Filling the Ralph

[Hockeygirl97]

I miss the Hoogsteen Phooey Song and The Mickey Mouse Ref Song. . . not to age myself.  No one comes up w/ good stuff like that anymore. . . non-creative punks.  (J/K). 

 

[Hockeygirl97]

And how come no one brings any good signs anymore. . . I used to make half a poster board before and save the back for during the game inspirations. . . .

[darell1976]

9 minutes ago, 90siouxfan said:

I haven't had this good of laugh in a long time, heater wrecks the mileage, bahahahaaaa....      I do get worse mileage in the winter, but leaving that diesel running at stores, events, etc is likely the culprit, not my shaky leg doing the jitterbug on the gas pedal.    I finally have a an answer to the old question "Why have I not ignored Darell?   Humor, now I need to go to confession for laughing at the special needs kid.  oh bother

by the way,  Salty Mike will run laps at the Ralph if you let him in the door

Special needs? Good one. So glad I gave people a good laugh for not knowing automotive facts. I piggy backed off of Smoggy’s post that said tickets are too high. I thought this was Sioux Sports and not Gopher Hole. Sorry for my opinion, and I’ll just stick with the non-hockey topics. 

[TNF]

Ticket sales is a non-issue. UND averaged 11,408 per game last season out of a possible 11,643 (97.98% of capacity).  When you factor in exhibitions, multiple series when the students are off, games over holiday weekends, harvest/hunting season, etc. those numbers are remarkable. In addition, the total attendance led the nation by more than 40,000 over the course of the full season. If wasting $50 doesn’t deter people from skipping a game or two, good luck finding a magic cheer that will get them to show up.  

 

I believe there are two real questions; 1) how do you keep students (and future alumni) invested in the program and 2) how do you improve the atmosphere at the Ralph?  In many cases these go hand in hand and many people have already offered suggestions in this thread.   I agree these are worthy discussions but wanted to point out that ticket sales are not the root cause in this case.  

 

 

[TNF]

1 hour ago, nodak651 said:

Someone posted this earlier on a different thread.  Penn State's student section for hockey has a website, and is very organized.  Something like this would be really cool, and helpful for both football and hockey, and maybe even volleyball/basketball.

http://theroarzone.wixsite.com/theroarzone

This would be a great start. I think arena management also has to makes the choice for atmosphere over ad sales. We went to the Golden Knights game in Vegas and I was very impressed. I love the idea of video clips; “hey UND fans this is (insert UND legend), get on your feet and help the boys protect the ralph and add to the tradition tonight” followed by upbeat music. As it stands now TV timeouts, ads/arena announcements, and random songs are a momentum killer.   Build off of the “one last shift” theory and have a  Jim Archibald clip on the screen to fire the crowd (and the boys) up half way through the third period. 

[Telly33]

40 minutes ago, TNF said:

Ticket sales is a non-issue. UND averaged 11,408 per game last season out of a possible 11,643 (97.98% of capacity).  When you factor in exhibitions, multiple series when the students are off, games over holiday weekends, harvest/hunting season, etc. those numbers are remarkable. In addition, the total attendance led the nation by more than 40,000 over the course of the full season. If wasting $50 doesn’t deter people from skipping a game or two, good luck finding a magic cheer that will get them to show up. 

Great, so if ticket sales aren't the issue then that brings us back to getting those paid for tickets used by somebody which also brings us back to my original idea of a system to release them back out.  But, I was told there are too many unsold tickets each night for that to be a viable concept.  So which is it?

Yes, we all know that we by far lead the nation in attendance.  I said that in the very first post.  We can do better though because we've done better in the past.  That's the whole point of this thread.

[Vegas_Sioux]

1 hour ago, Hockeygirl97 said:

I miss the Hoogsteen Phooey Song and The Mickey Mouse Ref Song. . . not to age myself.  No one comes up w/ good stuff like that anymore. . . non-creative punks.  (J/K). 

 

Unfortunately you can’t do the 3 blind mice anymore. It’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct. 

[Irish]

In my opinion it's equal parts "students these days", improving the Ralph experience, and product on the ice.  The arena was buzzing during our championship season - since then the quality of home games has gone downhill a bit - not just won-lost, but the types of games.  We really need some scoring up front.  I know we have some great recruits coming in and some quality frosh, but we just don't have the firepower any more. Remember, this is the fan base that has seen Bochinski, Parise, Duncan Toews and Oshie (on the same line), Frattin, Schmaltz, Caggula, and Boesser.  Not much like them anymore.   Fan opinion on this season depends on whether you saw the Bemidji series or the Wisconsin series.  It seems like after the title we celebrated for a bit and then looked up and Duluth and St. Clown were better than us.  We should contend for the conference championship almost every year.  Not having much scoring from the upper classes seems like a way of life now.  As to The Ralph Experience - start with the music and cut some of the ads - it's not rocket science.  Also, someone should be working almost full time analyzing what is needed for the students to come and be active.  We need this to be the best hockey experience in the country.

[Blackheart]

36 minutes ago, Vegas_Sioux said:

Unfortunately you can’t do the 3 blind mice anymore. It’s considered unsportsmanlike conduct. 

Really?  People take themselves way too seriously these days.

[TNF]

1 hour ago, Telly33 said:

Great, so if ticket sales aren't the issue then that brings us back to getting those paid for tickets used by somebody which also brings us back to my original idea of a system to release them back out.  But, I was told there are too many unsold tickets each night for that to be a viable concept.  So which is it?

Yes, we all know that we by far lead the nation in attendance.  I said that in the very first post.  We can do better though because we've done better in the past.  That's the whole point of this thread.

I agree a trusted resale place that doesn’t add-on ridiculous fees may help. You used to be able to post them on theralph.com as long as they were at (or below) face value. Now they just point you to ticketmaster. The other key may be transitioning to mobile tickets that are easily transferable. If you are from outside the GF area it would be much easier to buy/sell tickets. I once met a guy from this site in a taco bell parking lot in Minot. I understand why that face-to-face transaction may not be for everyone. Or why out-of-towners don’t want to drive multiple hours and risk picking up tickets they bought from someone in GF last minute. Being able to download the ticket immediately would increase the trust factor and make the selling process much easier. 

[Siouxperfan7]

8 minutes ago, Blackheart said:

Really?  People take themselves way too seriously these days.

I suppose this one wouldn't fly anymore either.  Anyone recall this one?!! 

If you can't score a goal hit the ref. 

If you can't score a goal hit the ref.

If you can't score a goal and your team is in the hole,

If you can't score a goal hit the ref.

 

[streetsahead]

2 minutes ago, TNF said:

I agree a trusted resale place that doesn’t add-on ridiculous fees may help. You used to be able to post them on theralph.com as long as they were at (or below) face value. Now they just point you to ticketmaster. The other key may be transitioning to mobile tickets that are easily transferable. If you are from outside the GF area it would be much easier to buy/sell tickets. I once met a guy from this site in a taco bell parking lot in Minot. I understand why that face-to-face transaction may not be for everyone. Or why out-of-towners don’t want to drive multiple hours and risk picking up tickets they bought from someone in GF last minute. Being able to download the ticket immediately would increase the trust factor and make the selling process much easier. 

The current ticket master system also places a floor on the price you can list them at.  For instance, I can only list this Friday's ticket for $40 of which ticketmaster keeps 10%. On a week like this where people can buy them with a Hugo's coupon for $25 that's not ideal.

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

25 minutes ago, Irish said:

In my opinion it's equal parts "students these days", improving the Ralph experience, and product on the ice.  The arena was buzzing during our championship season - since then the quality of home games has gone downhill a bit - not just won-lost, but the types of games.  We really need some scoring up front.  I know we have some great recruits coming in and some quality frosh, but we just don't have the firepower any more. Remember, this is the fan base that has seen Bochinski, Parise, Duncan Toews and Oshie (on the same line), Frattin, Schmaltz, Caggula, and Boesser.  Not much like them anymore.   Fan opinion on this season depends on whether you saw the Bemidji series or the Wisconsin series.  It seems like after the title we celebrated for a bit and then looked up and Duluth and St. Clown were better than us.  We should contend for the conference championship almost every year.  Not having much scoring from the upper classes seems like a way of life now.  As to The Ralph Experience - start with the music and cut some of the ads - it's not rocket science.  Also, someone should be working almost full time analyzing what is needed for the students to come and be active.  We need this to be the best hockey experience in the country.

If you're waiting for firepower the likes of the 2015-16 team before getting excited about the hockey team, you'll probably be waiting a long, long time.

[farce poobah]

1 hour ago, TNF said:

This would be a great start. I think arena management also has to makes the choice for atmosphere over ad sales. We went to the Golden Knights game in Vegas and I was very impressed. I love the idea of video clips; “hey UND fans this is (insert UND legend), get on your feet and help the boys protect the ralph and add to the tradition tonight” followed by upbeat music. As it stands now TV timeouts, ads/arena announcements, and random songs are a momentum killer.   Build off of the “one last shift” theory and have a  Jim Archibald clip on the screen to fire the crowd (and the boys) up half way through the third period. 

For my $.02, this is the biggest reason for the quiet crowd.   I really dislike that we're selling our home ice advantage - crowd noise - for a few bucks here and there.

Would welcome as a compromise, there's no in-game adverts during the 3rd period and overtime.

[Siouxperfan7]

18 minutes ago, farce poobah said:

For my $.02, this is the biggest reason for the quiet crowd.   I really dislike that we're selling our home ice advantage - crowd noise - for a few bucks here and there.

Would welcome as a compromise, there's no in-game adverts during the 3rd period and overtime.

Unless you can convince the REA that making money is a bad thing, that ill never happen.  Money trumps all.

[Irish]

47 minutes ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

If you're waiting for firepower the likes of the 2015-16 team before getting excited about the hockey team, you'll probably be waiting a long, long time.

I'm not saying that - I would be happy with the average Sioux firepower over the last 10-15 years.  More would be gravy.  

[farce poobah]

25 minutes ago, Siouxperfan7 said:

Unless you can convince the REA that making money is a bad thing, that ill never happen.  Money trumps all.

Yeah, I'd like to think winning trumps all, but I may be too competitive.

[808287]

I have to think that one of the issues is the slow build of NCHC rivalries.  We used to sit in line in shifts down in Wilkerson waiting to get goofer and bucky tickets for the old barn.  The students would line up with pillows and backgammon boards up and down the tunnels for those.  Turning those around into big rivalries with DU and JBSU or UMD just isn't the same as taking on the gophs with their Minnesota-only purist mentality.  They were/are easy to hate.  There will always be some teams that don't fill the house, especially non conference matchups like Clarkson, Air Force, Northern Mich., etc.  It's those rivalry games that pack the house and get the rafters rockin'.  Along with the "third period home ice bump" as mentioned above, we need to build those rivalries and get them festering.  :-)

[TheFlop]

It appears that the students are leading the way in poor attendance because they fill the lower bowl and the center of the upper bowl, but all of the empty seats are concentrated on the edges of their upper bowl seats.  Still unacceptable.  This weekend take a look at the "expensive" seats behind the team benches and the lower bowl in general.  Lots of empty seats but they are spread out and not all in 2 sections like the students empties are.  It's not a crisis but it's also not trending in the right direction.  

[johnsowe]

The ralph needs to do a better job before the team comes out in the 2 and 3 periods and ESP OT.  The 2 mins of break between OT should not have ads it should be used to build up the team.  Take a page out of UNO and Golden Knights. 

[Wildfan]

22 minutes ago, TheFlop said:

It appears that the students are leading the way in poor attendance because they fill the lower bowl and the center of the upper bowl, but all of the empty seats are concentrated on the edges of their upper bowl seats.  Still unacceptable.  This weekend take a look at the "expensive" seats behind the team benches and the lower bowl in general.  Lots of empty seats but they are spread out and not all in 2 sections like the students empties are.  It's not a crisis but it's also not trending in the right direction.  

Problem is when i was a student in recent years that all student tickets were sold. Not like students are not buying. 

 

1. Some would buy and then skip for parties etc

2. Alot found their way to areas where they could drink alcohol or to the bars. 

3. Others left after a period to go to parties etc. 

4. Some would find empty seats throughout the rink and move to those.

 

None of these make it right, just mentioning it. 

[InHeavenThereIsNoBeer]

1 hour ago, Wildfan said:

Problem is when i was a student in recent years that all student tickets were sold. Not like students are not buying. 

 

1. Some would buy and then skip for parties etc

2. Alot found their way to areas where they could drink alcohol or to the bars. 

3. Others left after a period to go to parties etc. 

4. Some would find empty seats throughout the rink and move to those.

 

None of these make it right, just mentioning it. 

Good information, there needs to be some sort of collective effort by the students to make it a home ice advantage. If they stop showing up, REA needs to get rid of one of their sections.

[Oxbow6]

Free Grinders???

[Sioux>Bison]

1 hour ago, InHeavenThereIsNoBeer said:

Good information, there needs to be some sort of collective effort by the students to make it a home ice advantage. If they stop showing up, REA needs to get rid of one of their sections.

Or the Ralph needs to quit baby sitting the students and squashing all the fun. Most of the things other student sections do is not allowed in the Ralph anymore. It’s not like what we did was necessarily bad but if you couldn’t do it in church you couldn’t in the Ralph.

[Sioux>Bison]

It didn’t matter who we were playing that the lower bowl wasn’t fun....