2018-19 Non-UND College Hockey

[UNDBIZ]

42 minutes ago, ChetSteadman said:

The high school tournament has drawn damn near sellout crowds at the Xcel for as long as I can remember.  The class AA night sessions are always packed to the rafters.

And the Gophers were still able to pull in 6,000 plus in years past.

[cberkas]

11 minutes ago, UNDBIZ said:

And the Gophers were still able to pull in 6,000 plus in years past.

The B1G Tournament game just isn’t as important as a WCHA Tournament game.

[Sioux>Bison]

1 hour ago, ChetSteadman said:

The high school tournament has drawn damn near sellout crowds at the Xcel for as long as I can remember.  The class AA night sessions are always packed to the rafters.

There is no reason why the gopher game should be empty. They have population base way over 3 million people to pull from in the Minneapolis area plus it is in the State of Hockey! Are you telling me there is only enough hockey fans in msp to fill up the Xcel? The state tournament also pulls people from across the state so that leaves less tickets for the msp fans. I know people who wanted to go to the games but the tickets were crazy expensive. You would think people would still want to go to a Gopher game but that’s not the case.

[Siouxperfan7]

The last time that the Gophers had a home series the same weekend as the State High School Hockey Tournament was 2017.  Those games against Michigan St had attendances of 9302 and 9988.  Can't really blame the high school tournament.  Reason is the team isn't as good and the fans just don't care.  

[UNDBIZ]

I'm thinking the issue is the gopher fans have already put away their Goldy sweaters and pulled out their SCSU and UMD threads for the playoff push.

[Godsmack]

42 minutes ago, Sioux>Bison said:

There is no reason why the gopher game should be empty. They have population base way over 3 million people to pull from in the Minneapolis area plus it is in the State of Hockey! Are you telling me there is only enough hockey fans in msp to fill up the Xcel? The state tournament also pulls people from across the state so that leaves less tickets for the msp fans. I know people who wanted to go to the games but the tickets were crazy expensive. You would think people would still want to go to a Gopher game but that’s not the case.

I follow the B1G Mistake Facebook page and based on the commentary from its founders, part of the reason for the poor attendance is a multitude of reasons including, fan apathy, the university administration price gauging its season ticket holders (they recently revamped their pricing structure), poor fan experience (poor quality of concessions, high prices, no beer sales), lack of long standing rivals, etc. Basically, the long term season ticket holders have not been renewing and year over year, season ticket holder numbers have been dropping. I’m sure this isn’t an exhaustive list but the sense I get is that Gopher fans are tired of being taken advantage of and taken for granted by the Athletic department. 

[MafiaMan]

4 hours ago, cberkas said:

The B1G Tournament game just isn’t as important as a WCHA Tournament game.

The imaginary scenario of a B1G North Dakota @ Minnesota first-round playoff series would pack 3M at Mariucci Row the Boat Arena to the rafters.

#poorexcuse

[Wilbur]

5 hours ago, Blackheart said:

Watched a little of Saturday's SCSU-UMD tilt...As they panned over the Huskies student section a fan held up a sign that said, 

"Bruce Ciskie Likes to Wear Male Rompers".   

Apparently no love lost between the Husky fans and the Duluth sportscaster.

At least we aren't the only ones that see it......

[cberkas]

https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/hockey/4583354-qa-nchc-commissioner-josh-fenton

Frozen Faceoff

Quote

The Xcel Energy Center and the Minnesota Wild would like to see if there’s a model where we could get to where it’s potentially semifinals Friday, a Wild game in the middle of the day or early afternoon Saturday and the NCHC championship game Saturday night.

the experience for the fan, which is most important when we have these types of discussions, will be even more enhanced, because we’re going to look at ways in which we could have opportunities for Wild tickets available for sale for people coming down for the weekend. I know a Wild ticket is hard to get and we’re not going to have thousands of tickets available, but we’ll have enough

Frozen Fours

Quote

It may be Kansas City. It may be another market. I’ve had some conversations. I would like to find ways for the overall good and growth of the game to move the Frozen Four to a nontraditional market, but a larger media market in our country

I think there may be interest for Dallas to get involved. We’ve had conversations. I haven’t had any conversations with people associated with Dallas, but I’ve had conversations with people associated with Los Angeles and New York.

We actually went through the process of looking at the Frozen Four at Staples Center.

NCHC College Hockey Showcase

Quote

Madison Square Garden would like to work with us on something again in the future.

you have to have the right matchups and right teams involved. You can’t just say we’re going to do a game in New York and just pick teams. You have to have the right matchups.

 

[HockeyFan31]

23 hours ago, cberkas said:

The new argument now by one of their fans on Twitter is they average 8,500 of paid attendance. Even though there’s not 8,500 at the games.

I could be wrong but I think they are arguing that the U is not really willing to change much because they are technically selling 8000+ tickets. I don't think anyone is excusing the fans for not showing up, anyone with eyes can watch games on TV and see there aren't actually 8k people at Gopher games. Fans not sowing up is a completely different discussion IMO. I think people are just pointing out that the U is making their money on tickets sold and don't seem to want to change the perception of the program and the atmosphere in the arena. Instead they are just laughing all the way to the bank(I assume).

As others have noted, the biggest fault on this last weekend was not including the playoff series in the season ticket package. In the WCHA years it's my understanding that the first round would get refunded or applied to next year's season tickets if the Gophers missed home ice. That said, the B1G has a goofy playoff system with all games being played on campus. So do you include what could potentially be 2-3 games/weekends in season ticket packages? That all gets confusing considering the #1 seed gets a weekend bye and all kinds of other scenarios. But overall I think that's a bad excuse, include all scenarios and figure out the refunds or application to the next years tickets or just have the extra amounts go as a donation to the athletic department or whatever after the fact.

Lastly, yes, they did go up against the state high school tournament but I go back to not including the tickets in the season ticket package. I think you could have guilted at least 4-5K into showing up because the tickets were already paid for. I know some Gopher season ticket holders also have a long tradition of going to the high school tourney and have had tickets in their family for forever, but they could have at least tried to give their Gopher tickets away for free even if they only wanted to go to the high school games.

[Siouxperfan7]

1 hour ago, HockeyFan31 said:

I could be wrong but I think they are arguing that the U is not really willing to change much because they are technically selling 8000+ tickets. I don't think anyone is excusing the fans for not showing up, anyone with eyes can watch games on TV and see there aren't actually 8k people at Gopher games. Fans not sowing up is a completely different discussion IMO. I think people are just pointing out that the U is making their money on tickets sold and don't seem to want to change the perception of the program and the atmosphere in the arena. Instead they are just laughing all the way to the bank(I assume).

As others have noted, the biggest fault on this last weekend was not including the playoff series in the season ticket package. In the WCHA years it's my understanding that the first round would get refunded or applied to next year's season tickets if the Gophers missed home ice. That said, the B1G has a goofy playoff system with all games being played on campus. So do you include what could potentially be 2-3 games/weekends in season ticket packages? That all gets confusing considering the #1 seed gets a weekend bye and all kinds of other scenarios. But overall I think that's a bad excuse, include all scenarios and figure out the refunds or application to the next years tickets or just have the extra amounts go as a donation to the athletic department or whatever after the fact.

Lastly, yes, they did go up against the state high school tournament but I go back to not including the tickets in the season ticket package. I think you could have guilted at least 4-5K into showing up because the tickets were already paid for. I know some Gopher season ticket holders also have a long tradition of going to the high school tourney and have had tickets in their family for forever, but they could have at least tried to give their Gopher tickets away for free even if they only wanted to go to the high school games.

I can understand B1G schools not including conference playoff tickets in the season ticket packages.  Too many scenarios.  It's not like the NCHC where you include the 2 (potentially 3) games in the season tickets and if the team is on the road for the first round, issue a refund.  In the B1G, you have too many different scenarios the school would have to issue tickets for.  Sorry, not a valid excuse.  

Not the first time the Gophers have had games the same weekend as the High School Tournament.  Like I posted previously, two years ago they had home games the same weekend as the Tourney and they had 9302 and 9988 in attendance for both nights.  Sorry, not a valid excuse.

The reason no one was there is because the Gophers aren't as good as before and they have been in previous years.  Leaving the WCHA hurt, but at least they were still winning B1G titles and making the playoffs and advancing to the Frozen Four.  Now they are losing more games and are on the verge of missing the playoffs for a second straight year.  What does it all come down to?  Gopher hockey fans are fair weather fans.  Obviously winning games helps attendance.  But the Gopher fans have shown that they only care for their team when they are good.  UND might be an anomaly in regards to attendance, but there were over 10,000 fans watching a 5th place team play where there was a Deirks Bently concert across town and their was a blizzard outside.  

[UNDBIZ]

20 minutes ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

UND might be an anomaly in regards to attendance, but there were over 10,000 fans watching a 5th place team play where there was a Deirks Bently concert across town and their was a blizzard outside.  

And it's spring break.

[HockeyFan31]

41 minutes ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

I can understand B1G schools not including conference playoff tickets in the season ticket packages.  Too many scenarios.  It's not like the NCHC where you include the 2 (potentially 3) games in the season tickets and if the team is on the road for the first round, issue a refund.  In the B1G, you have too many different scenarios the school would have to issue tickets for.  Sorry, not a valid excuse.  

Not the first time the Gophers have had games the same weekend as the High School Tournament.  Like I posted previously, two years ago they had home games the same weekend as the Tourney and they had 9302 and 9988 in attendance for both nights.  Sorry, not a valid excuse.

The reason no one was there is because the Gophers aren't as good as before and they have been in previous years.  Leaving the WCHA hurt, but at least they were still winning B1G titles and making the playoffs and advancing to the Frozen Four.  Now they are losing more games and are on the verge of missing the playoffs for a second straight year.  What does it all come down to?  Gopher hockey fans are fair weather fans.  Obviously winning games helps attendance.  But the Gopher fans have shown that they only care for their team when they are good.  UND might be an anomaly in regards to attendance, but there were over 10,000 fans watching a 5th place team play where there was a Deirks Bently concert across town and their was a blizzard outside.  

I don't think including it in season tickets would have been the difference between a sellout and the abomination that was seen at Mariucci on Friday and Saturday. Like I said though, you may have guilted a few more people into showing up and/or had more people selling off for cheap or just straight up giving their season tickets away for whatever reason. Either way I don't think it would have been that bad. Still wouldn't have been great, that's for sure.

I don't disagree with your point, but those Michigan St games were regular season games. Those "attendance" numbers are likely tickets sold, not actual butts in seats. Those games were (obviously) definitely included in season tickets and I'm guessing a fair amount of those tickets went unused that weekend.

I also don't disagree that they are probably quite a few fair weather Gopher fans. But I think we can all agree that Gopher fans have a lot more entertainment options in the MSP area than UND fans do in Grand Forks.

[southpaw]

CC has agreed to build a new parking lot for 100 vehicles as well as a parking garage for the new arena.  Parking at CC is already pretty limited, so both will help clean up some of the on-street parking issues in the Old North End area.  There shouldn't be too many additional cars from visiting fans, except for some from DU and UND, as most visiting fans will stay in hotels nearby and can walk the 8-10 blocks or use planned shuttle buses.  It's a good idea to fix a known problem that will only get worse once the arena is built and hopefully will ease some of the current issues facing property owners in that area.

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/sports/hockey/minnesota-gophers-st-cloud-state.html

[Rebel_Sioux]

3 hours ago, AlphaMikeFoxtrot said:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/13/sports/hockey/minnesota-gophers-st-cloud-state.html

That's a good article. I'm a little surprised the NYT would cover this story. 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrot]

1 hour ago, Rebel_Sioux said:

That's a good article. I'm a little surprised the NYT would cover this 

If the inspiration for the article was the empty 3M arena photo, kudos to them for getting it turned around so fast.

It was also nice to have an outside perspective that wasn't either full of schadenfruede or homer-defending.

[Cratter]

On 3/12/2019 at 12:58 PM, HockeyFan31 said:

But I think we can all agree that Gopher fans have a lot more entertainment options in the MSP area than UND fans do in Grand Forks.

More bars and high school basketball games to go to? 

Grand Forks definitely had more entertainment options, especially per capita, on that Saturday night than MSP.

It would be equivalent to MSP having 700,000 people attending concerts and sporting events that night.

Instead it's only 19,000 at a hockey game in a city of 3,000,000+ people. (well in honesty there was also a few local bands playing at bars and the mega crowds at Minnesota's biggeat tourist attraction, the mall, that night.)

[bale31]

@sioux rube Thought you might find this interesting. 

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/sports/msu_mens_hockey/mavericks-center-spooner-plays-with-determined-spirit/article_5f6a51f2-46c0-11e9-be44-ab6b809498f2.html

[sioux rube]

2 hours ago, bale31 said:

@sioux rube Thought you might find this interesting. 

http://www.mankatofreepress.com/sports/msu_mens_hockey/mavericks-center-spooner-plays-with-determined-spirit/article_5f6a51f2-46c0-11e9-be44-ab6b809498f2.html

Great article. I had the privilege of coaching the Spoonman a couple summers on a AAA team when he played  with my daughter. Man he has come a long ways. 

[cberkas]

St. Cloud got lucky they didn't get two 5's called against them.

[Mariucci]

On 3/13/2019 at 11:26 PM, Cratter said:

 

Grand Forks definitely had more entertainment options, especially per capita, on that Saturday night than MSP.

This is simply never true. Not ever.  

[Cratter]

12 minutes ago, Mariucci said:

This is simply never true. Not ever.  

You musta missed the words per capita.  

More major events were going on in Grand Forks that night than the Twin Cities.

[MafiaMan]

On 3/15/2019 at 5:22 PM, MafiaMan said:

I wouldn't classify that as the "best chance" for an upset.  There is a far greater chance of Minnesota or Penn State winning a single game this weekend vs North Dakota winning four in a row.  Statistically speaking, of course. 

Nailed it.  The Nittany Lions are playing like they want a bid.

[Godsmack]

GO TIGERS!!!!!