"Off the Crossbar" today

RichH · March 27, 2009, 07:54:17 AM

[quote KeithK] Either you think it's isolated, hard to get to and expensive or a wonderful little resort town that lives and breathes hockey during the tournament weekend.[/quote]

Well, I think both those things are true.

Not coincidentally, I'm one of the few people without a strong opinion on this topic. I showed up in Lake Placid. I showed up in Albany. I like both places. Frankly, while I still would go, I think moving to Bridgeport would be a step down. I guess the only advantage would be accessibility. Right on Metro-North, Amtrak, and the Port Jeff ferry.

ugarte · March 27, 2009, 08:19:58 AM

[quote imafrshmn]I'm surprised nobody voiced complaint about Lake Placid as an ECAC host, with their Olympic ice sheet. I guess the glories of 1970 make up for it.[/quote]
It isn't as big a deal to play on an Olympic sheet against other teams that usually don't. I've often thought that the complaints about the Olympic rinks were thinly-masked complaints about a form of home-ice advantage.

nshapiro · March 27, 2009, 01:09:36 PM

Quote from: imafrshmnI'm surprised nobody voiced complaint about Lake Placid as an ECAC host, with their Olympic ice sheet. I guess the glories of 1970 make up for it.

I can't help wondering if 1970 is a typo, or maybe imafrshmn
thought it was 1980, but realized, 'No - that is a summer olympics year'

KeithK · March 27, 2009, 01:17:21 PM

[quote nshapiro]

Quote from: imafrshmnI'm surprised nobody voiced complaint about Lake Placid as an ECAC host, with their Olympic ice sheet. I guess the glories of 1970 make up for it.

I can't help wondering if 1970 is a typo, or maybe imafrshmn
thought it was 1980, but realized, 'No - that is a summer olympics year'[/quote]
Well, Cornell did have a pretty memorable experience at Lake Placid in 1970.

ugarte · March 27, 2009, 01:23:32 PM

[quote nshapiro]I can't help wondering if 1970 is a typo, or maybe imafrshmn thought it was 1980, but realized, 'No - that is a summer olympics year'[/quote]
They held the Summer and Winter Olympic games the same year until 1994.

marty · March 27, 2009, 02:34:47 PM

[quote RichH][quote KeithK] Either you think it's isolated, hard to get to and expensive or a wonderful little resort town that lives and breathes hockey during the tournament weekend.[/quote]

Well, I think both those things are true.

Not coincidentally, I'm one of the few people without a strong opinion on this topic. I showed up in Lake Placid. I showed up in Albany. I like both places. Frankly, while I still would go, I think moving to Bridgeport would be a step down. I guess the only advantage would be accessibility. Right on Metro-North, Amtrak, and the Port Jeff ferry.[/quote]

Not easily accessible from Ithaca unless you plan on the tournament during break and then only if you care about those that live in the big city. It's also uncomfortably far from Potsdam and Hanover. Seeing the SLU fans in Albany was generally a plus (-1).

jtwcornell91 · March 27, 2009, 02:52:31 PM

It makes no sense to move the ECACs from Albany to Bridgeport, New Haven, Rochester, Utica, etc, unless the Knick is infested with Syphilis or something. There are basically three ways you can go:
1) Major city with infrastructure, nightlife, etc
2) Small (dumpy) city in convenient location
3) Small town with charm
Placid was #3. You obviously want #1 for a Frozen Four, and the other three major conferences have it as well. Hockey East stole the ECAC's major city, and NYC would never work. When the move from Placid to Albany was being made, people tried to pretend it was going to a #1, but by that measure Albany fails. As a #2 it's fine, and there is no serious alternative given the geographic footprint of the league, except maybe Springfield.

Josh '99 · March 27, 2009, 03:22:54 PM

[quote jtwcornell91]It makes no sense to move the ECACs from Albany to Bridgeport, New Haven, Rochester, Utica, etc, unless the Knick is infested with Syphilis or something. There are basically three ways you can go:
1) Major city with infrastructure, nightlife, etc
2) Small (dumpy) city in convenient location
3) Small town with charm
Placid was #3. You obviously want #1 for a Frozen Four, and the other three major conferences have it as well. Hockey East stole the ECAC's major city, and NYC would never work. When the move from Placid to Albany was being made, people tried to pretend it was going to a #1, but by that measure Albany fails. As a #2 it's fine, and there is no serious alternative given the geographic footprint of the league, except maybe Springfield.[/quote]I think you're neglecting the possibility of finding a small city in a convenient location that's NOT dumpy; that's probably what would be ideal for the ECAC. I guess the problem is that there really isn't one, or we would've all agreed that it was the best choice long ago. I mean, if Albany weren't dumpy (personally, I don't think it's actually as dumpy as people are making it out to be, but I'm going with that for the time being since it seems to be the consensus), nobody would be complaining about this, right?

I wasn't a big fan of the move at the time, but I've come around to a point of view that's similar to what Rich said earlier today. If you're open-minded and with a few people you get along with, you can have fun pretty much anywhere, whether it's the biggest city in the world, the middle of nowhere, or anything in between. There's a thread discussing Albany on USCHO now (or there was a couple of days ago before I got bored of all the idiocy), and more than anything else, the people who were complaining that there's nothing fun to do in Albany annoyed me. Yeah, if you come into town by yourself, stay in a hotel up on Wolf Road, don't associate with anyone, watch the games, eat fast food and go to sleep at 10pm, you're not going to have fun, but you could just as easily have a miserable time in NYC by restricting yourself to similar activities. You've gotta at least put forth a modicum of effort to make something out of the situation before you can complain about how bad the situation is.

Trotsky · March 27, 2009, 03:34:18 PM

After 7 years in Albany we know the options for before and after games, so it's become adequate. The surrounding area is quite nice if you go in for scenery. If you go there primarily to get wasted, well, you can do that in Antarctica as long as you plan ahead (actually the official motto of the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce).

The serious drawback with Albany is that there is no place where the team and fans can go to party in peace after the Saturday game à la Mud Puddles. That's a bummer, but it may be the case with any decent-sized city with a competent law enforcement presence.

Boston was ideal but it's not an option unless the ECAC jogs its schedule to steer clear of Hockey East, and even then they might not be able to book the Garden. All of the competing cities (Worcester, Providence, Hartford, Syracuse) have the same "hole" problem as Albany -- it's a region in decline, whaddya want? I'd vote to move it permanently back to Lake Placid, but we don't vote.

Josh '99 · March 27, 2009, 03:39:48 PM

[quote Trotsky]After 7 years in Albany we know the options for before and after games, so it's become adequate. The surrounding area is quite nice if you go in for scenery. If you go there primarily to get wasted, well, you can do that in Antarctica as long as you plan ahead (actually the official motto of the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce).[/quote]Right. It's just the people who are (metaphorically) screaming "I WANT READY-MADE FUN! I'M NOT GOING TO GO LOOK FOR IT! SOMEONE BRING ME FUN!" that were annoying me.

mnagowski · March 27, 2009, 03:49:37 PM

Quoteit's a region in decline, whaddya want?

It's actually worth pointing out that Albany, along with Ithaca, are the only two upstate metros not experiencing population decline.

Dpperk29 · March 27, 2009, 04:22:58 PM

[quote mnagowski]

Quoteit's a region in decline, whaddya want?

It's actually worth pointing out that Albany, along with Ithaca, are the only two upstate metros not experiencing population decline.[/quote]

I would hardly consider ithaca "Metro"... unless of course you are from Caroline

Beeeej · March 27, 2009, 04:27:21 PM

[quote Dpperk29][quote mnagowski]

Quoteit's a region in decline, whaddya want?

It's actually worth pointing out that Albany, along with Ithaca, are the only two upstate metros not experiencing population decline.[/quote]

I would hardly consider ithaca "Metro"... unless of course you are from Caroline[/quote]

It's officially classified as a city. That's enough in my book.

CowbellGuy · March 27, 2009, 04:27:27 PM

I wouldn't necessarily, either, but as of the last census, the *ahem* Ithaca metropolitan area was home to just ~~under~~ over 100,000 people.

Dpperk29 · March 27, 2009, 07:04:37 PM

[quote CowbellGuy]I wouldn't necessarily, either, but as of the last census, the *ahem* Ithaca metropolitan area was home to just ~~under~~ over 100,000 people.[/quote]

I would Hardly consider all of tompkins county the ithaca metropolitan area. Groton is definetly more closely affiliated with Cortland. T-burg and Newfield are both a little too far to be considered metro area too.