(04-27-2016 01:54 AM)airtroop Wrote:  

(04-26-2016 10:47 PM)BKTopper Wrote:  And women's bball in some regions, LaCrosse in others.

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D-I College hockey, IIRC, vastly outdraws baseball, women's hoops and Lacrosse on a per game basis. Having been raised in the Pacific Northwest, I can say from my experience, I've never been to a dead hockey arena, I've seen tens of thousands of fans packed into those venues at capacity+ with people scalping tickets outside for well over face value. Never have I seen this at a baseball, women's b-ball, Lacrosse or soccer game. Without even bothering to look it up, I'd be surprised if the B1G fails to average less than 25,000 per game.

According to the 2015-16 attendance figures for the six Big Ten teams who play hockey, none have average attendance greater than 10K per game and none have a home rink with a capacity greater than 17.5K:

D1 attendance rank - School -- Avg attendance/Home rink Capacity

_2 - Minnesota -- 9,849/10,000
_3 - Wisconsin -- 8,849/15,359
_7 - Penn State -- 6,093/5,782
_9 - Michigan -- 5,457/5,800
10 - Michigan State -- 5,184/6,470
11 - Ohio State -- 5,151/17,500

(04-27-2016 07:22 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(04-27-2016 12:55 PM)airtroop Wrote:  Interesting. I grew up in Alaska with two D-I teams, AK-Anch (WCHA) and Alaska (CCHA at the time) and I know back then the Sullivan in Anchorage was sold out regularly. Of course, this was back in the late 80's/early 90's. I remember UAA would go play Minnesota and I remember the announced attendance was almost always 20,000-30,000 per game back then. Has D-I hockey attendance dropped since then?

What hockey arena were they playing in?? I don't know any hockey arena that's more than 22K. And the Sullivan Arena holds less than 7,000, so not really sure how they could have even gotten 10,000 in that stadium

According to the Gophers' Men's Hockey 2015-2016 Media Guide, they played most of their home hockey games from 1950-85/85-93 in the Williams Area/Mariucci Arena, which had a capacity of up to 10,000.

(The first game in that arena (February 17, 1950, vs. Michigan State) had a crowd of 3,774. The last game (March 13, 1993, a WCHA league playoff game vs. North Dakota) was seen by 7,449. They now play in the New Mariucci Arena, which has been upgraded to 10,000 capacity.)

A few other games have been played in the following local "neutral" sites:

St. Paul Civic Center (1976-97/Hockey capacity: 16,000),
Met Center (1991-93/Hockey capacity: 15,000),
Target Center (1992-2010/Hockey capacity: 17,500) ...

... but none of these had hockey capacities above 20K or hosted any Gophers' games vs UA-Anchorage.

Hockey.

Speaking of Hockey ..........

'Bout Those Preds ?!

(04-28-2016 01:22 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Speaking of Hockey ..........

'Bout Those Preds ?!

Welcome to San Jose. :-)

(04-27-2016 07:22 PM)westsidewolf1989 Wrote:  

(04-27-2016 12:55 PM)airtroop Wrote:  

(04-27-2016 05:48 AM)ExcitedOwl18 Wrote:  

(04-27-2016 01:54 AM)airtroop Wrote:  

(04-26-2016 10:47 PM)BKTopper Wrote:  And women's bball in some regions, LaCrosse in others.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk

D-I College hockey, IIRC, vastly outdraws baseball, women's hoops and Lacrosse on a per game basis. Having been raised in the Pacific Northwest, I can say from my experience, I've never been to a dead hockey arena, I've seen tens of thousands of fans packed into those venues at capacity+ with people scalping tickets outside for well over face value. Never have I seen this at a baseball, women's b-ball, Lacrosse or soccer game. Without even bothering to look it up, I'd be surprised if the B1G fails to average less than 25,000 per game.

I grew up going to Boston College Hockey games, and well they definitely draw well, it's nowhere close to 25k.

North Dakota was tops in attendance at 11,675/game this year.

It drops off pretty quick though, #30 UMass was only 2,868.

Interesting. I grew up in Alaska with two D-I teams, AK-Anch (WCHA) and Alaska (CCHA at the time) and I know back then the Sullivan in Anchorage was sold out regularly. Of course, this was back in the late 80's/early 90's. I remember UAA would go play Minnesota and I remember the announced attendance was almost always 20,000-30,000 per game back then. Has D-I hockey attendance dropped since then?

What hockey arena were they playing in?? I don't know any hockey arena that's more than 22K. And the Sullivan Arena holds less than 7,000, so not really sure how they could have even gotten 10,000 in that stadium

I'm not sure where Minnesota was playing but I was just listening to the local radio station in Anchorage covering the away games and the announcers estimates' of the attendance in the 20-30K range. As for the Sullivan, you're correct about its capacity for hockey. I believe it's closer to 10K for the hoops configuration though. The point I meant to make is it's my impression (going back about 20 years) that hockey was much well more supported than baseball from what I've seen.

Again, I wonder if D-I hockey attendance has declined, much like NCAAB and D-I football have since those days.

Wanted to add - thanks to everyone for updating my outdated brain on NCAA hockey. I really miss it but stopped following it closely about 15 years ago (I moved down here 20 years ago) and it sounds like things have changed, including the number of D-I teams increasing since those days (something I just learned). I just remember Seawolves and Nanooks games being the biggest show in town back in the day, packing in more fans than almost any college baseball game. Like many D-I hockey schools, it is truly THE "revenue sport" (or at least WAS).

My understanding is that a school can leave the conference, without penalty, at the conclusion of a TV contract. Our contract is up in June. Is it possible UTEP could be positioning itself to leave at that time, or will the MWC wait until it finds out if the BIG12 will take BYU or not? It only seems logical to wait until the BIG12 makes it's move. If they leave BYU behind, I'm sure they'd like to bring them back in with UTEP or Rice, but more likely UTEP. If BYU gets the BIG12 invite, UTEP and Rice would make more sense to the MWC.

(12-18-2015 10:19 AM)StandingInEE Wrote:  Should the AAC lose schools with upward mobility who will they backfill with? They will pick CUSA programs that bring them the most benefit, further weakening CUSA.

They could if they wanted to; but they won't want to.

(04-28-2016 01:22 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Speaking of Hockey ..........

'Bout Those Preds ?!

Congratulations. I'm in deep mourning today as a pretty big time Ducks fan.

(04-28-2016 01:22 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Speaking of Hockey ..........

'Bout Those Preds ?!

random, but i was at the AAC watching the stars play the preds when it was announced that hussein was captured...or either hanged...can't remember which...

(04-28-2016 02:19 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(04-28-2016 01:22 PM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Speaking of Hockey ..........

'Bout Those Preds ?!

Welcome to San Jose. :-)

Gonna be tough on tired legs.

Hopefully we can play better at home this series.

(04-29-2016 10:00 AM)KAjunRaider Wrote:  Gonna be tough on tired legs.

Hopefully we can play better at home this series.

Sharks have the league's best "away" record ... and one of the worst on its own ice. Confounding.

Any Predators' fans wan to make one of those "mayor-style" bets* on the outcome of this series?

*(Loser sends something iconic (often food or beverage) from their town/area to the winner.)