MNState0fHockey

Very good suggestions. I agree with all your thoughts.

Great point. I agree with you. Individual game tickets are the way to go.

Yeah, that's over the top.

Agreed. I've seen more than a few people go a little over the top. I mean, I love their enthusiasm, but they are setting the wrong expectations. Don't get me wrong, I think this tournament will become great, and it's great for college hockey in the state, but it's going to take time. There are no shortcuts.

Oh, I agree. Just saying, that tournament (and college hockey in general) have grown by leaps and bounds since then. Same is true with the MNHS Tourney. It didn't start out drawing 130,000+ fans for the weekend. Rome wasn't built in a day. My main point is, if the expectation for this tournament coming in is to be the Beanpot, this tournament is going to be a failure. It has to be given the time to grow and to become a tourney with it's own history and traditions. Anyone who thought this tourney would have instant atmosphere immediately came in with unrealistic expectations IMHO.

Regarding comments on the North Star College Cup. Attendance was obviously a concern, but I think most people expected that would be the case coming in. It is going to take some time for this Tourney to get a footing. As Bruce Ciskie wrote in his blog, the initial Beanpot tourney drew less than 10,000 fans. Regarding comparisons to the Beanpot, or the Great Lakes Invitational for that matter, I don't like the comparisons. I'm not upset people are making the comparisons, but I don't think it would be wise to try and model this tourney after those would be a mistake. For one, the Beanpot has decades of history and no matter how successful the North Star College Cup becomes, it will never match up to the Beanpot in terms of history and tradition. That's not to say the NSCC can't become something great and have great atmosphere and tradition. But it would be a mistake to try and copy something like the Beanpot that became great organically. I think people should be patient and let this tourney develop it's own history, traditions, and identity. In regards to attendance, like I said, it hasn't become an "event" yet. That will take time. Maybe 5+ years time. If they aren't patient with it, there is no way this tourney will be successful. They are trying to learn from feedback and make it a better experience. Lucia said in his radio show that he will be pushing for no shootout, but continuous overtime, in the championship game. That's a positive. I thought the event went well. Still lots of room for growth and improvement, but that's to be expected

Yup, the status quo has certainly changed. It's sad to see the dwindling participation numbers in some do the previously proud hockey communities. Rochester is one of the starkest examples. On the flip side, watch out for Prior Lake in future years. Absolutely HUGE youth participation numbers (along with Wayzata).

Great to see the growth! I grew up playing hockey in Eden Prairie, and when I was in high school we were a door mat. We were perennially destroyed by the likes of Bloomington Jefferson and Edina. A lot can change in time, and it's great to see programs mature

Yup. Only question is, how much of bump do MN and ND get when you include the HS players who aren't registered?

I think North Dakota HS Hockey is about the only state that could possibly reproduce what Minnesota HS Hockey has. The hockey culture is there in North Dakota. People are just as hockey mad in North Dakota as they are in Minnesota. Even MN has it's hockey weak areas (Southern part of the state isn't as strong). I'm a big supporter of North Dakota HS hockey.

Funny thing is, Alaska probably leads the nation in number of players per capita (hard to know for sure because MN doesn't register their HS players with USA Hockey). I imagine if they had a bigger population, they would be a power house. Same with North Dakota. Top 3 state in players per capita. I have been contending for years that Michigan is overrated as a hockey state (especially in the last decade). Half the players produced as Minnesota and twice the population. I would easily rank North Dakota ahead of Michigan and probably even Mass. It's not the state's fault they don't have the population of Michigan or Mass. Just my $0.02.

Inferior? At hockey? Inferior to which state(s)?? I'll wait. Substantiate your claims.

NHL players from MN: 233 NHL players from MA: 172 Mass has roughly 1 million more residents. They are probably the closest state to matching MN's hockey culture, but they still fall short in every category (youth participation, D1 players, and NHL players produced).

First off, it's the State of Hockey. And you clearly don't understand the moniker. Explanation

Your first mistake was expecting any type of credible hockey dialogue from Reusse.