with the Century Link Center, but it would be terrible for attendance. Maybe they could just drop the pretext of neutrality and have the Ralph host it. It appears to me that only Sioux fans care about this tournament anyway.

From my perspective, the North Dakota hockey team failed way more than the Target Center. The hockey I watched was much more annoying to me than anything concerning the venue.

Sure, there are a lot of people that have had tickets for months. And of course they'll request the time off work. But there are a lot of UND alumni that live in the Twin Cities that might have purchased a ticket this week or walk-up to take in a game, but they're not going to take time off of work to do it. I know quite a few people that fall into that category. Not everyone is a hardcore uber fan.

It's great that you're a hard core fan. I was in the same boat before I had kids and thought nothing of taking time off work and devoting a whole weekend to the Final 5. But you do realize that hockey games, even Sioux hockey games, are filled with people who do not live, eat, and breathe hockey? It's just a reality that there are people that live in the Twin Cities that would like to catch a Sioux game, but who aren't going to take time off work, or pull their kids out of school early, to go to a Friday afternoon game. And they may have other commitments on Saturday, so they can't spend the entire day and night downtown watching hockey. Of course, those people who aren't planning on being downtown for every game will have to live with the schedule. And I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the NCHC giving the top-seed more rest time for Saturday. But placing the two non-local teams in the afternoon game will affect attendance and ticket sales, and there's no sense in blaming those people that might have gone to a night game who won't go to the afternoon game. What I take away from this scheduling decision is that the NCHC is, indeed, different from the WCHA. The WCHA always put Minnesota in the night game for the very reasons I indicated above and to make sure they optimized ticket and TV revenue. The NCHC chose hockey purity this year over optimizing revenue. That's refreshing from a fan's perspective. We'll see if it's the smart decision going forward and whether they keep doing it in future years.

I think it's kind of a requirement when you only have four teams in the tournament. There isn't going to much hockey without a 3rd place game. I think once the NCHC adds more teams and expands the tournament format, you might see them get rid of the 3rd place game.

I'll plead guilty to the second. I bought a Saturday ticket so that I can watch a Sioux game with my young son. He wouldn't be able to make it through two consecutive games, so we'll skip whichever game UND is not playing in. Everyone has their own situation going on.

From a competition standpoint, it's probably better for UND to get the early game. I'm just surprised the league would do it. Most of the time, the league is going to consider other factors - like what is better for television ratings and what will be better for ticket sales. In other words, the league usually cares about money.