regionals in Boston - updated info 3/25 - Sports Grille!

Please see update towards the bottom of this thread.

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So I'll start this one, while we're waiting for confirmation that the game(s) will indeed be available. Does anyone know if the Cornell Club of Boston has or will be having any plans? Does anyone have any suggestion to go in Boston or MetroWest?

Worst case scenario I have DirecTV w/ SportPack in Marlborough, but I probably can't host more than 5 to 10 people, depending how much people mind sitting on the floor or how cramped people want to be.

But I figure there gotta be Boston gatherings - so, any plans??

I'm in ... wherever you guys can find a place. I just moved here 5 months ago and couldn't find the game on tv anywhere this past weekend.

Thanks.

Delta- so far we are out of luck as even directTV's ESPNU channell is not showing our Saturday game (it's showing a quarterfinal from another reional instead.) We need to hope that one of the other networks picks up the game - NESN, Fox sports Midwest or similar.

Right, right... this is being discussed in other threads. I'll place is here too though, there's feedback link to ESPN about programming: [sports.espn.go.com]

Is anyone here a dues paying member of the Cornell Club of Boston? I'd like to see if they're planning on doing anything, and, if not, give them the idea, I figure it may be better if a member contacted them.

Also, does anyone have any suggestions on bars/pubs in the greater Boston area that are nice and might be accomodating. The only thought I had is John Harvards, which might be nicely ironic, as it is every year. Plus they'd probably willingly put on the Harvard game beforehand if we showed up early.

Any other suggestions? My only request is that it not be right in downtown Boston, so us metrowesterners don't have to deal with the lovely mess that is downtown Boston and its parking. Although if there's a great choice down there, I'll deal.

Thanks!

I'm another Metrowester who'd be interested if there's a decent option. But I'm close enough to Boston, being in Natick, that I'd have no problem heading in, if that's the best bet.

Not a member of the CCOB just yet, but the president is an old fraternity brother of mine. I can ask if they have any insights.

I've had very good luck watching CU games at The Sports Depot in Allston. They love having large rooting crowds and will turn any of their about 40 plasmas to whichever DirectTV game you want.

Even this past weekend, we were able to watch the ECAC finals while all sorts of basketball was going on.

Also, the place is REALLY easy to get to (about 2 minutes from the Allston/Birighton pike exit) and there's plenty of parking.

I was thinking about stopping in there and didnt, wish I had known (the internet feed was horrible for the semifinal game and I didnt see any of the final). Can you hear any of the play by play or is it like many places where the only sound is some recycled best of the 70s/80s musak over the house system?

I am in Brighton and can do either metrowest or downtown, but would love to hear as well as watch the game!

Kevin

ps. I have 3 or 4 other alumni friends who would also want to know where to watch the game

The place plays the audio of the big game of the day over the main speakers. I haven't been able to hear play by play well for any other games (exception being the bathroom TV...very key). However, if we get enough people and possibly call them ahead of time, we may be able to put our game over the main system.

There are only 2 CBB games on that day and the Celtics don't play until 7:30, so it's a good chance we might be able to get that.

Let's get a headcount and on Wednesday I'll call them up and see what they can offer us!

For those with no time or money (or in my case time and money) to head out to Minneapolis, a great place in the Boston area to catch the Cornell/OSU game will be the Sports Depot in Allston. I'd like to get a headcount of people who would like to join a hopefully large Cornell cheering section.

If we get a good size crowd they will play the audio over their main speakers instead of whatever college squeakball game happens to be going on at the moment.

The place is easy to get to, two minutes from the Mass Pike, close to the greenline (Harvard Ave.), and there is plenty of parking. There are plenty of plasmas, a huge bar and really good food. They also have free WiFi for non-stop access to elynah in-game chatter!

Take a look at their website: [www.sportsdepotboston.com]

If you'd be interested in meeting up with us there, send me an email at iamaguma@yahoo.com by Thursday so I can give them a call.

LGR!
-Dan

EDIT: Cornell has confirmed that the game will be broadcast on Altitude, which will be available at the Sports Depot. See you all there!

I see on their web site that they have a kids' menu, so that means we're not limited to the 21+ crowd. Gotta check with Little Killer, but I'm thinking we might go for it.

Sounds great! I plan on it, and I'm about to email you as well.

Please make sure they have DirecTV or Dish Network *with* the SportsPack. I've read on here that many bars often don't sign on for the sports pack, so they just have the local sports networks. I figure you checked or would check into this, but I thought I should mention it.

Also, we'll have to make sure that the game is indeed on tv, and I encourage anyone to email ESPN asking them to make sure that the game is on live somewhere. Be polite and understanding that they may chose another game, but make sure they know the demand is there for it to be shown somewhere.

Finally, I'll edit the title of this thread to mention the place!

Edit: Rather than a new post, if they have ESPNU, then they do have the SportsPack, but you may as well make 100% sure.

I am 99.9% sure that they have the DirecTV SportsPack (I believe that I asked them when I called them about the Everblades...) but I will make 100% sure today.

As for actually being on TV, I definitely misread the TV schedule and though it was our game, not Minny-Maine that will be shown on ESPNU. I'll amend my post to reflect that major variable!

[Q]Killer Wrote:

I'm another Metrowester who'd be interested if there's a decent option. But I'm close enough to Boston, being in Natick, that I'd have no problem heading in, if that's the best bet.

Not a member of the CCOB just yet, but the president is an old fraternity brother of mine. I can ask if they have any insights.[/q]
Well we seem to have a place now, but if you wanted to ask the CCOB to mention it in an email or something, or put it on their web page, couldn't hurt. Unless dargason thinks that might bring too many people and cause a problem.

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:
Unless dargason thinks that might bring too many people and cause a problem.[/q]

The place is pretty big, so unless we get 100 people or so, I don't think it will be a problem. Regardless I'll give them a call tonight and ask them that.

Mentioning this in a CCOB email would probably be a great way to get some more people, though!

OK, I'll shoot him an e-mail. Might even be a good boy and join the CCOB while I'm at it. Been meaning to do that for a while anyway, though this club is a lot more fun.

The club's membership chair (that would be me) will come beat you over the head with a club if you don't join and Rick will supply the club.

Seriously, The Sports Depot is a good place to watch the game. I may be there. I may be in Minnesota. But if I'm there, I'm bringing about 10 people with me.

OK, OK, I'm guilty. I'll join. But unless you've added creative signs, a pep band, and a bunch of screaming maniacs repeatedly telling Harvard how much they suck, I still say this club is more fun.

bump... just keeping this up top so people will see it

Hopefully I can bump it again when the tv station is announced

The club has gone down hill a bit and I'll admit that we have no screaming maniacs, pep band, etc. You'll notice that I'm usually the first one to step in and say what the club is planning on doing with regards to sports events, but the Faithful have found the exact place we would have gone to first. Hey, what's not to like about this club.

Beat me to it =)

I confirmed that Sports Depot has the Sports Pack, so we're 99.999% in the clear. The 0.001% being if ESPN gives the broadcast to FSN Irkutsk, which I do not believe is covered under the DirecTV package.

guys- we still don't know if any satellite channel is actually showing the saturday game live. Not so 100% in the clear yet..........

Neither is FSN Chicago... and that's about it (it was removed a few months ago after monetary disputes, I can only assume, and replaced with Comcast

abmark, yes, read the post right ahead of you, that is the one variable we are waiting on
< reloads TV info page... nope, nothing yet >

[EDIT] We are still not sure if this article is correct...check this thread [elf.elynah.com] for updates on whether or not we can get the broadcast

Big Red Hockey's NCAA Television Schedule Announced

Local fans can catch all West Regional games on Syracuse's Time Warner Cable

March 22, 2005

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell men's ice hockey fans from across the country can see the Big Red's NCAA tournament games at the West Regional in Minneapolis, Minn., locally on Syracuse's Time Warner Cable and also live on DirecTV satellite system.

The Big Red, the No. 2 seed in the West, will face No. 3 seed Ohio State on Saturday, March 26 at 6 p.m. ET at the Mariucci Arena. With a win, Cornell would face the winner of No. 1 seed Minnesota and No. 4 seed Maine on Sunday, March 27 at 3:30 p.m. ET in the West Regional final. Both games will be televised live in Ithaca and the surrounding areas by Syracuse's Time Warner Cable, which can be found on channel 26.

On DirecTV, the Altitude Sports Network (channel 644) will broadcast both Saturday's West Regional semifinal and Sunday's West Regional final live, while ESPNU (channel 609) will carry Saturday's contest on tape delay at 11:30 p.m. and will deliver Sunday's final live. To get both channels, you have to purchase the Sports Pack option.

Just beat me to it!

Yay for Altitude Sports! I knew I liked that channel the first time I caught the Utah Grizzlies versus Chicago Wolves on it!

LGR!

May have to put this on hold... check out the "What's going on... TV???" thread. It seems still unsettled at this point.

Seems like we're back on. DirecTV *should* be picking up the Altitude Sports alternate feed on channel 658. If someone is near the bar, and wants to confirm some of the details (i.e. have them check if they get the Thursday Altitude Sport feed on 657 at 5 pm when there's D-II bball, that might help some).

I'll be in the area that evening, so I can check on that.


So channel 658 is the alternate? 657 is Altitude regular? Is there anything on 658 that we can check for?

channel 657 is one of the alternate feeds, and that will be active on thursday after 5 pm mst (men's DII basketball).
channel 658 is another alternate feed, the one that will be carrying the game. IIRC, the woman at Altitude said that 658 won't be active until friday night. However, if the bar is getting one alternate feed (i.e 657 on thursday), chances are pretty good they will get the other.

my local sports bar doesn't have altitude, but they are open until 3:30 am.... thus i'm may be stuck watching on tape delay. however, if i get them to pick it up, they do have wireless internet access so i can watch the game (no way to get sound with hoops), but listen in on the college sports pass.

Right, 644 is Altitude regular.

But if they get 657 on Fri, chances are pretty good (though of course not 100%) that they'll get 658 on Saturday. Its about the only predictor we can try anyway.

From Hillel:
[Q]The bad news for most folks in Cornell diaspora: The situation when it comes to sports bars and other commercial venues is very murky. Channel 658 is NOT available on all commercial DTV accounts -- even places that get "Sports Pack." It sounds like access to DTV 658 is an a la carte add-on: some get it, some don't, and most of 'em probably have no idea whether they get it or not. Scheduling a public gathering at a sports bar to watch Saturday afternoon's game live is a risky proposition, even at places that showed last weekend's ECAC championship. Unless you get an unusually swift manager (riiiiiiight), it will be very difficult to check whether an establishment will be able to broadcast this game, because DTV 658 is almost always blank. [One absurdly complicated test: Call the sports bar at 7:30 on Thursday night and ask them to put on DTV 657. If they see a D-II basketball tournament game, you're probably good to go for 658 on Saturday... Don't ask.]

So if you don't get DTV and you live outside CNY, Ohio, Omaha, KC, Denver, and other lucky pockets, it looks like watching the regional semifinal live is likely to be a hit-or-miss challenge.[/Q]

So we should definitely do the 657 test on Thursday. In the meantime, keep writing to other channels requesting it.

Also, we can test out channel 658 on Saturday before our game, when they should be carrying Harvard/UNH, and on Friday when they should be carrying the Worcester semis.

Ok, Got that written down...I can pop in there on Friday too to confirm 658. I spend enough of my life in Allston anyways, another evening won't kill me

Is someone confirmed to be checking 657 on THursday after 5 MST?

I will be there

UPDATE: 3/24 - 1:30 PM

So we have 3 options we are working on. At the moment this is our order:

1) Sports Depot - Cambridge St, Allston
Pros: location, size, kids allowed, parking... oh, and WiFi
Cons: still not sure if we'll get the game there

2) Sports Grille - Canal St, Boston
Pros: checking with management, but regularly does order channels for people... size, kids allowed
Cons: location & parking (its near the Fleet/Gahden), but no big events (only Globetrotters on Sat and Figure Skating on Sun) - for pay garage parking may be necessary

3) Lazy Dog - Route 20, Marlborough
Pros: willing to order channel for us, we'd probably mainly take over the place, kids allowed (?), parking available
Cons: near 495 / route 20. Very close to me , but not convenient to most.

So it looks like this will be happening. We're working on confirming the Sports Depot tv availability. If that doesn't work out, we'll wait for a call back from Sports Grille and make sure we can get the channel. If for some reason that doesn't work out, our last 3rd option is the metrowest Lazy Dog.

Further updates will be coming when we know exactly which place, but I wanted to make sure everyone knows that it looks like we will be finding someplace, so do plan to attend!

[Q]DeltaOne81 Wrote:

UPDATE: 3/24 - 1:30 PM
[/q]

Well, I'll do either of the first two; but if it comes down to the Lazy Dog, I'd rather stay at home in case there are technical difficulties, because I *know* I can get it here (modulo DirecTV or Altitude themselves screwing up), and it's a long, long drive from Marlborough if things don't work out.

Cheers,
Kyle

We will confirm with whichever place that they are getting the games on Altitude alternate, channel 358 on Friday *and* on Saturday that they're getting the Harvard/UNH game on the same. That should minimzie the risk significantly. Do feel free to regularly check this thread and/or your email for status updates.

Afterall, its a long long drive from the Fleet area back to Marlborough for me if it doesn't work out there, so I intend to take as little risk as possible.

I wouldn't expect Sports Grille to fall through unless the manager is having a really bad day. The guy I spoke with seemed very aware of the kind of situation and very willing to help, and they've done it before for groups as small as 5. Considering I'm bringing at least 4 or 5 and dargason has a list of 30 last I knew, I'm not too worried about that

The Boston Colgate Alumni Club arranged with the Sports Depot to pick up the Colgate/CC game 5PM Friday (also ALT channel). Can't see why the SD can't do Cornell/OSU as well.

See [board.uscho.com]

[Q]Ken '70 Wrote:

The Boston Colgate Alumni Club arranged with the Sports Depot to pick up the Colgate/CC game 5PM Friday (also ALT channel). Can't see why the SD can't do Cornell/OSU as well.[/q]

Are you sure they are watching it on Altitude? The USCHO TV page [www.uscho.com] says that game is also on Fox Sports North Wisconsin which is channel 642 on DirecTV. Is that part of the Sports Pack or is that an extra subscription?

I bet that is sports pack.....(just guessing)

I set up the Colgate Alumni Club of Boston viewing at the Sports Depot tomorrow for the Colgate v. CC game. Sports Depot doesn't normally get Altitude Sports (ch. 644), but we were able to arrange for a one-time upgrade DirecTV order for 70 bucks. This one-time order may carry over to Saturday, but I'm really not sure. To be safe, I would call Sports Depot to make sure. I dealt with a guy named John, and he was very helpful - give them a ring at 617-783-2300.

Good luck!

Well, it doesn't seem there is a base Sports Back for business. Rather there's about half a dozen packages... Comcast SportsNet Chicago, Altitude, Comcast SportsNet West, Commercial Choice (all standard commercial channels + CSTV), Fox Sports Net, SportsChannel, and ESPN Networks seem to be the packages (+ sports subscriptions like MLB Extra Innings and and NFL Sunday Ticket).

SportsChannel seems to include all the FSNs which used to go by the name SportsChannel (this includes New England, NY, Ohio, Florida and a few while), and the FSN pack is the rest of them.

Fox Sports Net North, which is split into two feeds (Minn and Wisc) is part of the Fox Sports Net package. That would seem to be a much more likely package for most bars to have, even though the northeastern channels are in the SportsChannel pack.

Certainly more likely than the Altitude choice.

uh delta- see the post above yours from MARooney

[Q]abmarks Wrote:

uh delta- see the post above yours from MARooney[/q]
Indeed... thanks MARooney! considering the info I have say that a month is $50 (it could be old info), I would think $70 is more than a day's worth, but we'll definitely see.

So I checked out Sports Depot last night and first of all, the place was absolutely mobbed for basketball. The manager said that he would check on Altitude and the Alternate...he seemed to indicate that they got original Altitude but that nothing was playing on the alternate feed (this was in the middle of the DII basketball game). He then politely told me that he was really frikking busy and to stop bothering him. In all fairness, he did seem really busy.

Anyways, my point being that we're not sure if the Sports Depot will have the game and even if they do, we will most likely not get audio. Fred (DeltaOne) has been calling up The Sports Grille by the Fleet Center and they look like they will be able to host us, most likely with audio, and will order Altitude just for us. We just need to make sure that they will get the alternate feed, which we will figure out tonight.

We will keep you updated!

Here's the new info.

Sports Grille - 132 Canal St - by North Station T-stop, near the Fleet

They are willing to buy the package for us. The only thing is we'll need, is to check tonight to make sure they get the alternate feed as well. But we will do so and I will post back here.

I will be speaking to them this evening to work out the final details. We do have a deal that if only a few people show up, we will chip in for the $30 package. So please come! They have been very nice and helpful to go along with everything and they deserve our business!

Sunday's game, if applicable, is on ESPN-U, FSN North (Wisc), and Altitude (regular), so we should be fine for those. I would even suggest we watch on Altitude to thank them for picking up the other one!

I've been watching the thread with minimal comment but now I'll jump in and say thanks for all your hard work. I wanted to be sure that we had something definite in place before a mass e-mail went out but I've just asked the Northeast Regional Office to blast out an e-mail about watching the game. I'll put my name as a contact and post here the number of people to expect as I get responses. I'm in.

If you want to wait until ~5 PMish tonight, when i can get them to order Altitude and test the alternate feed, it might not be a bad idea. But its up to you!

Thanks for the press and Dan and I are happy to have done it!

Fantastic, Tom...thanks alot!

Thanks much to Fred and Dan for their hard work. I hope we take over the place.

FWIW, for those unfamiliar with it, the Sports Grille is on Canal Street right next to Boston Beer Works. It's kind of hard to miss, with all the gaudy blue and yellow out front. Capital place, though. Definitely a good choice.

As for parking: if there are no events, you should be able to find street parking near Canal Street, but be careful: downtown Boston's parking meters are active until 8pm, NOT 6pm, so feed the meter before you come in. Alternatively it may be easier simply to park in North Station or the garage across the street from North Station and eat the $10 or so it will cost. That is probably what I will do.

Let's go Red!

Cheers,
Kyle

I'll help chip in a few bucks for the ALtitude pack if needed..I'll definitely be there

Arik

An e-mail has been sent out and we have about six to seven people to add on on the early returns.

We're in. Gotta see who else I can round up.

LGR!!!!

Just in case you didn't see the other thread, Dan just confirmed that the Sports Grille is a go. They are currently getting Altitude Alternate. So we've done all we can to make sure for tomorrow!

I'll be there in my home, fake-style (PSP) Cornell jersey with '03' on the back, and my gf with her away, Koronis (real-style) Cornell jersey! and some friends and co-workers!

Woohoo! I'm psyched

I'm in. See you there.

We will have to leave early, though, b/c we have tickets to the BC vs NoDak final in Worcester. Anyone else headed up there?

Anne