ECAC in Albany, thread 2

I figured it was time for a new thread on this... we're done longer, but why not get a fresh start?

Press conference at 11 am today - now 2:30 pm

USCHO.com... no mention

hockey.ecac.org... no mention

this board... no mention

pepsiarena.com... [www.pepsiarena.com]

Well, it took some searching, but there ya go - it's official, for three years, prices are roughly the same, and you get a free program - and a commemorative one at that! Take that 'Placid! j/k

-Fred

As much as I like Placid and as much as I dread weekends in the Capital District (having to stay the extra day in the '98 playoffs was awful), I may actually go this year since it is now much easier for me to get to.

Three years? Did they get that in writing?

Oh, c'mon, Keith, that card game we played all afternoon Sunday wasn't exciting enough for you? (Or maybe my driving?)

Yeah, I'm trying to look at this glass as half-full, too. I wanted Gore as president, but I was happy about my taxes with Bush. So now I'll focus on the four hours less driving, the better hotel policies, and the Big House Brewery a few blocks from the Peps^H^H^H^HKnick.

Beeeeej

Link updates:

the official article from the ECAC -
[hockey.ecac.org]

the official article from USCHO -
coming soon, meanwhile they have a blurb on their main page

Well, Hearts on the floor of Houston while watching little kids play hockey was fun, but it does say something about the area... And the driving was an added bonus

Having no choice, I'll give up and accept it. I hope this turns out to be half as much fun as Lake Placid was. I hope more Cornellians show up in the years Cornell makes it, since the location is more central and motel accomodations should be easier to make, and also because we are rid of the ill-conceived PIG and are once more guaranteed 2 games if we make the trip.

Besides the Best Westerns in Troy and Schenectady, where else is there to stay in the Cap District area?

All the usual national chains have properties either in the city or very close by. Just don't stay at the Motel 6 - Mark and I stayed there for the regionals in '96, and even by Motel 6 standards, it was absolutely awful.

Beeeej

How about hotels within walking distance of The Arena Formerly Known as Knickerbocker?

As someone who has to go to a fair amount of effort to attend the ECACs, when it's even possible, I'm prepared to stay away for three years and hope the new location is a flop and the ECAC sees the error of its ways. Of course, given the way the league screwed over Placid, they probably wouldn't want us back.

JTW,

Can't you see by the ELynah poll that more people want to be in Albany? If the majority of people want it there, that's where is it should be.

The majority of people prefer college basketball to college hockey. Does that mean we should turn college hockey into college basketball?

Not to mention the small matter of a handshake agreement with the Lake Placid organizers...

John,

Hand shake or no hand shake you'd still want the ECAC to be at a venue that people can not afford and can't get to.

Would you keep killing the ECAC or your own busniess for a hand shake? There was no verbal contract. The ECAC and ORDA said they would get a contract done and they never did.

I think you are comparing apples to oranges here. The eLynah poll is almost certainly comprised of people who prefer college hockey to college bball. And even that subset preferred Albany to LP.

I think if you are coming from Brownsville, Portland, Switzerland or some other high-distance locale that reflects an admirably high dedication to attending the tournament, the few extra hours to LP seem worth the trouble. If the choice is 2 hours or 6, plus LP gouging, I think you can see why most of us prefer Albany.

(I apologize. I didn't mean to rehash that debate again.)

John T. Whelan '91 wrote:

Of course, given the way the league screwed over Placid, they probably wouldn't want us back.

Given the way the Placid merchants screwed over us fans, this fan hopes never to have to go back.

Having the tournament in Placid was "killing the ECAC"? Buttafuoco himself said "We knew that attendance in Placid was good, but we thought we could do better here." And the first quotes coming from the coaches said similar things: Placid is good, but they thought Albany would be better. Hardly sounds like grounds for backing out of a deal. And given the accounts in the sidebar at [www.uscho.com] about the ECAC not returning the ORDA's phone calls, it sounds like it was done with Irsay-like flair.

Bottom line: I think the ECACs in Lake Placid were a beautiful thing and moving them to Albany is a terrible idea. During the whole stupid discussion on the USCHO board, I could take consolation in the fact that they were committed to Placid through 2005 and we were "safe" from bad ideas at least until then. Little did I know the league would find a loophole and place perceived self-interest over principle. If the league had switched sites at the end of its contract, I would still think it was a bad idea and be disappointed, but to have it done like this effectively yanks the rug out from under all of us who were looking forward to at least three more years of Lake Placid Immersion.

The eLynah poll is composed of people who vote whenever the poll lets them.

Anyway, while the move will go down in the miserable annals of the Earth as a mistake, there's nothing we can do about it now but say yeah sure this is what we wanted all along. So, woohoo, here we come Albany! (weak smile)

The poll lets you vote once per computer or per IP address. It checks against a cookie it makes and your IP, so you'd have to change computers AND IPs to vote multiple times. It's as good as accurate as you can get without needing some kind of verified account to vote.

Actually, this is related to a feature of the poll I wondered about: whether I see a poll or poll results seems to depend on a cookie on the machine I'm using, even if I'm logged in, which means that I can only see the results of a poll on the machine from which I voted (unless I vote again!). How difficult would it be to keep track of polls the same way you keep track of new messages, by either cookie or login as appropriate?

I happen to think that there is one major reason for moving to Albany...same normal ice size. I think it's wrong to play an entire season on a sheet of ice that is roughly the same size everywhere, then go to an enormous sheet that changes the game. Sure, the good teams usually adjust just fine, but it seems very dumb to me to have the PLAYOFFS be the only time you play on Olympic ice.

Jordan (who won't be able to go to any ECAC tournys in the near future, due to the small fact that he'll be living in Europe)

Jordan Steele '01 wrote:

Jordan (who won't be able to go to any ECAC tournys in the near future, due to the small fact that he'll be living in Europe)

But on the up side, you'll probably get to see professional hockey played in something approaching the college atmosphere.

Where in Europe/Ou en Europe/Wo in Europa/Dove nel'Europa/Donde en Europa/etc?

My IP address changes every time I dial in, but my computer remains the same. Yet I've been allowed to vote several times in every poll eLF has had. I can only assume the same is true of many other people, since I'm also pretty sure that there aren't 200+ active eLF readers in June. I think the polls don't work the way you think they do, Age.

Beeeej

Gotta agree with Beeeej here. I think the implementation may not actually be working as designed.

I have a static ip at work and a pseudostatic one at home (the DCHP client on my router leases the same ip number for months on end). Yet in spite of this, I find that can vote multiple times on polls from the same machine.

That's odd. It works as expected on all the machines I use. It's a completely different mechanism than the forum login. Other than making lots of changes to how it's displayed, I haven't touched the voting code, and frankly don't care enough to. It's close enough. Also, just because it shows you the poll and lets you vote, it might not be counting your vote if the IP's already in there. At any rate, I've been immersed in a new eLynah project which I hope to unveil before the end of the year. Some of you know what it is, the rest of you could probably have figured it out from some of my postings, but it's close to done.

Just a note on this topic...

If you switch browsers on the same computer, the cookie won't carry over and it'll let you vote again, especially if you're on dial-up and get different IPs. Also, you may have cookies turned off in your browser prefs.

Other than that, I dunno, and considering these polls are hardly designed to be scientific, it's probably not a big deal. Maybe a "show results" like would be nice for people who don't want to "cheat" and vote again to see the results, but technically, if you let people vote multiple times, then you're you're not only measurng opinion, but stregth of the opinion (assuming you vote more if you care so), so it's actually more accurate!

-Fred

In which case, the vote won't be counted because the IP is the same.

And as for showing results, it's right there in the menubar on the left.

Greg - are you implying that the Woo Hoo for Albany poll results are corrupted like the results of [Clarkson player other than Todd White] for Hobey on the USCHO poll? (Heck, even the Todd White for Hobey results were a result of stuffing, but at least he deserved the recognition.)

[And for RichS: Yes, I am aware that a number of Cornellians have advocated stuffing the ballot box for our guys as well. We just haven't done it with the consistency or success that Clarkson has.]

With a "strength of opinion" feature, Age would have to add more digits to the counter to tabulate Greg's votes.

. . . and yours . . .

[Q]In which case, the vote won't be counted because the IP is the same.[/Q]

What if you dialed up into a different IP *and* switched browsers (or cleared cookies). Not saying you could really do anything about that situation, just looking for an explanation.

John T. Whelan '91 wrote:
[Q] But on the up side, you'll probably get to see professional hockey played in something approaching the college atmosphere.

Where in Europe/Ou en Europe/Wo in Europa/Dove nel'Europa/Donde en Europa/etc?[/Q]

That would be "Wo in Europa?", although they haven't told me exactly where. I might be able to sneak out to the first game of the year, but even that will be tough.

I should get my pinpoint assignment soon, but all I have now is that I've been assigned to th 64th Replacement Detachment in Frankfurt...which is just the center that processes all Army personel for assignment in Germany. I'll be at one of the several posts around the country. I'll let you all know exactly where I'll be soon.

In that case, the link you want is [hockey.muc4u.net]

And if they keep you in Frankfurt, you're in luck, since Lance Nethery now seems to be head coach of the Frankfurt Lions.

Well, then in that case, there's a Java app that monitors mouse movement. Every person has a signature way of manupulating a mouse or trackball and there's an imprint of that signature in the database. If whoever votes matches an existing signarture with 99.97% accuracy, it also discounts the vote.

What if I vote lefty?

You mean you don't always?

LOL. No, but man I'm getting more and more convinced.

For what it is worth, I have been allowed to vote on the USCHO poll on their front page every time that I sign on from my home computer. So there must be a similar problem there. I don't have this "problem" from my work computer or when voting in polls on the USCHO message board.

Probably have cookies turned off and you're behind a firewall or some other screwyness. I'm pretty sure it doesn't count your votes more than once though.

It's interesting to watch the ballot box slowly being stuffed

What's really important is that Mike couldn't be more happy to be out of LP and into Albany.

Without going back through this entire thread, why is he so happy to be in Albany? Besides the potential greater cornell alumni support?

RichS wrote:

Without going back through this entire thread, why is he so happy to be in Albany? Besides the potential greater cornell alumni support?

Two words: Smaller ice.