Generic Off Season Thread

[jtn27]

Remember the Barclay and Pru Centers each have only 1 tenant next year.  Izod has zero.  You think an ECAC tourney in the NY metro area, with Cornell involved, will draw fewer than 5-6K?  If fewer than half the Cornell fans for Red Hot Hockey attend, and none from the other 3 schools, attendance would be higher.  The games should be played where the fans are!

Lynah!

Yes, why not Lynah? They should hold it at the site of the highest seed, as long as that arena has a predetermined minimum number of seats. If the 1 seed doesn't have a big enough arena, then have it at the highest seed that does. If no arena has enough seats (How likely is this? What is the seating of each ECAC hockey rink?) then hold it at a neutral site (Lynah).

[marty]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the only rink large enough would be The Morgue in Troy at RIP. Ugh.

[billhoward]

Jeebus.  Stop all this bickering!  I hate coming to the forum in the offseason and seeing 32 new posts!  There's never any good news in the offseason...  ::help::

Fifty-plus posts in a day usually means the thread went sideways: the mediocrity that is Albany on weekends and the distance to Lake Place to the cost of driving long distances to why professors are dicks if they don't bicycle to class.

[billhoward]

Boston's expensive, too, but everybody knows somebody they can crash with. In metro New York it might mean staying with your parents.

[redice]

Boston's expensive, too, .....

But there's so much to do in Boston, it's worth the price to go there.   Even when we were younger & money was tighter, we never complained about the expense of Boston.   That was just the price of a good time.   We went nearly every year and had all year to prepare for it.  Even though money was sometimes VERY tight, no big deal!!    LP??  Not so much!!

[billhoward]

Boston's expensive, too, .....

But there's so much to do in Boston, it's worth the price to go there.   Even when we were younger & money was tighter, we never complained about the expense of Boston.   That was just the price of a good time.   We went nearly every year and had all year to prepare for it.  Even though money was sometimes VERY tight, no big deal!!    LP??  Not so much!!

When I was an undergrad, old alums used to wax rhapsodic about beating Michigan. In football. And we thought how impossibly long ago that was. Telling today's undergrads about the glories of the ECACs in Boston is equally distant in the rear view mirror. Yes, it was wondrous. If ever Boston Garden held, say, a kickoff classic over Thanksgiving weekend in a year with no MSG tournament, Cornell should accept the invite. But I can't see the ECAC going back for hockey, because you know we'd get second billing to Hockey East. And Albany not Boston is the geographic center of ECAC hockey even if it's not as exciting. Still better than putting an event in the geographic center of country, Lebanon, Kansas, pop. 210.

[Aaron M. Griffin]

Yes, why not Lynah? They should hold it at the site of the highest seed, as long as that arena has a predetermined minimum number of seats. If the 1 seed doesn't have a big enough arena, then have it at the highest seed that does. If no arena has enough seats (How likely is this? What is the seating of each ECAC hockey rink?) then hold it at a neutral site (Lynah).

Houston Field House (RPI): 4780
Thompson Arena (Dartmouth): 4500
Lynah Rink: 4267
Ingalls Rink (Yale): 3500
TD Banks Sports Center (Quinnipiac): 3386
Meehan Auditorium (Brown): 3100
Appleton Auditorium (SLU): 3000
Cheel Arena (Clarkson): 3000
Bright Hockey Center (Harvard): 2850
Starr Rink (Colgate): 2246
Messa Rink (Union: 2225
Hobey Baker Rink (Princeton): 2092

Without a Peer is a fan of this idea. It was the idea of B1G before they realized that there were two classes of arena size in the future B1G Hockey that made it an untenable and fan-unfriendly approach because there are arena haves (Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin with 10,000+ capacity) and have-nots (Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State with around 6,500). The ECAC is more of a continuum than a punctuated distinction in rink size. Half have more than a capacity of 3,000, half have less. It still seems like an untenable option even for a tournament as sparsely attended as that of the ECAC.

[Al DeFlorio]

Yes, why not Lynah? They should hold it at the site of the highest seed, as long as that arena has a predetermined minimum number of seats. If the 1 seed doesn't have a big enough arena, then have it at the highest seed that does. If no arena has enough seats (How likely is this? What is the seating of each ECAC hockey rink?) then hold it at a neutral site (Lynah).

TD Banks Sports Center (Quinnipiac): 3386

Puzzling that Q would build their new rink with such little capacity.

[jtn27]

Yes, why not Lynah? They should hold it at the site of the highest seed, as long as that arena has a predetermined minimum number of seats. If the 1 seed doesn't have a big enough arena, then have it at the highest seed that does. If no arena has enough seats (How likely is this? What is the seating of each ECAC hockey rink?) then hold it at a neutral site (Lynah).

TD Banks Sports Center (Quinnipiac): 3386

Puzzling that Q would build their new rink with such little capacity.

Not really. They probably were not expecting to get many fans at the games. If I'm not mistaken, as it is now, they only sell out a few games a year. Building a significantly larger arena would have been a waste of money.

[jtn27]

Yes, why not Lynah? They should hold it at the site of the highest seed, as long as that arena has a predetermined minimum number of seats. If the 1 seed doesn't have a big enough arena, then have it at the highest seed that does. If no arena has enough seats (How likely is this? What is the seating of each ECAC hockey rink?) then hold it at a neutral site (Lynah).

Houston Field House (RPI): 4780
Thompson Arena (Dartmouth): 4500
Lynah Rink: 4267
Ingalls Rink (Yale): 3500
TD Banks Sports Center (Quinnipiac): 3386
Meehan Auditorium (Brown): 3100
Appleton Auditorium (SLU): 3000
Cheel Arena (Clarkson): 3000
Bright Hockey Center (Harvard): 2850
Starr Rink (Colgate): 2246
Messa Rink (Union: 2225
Hobey Baker Rink (Princeton): 2092

Without a Peer is a fan of this idea. It was the idea of B1G before they realized that there were two classes of arena size in the future B1G Hockey that made it an untenable and fan-unfriendly approach because there are arena haves (Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin with 10,000+ capacity) and have-nots (Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State with around 6,500). The ECAC is more of a continuum than a punctuated distinction in rink size. Half have more than a capacity of 3,000, half have less. It still seems like an untenable option even for a tournament as sparsely attended as that of the ECAC.

It might not be untenable. This year attendance for the ECAC Final was 4,131 according to ECAC's website. It was actually probably lower than that since the website says the attendance for the consolation game was 0, so that 4,131 was probably the total figure for both games. The 3 biggest rinks can hold more than that. Yale's rink probably is big enough too. In fact, you might be able to get away with holding it at any rink with seating over 3000 (though I would understand the league wanted to set the minimum number of seats at 3,500 or 4,000). To make sure that most people who want to go can go, instead of selling tickets good for both games (which leads to half the ticket holders only going to one game) or making fans guess whether they want to go to the consolation game or the championship game, they should sell tickets by team. For example, if you buy a Cornell ticket, you get to go to whatever game Cornell is in, but not the other one unless you bought a ticket for that one too.

[billhoward]

Yes, why not Lynah? They should hold it at the site of the highest seed, as long as that arena has a predetermined minimum number of seats. If the 1 seed doesn't have a big enough arena, then have it at the highest seed that does. If no arena has enough seats (How likely is this? What is the seating of each ECAC hockey rink?) then hold it at a neutral site (Lynah).

TD Banks Sports Center (Quinnipiac): 3386

Puzzling that Q would build their new rink with such little capacity.

Maybe Q is realistic about its odds of drawing 5,000-plus per game. If they had a huge rink and real success in the ECAC, they'd probably decamp for Hockey East. Q's basketball court in the same complex doesn't hold much more.

[redice]

Boston's expensive, too, .....

But there's so much to do in Boston, it's worth the price to go there.   Even when we were younger & money was tighter, we never complained about the expense of Boston.   That was just the price of a good time.   We went nearly every year and had all year to prepare for it.  Even though money was sometimes VERY tight, no big deal!!    LP??  Not so much!!

When I was an undergrad, old alums used to wax rhapsodic about beating Michigan. In football. And we thought how impossibly long ago that was. Telling today's undergrads about the glories of the ECACs in Boston is equally distant in the rear view mirror. Yes, it was wondrous. If ever Boston Garden held, say, a kickoff classic over Thanksgiving weekend in a year with no MSG tournament, Cornell should accept the invite. But I can't see the ECAC going back for hockey, because you know we'd get second billing to Hockey East. And Albany not Boston is the geographic center of ECAC hockey even if it's not as exciting. Still better than putting an event in the geographic center of country, Lebanon, Kansas, pop. 210.

I wholeheartedly agree with that dose of reality, Bill.   I have previously stated that, despite my fondness for tournaments in Boston, I know that the ECAC finals are not likely to be held there again.   I am accepting of that.    My point, while not well stated was that Boston was worth the price, LP is not.

[billhoward]

I agree with you about desirability: Boston is one of America's truly great cities, maybe the best city if you're under 30, like hockey, and can handle winters. Because we can't go back 25+ years to Boston ECACs, I was wondering wistfully if there's a way to get Cornell involved in some kind of hockey in Boston beyond the one Harvard game. Christmas would be ideal except we're a founder of the Florida Classic. A Martin Luther King Day Hockey Classic? Unlikely for too many reasons. The one that remains is something over Thanksgiving in a year when we're not playing at MSG.

[Trotsky]

Because we can't go back 25+ years to Boston ECACs, I was wondering wistfully if there's a way to get Cornell involved in some kind of hockey in Boston beyond the one Harvard game. Christmas would be ideal except we're a founder of the Florida Classic. A Martin Luther King Day Hockey Classic? Unlikely for too many reasons. The one that remains is something over Thanksgiving in a year when we're not playing at MSG.

If we were going to start a new holiday tournament tradition, I'd prefer it be someplace we are looking to penetrate for recruiting.  Like Vancouver.  Or Prague.

[billhoward]

Because we can't go back 25+ years to Boston ECACs, I was wondering wistfully if there's a way to get Cornell involved in some kind of hockey in Boston beyond the one Harvard game. Christmas would be ideal except we're a founder of the Florida Classic. A Martin Luther King Day Hockey Classic? Unlikely for too many reasons. The one that remains is something over Thanksgiving in a year when we're not playing at MSG.

If we were going to start a new holiday tournament tradition, I'd prefer it be someplace we are looking to penetrate for recruiting.  Like Vancouver.  Or Prague.

From afar, recruits could follow Cornell on Redc--never mind, point taken.