Lake Placid Attendance

[billhoward]

Thanks. We had a dozen BU students / clubsport jocks staying with us over the weekend and didn't try to influence their viewing choices or search for the ECAC games.

[Jim Hyla]

So if anyone is interested, today you can ask Adam your questions on Ken Schott's weekly radio show.

[Jim Hyla]

USCHO on tournament attendance over the years.

Interesting quote about the western conferences.

WCHA commissioner Bill Robertson told Minneapolis TV station WCCO that he's pushing for his league to coordinate with the NCHC and the Big Ten to hold their tournaments in the same city on the same weekend.

Read more: http://www.uscho.com/2016/03/23/graphic-conference-tournament-attendance-falls-another-7-percent-in-2016/#ixzz43ix4Q8Mi

Here's the link to the original article.

I'd still like to look into combined ECAC and HE in Boston. I have to admit, I know nothing about the cost structure. But, it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

[upprdeck]

it was fun when they did it back in the day in boston.

[jtwcornell91]

it was fun when they did it back in the day in boston.

Except that year when everyone got mono.

[Trotsky]

I'd still like to look into combined ECAC and HE in Boston. I have to admit, I know nothing about the cost structure. But, it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

Purely for reasons of local interest, when we first did that it quickly turned into the ECAC being the undercard.

IMHO it is better for the ECAC to leave Boston to HE and concentrate on Albany-Lake Placid as the core of the conference identity; another reason to ditch the sole remaining New England non-Ivy, leaving:

6 Ivies
6 NY Non-Ivies (Clarkson, SLU, Colgate, Union, RPI, RIT)

[redice]

I'd still like to look into combined ECAC and HE in Boston. I have to admit, I know nothing about the cost structure. But, it would be a hell of a lot of fun.

I'm with you on this one, Jim......   I think the secret to such an event is the formatting of the event.    The last time it was tried, the ECAC teams were probably less able to compete with the HE Champ.    Now, I would say: let's cap the event off with a game between the HE & ECAC Champs.   Would be fun.    Not sure what the NCAA & total-games ramifications would be....   But adjustments can be made if the event is worthwhile........

[Trotsky]

The last time it was tried, the ECAC teams were probably less able to compete with the HE Champ.

It was actually before HE opened up their big gap with the ECAC.  It wasn't the quality of the teams but the dominance of the HE of local fan base and media.  That would be even worse, now.  Boston would be, for a host (get it?) of reasons, a huge step backwards for the ECAC.

[andyw2100]

Now, I would say: let's cap the event off with a game between the HE & ECAC Champs.   Would be fun.    Not sure what the NCAA & total-games ramifications would be....   But adjustments can be made if the event is worthwhile........

Even if the championships were held in the same location, and the NCAA total-game issues and timing with NCAA tournament selection could be worked out, I think a game between the two league champions would be a bad idea. It would remove some of the excitement from winning the league championship, as there would now be "one more game" that needed to be won. That next game, in my opinion, would be a very anti-climactic one, coming between the league championship game and the first NCAA tournament game. No offense intended, but I just see that game as a terrible idea!

[Chris '03]

Now, I would say: let's cap the event off with a game between the HE & ECAC Champs.   Would be fun.    Not sure what the NCAA & total-games ramifications would be....   But adjustments can be made if the event is worthwhile........

Even if the championships were held in the same location, and the NCAA total-game issues and timing with NCAA tournament selection could be worked out, I think a game between the two league champions would be a bad idea. It would remove some of the excitement from winning the league championship, as there would now be "one more game" that needed to be won. That next game, in my opinion, would be a very anti-climactic one, coming between the league championship game and the first NCAA tournament game. No offense intended, but I just see that game as a terrible idea!

With both leagues at 12, I've liked the idea of the leagues scheduling a date the following season (Tuesday before thanksgiving?) when the twelve teams face off against their standings equal from the prior year. 1v1, 2v2, etc. I agree that a sandwich game in March wouldn't work.

[Rosey]

I'd still like to look into combined ECAC and HE in Boston.

While this would be incredibly convenient for me, I still think the best location for a weekend tournament starting on a Friday is Albany.

Even assuming Cornell gets back to the championship weekend sometime soon, I doubt I will attend while it's in Placid: that's just too far to go for a weekend trip that might be for only one game. Albany is 2½ hours from Boston, while Lake Placid is 5 hours if you drive straight through and don't run into traffic on 9N or 73. That, and there are no cheap hotel rooms in Placid that you can get for one or two nights, and no other towns within reasonable driving distance. In Albany, by contrast, you can book a room a 5 minute drive away at a decent hotel on the same day for next to nothing.

Placid is a bucolic setting that would be a fantastic location for this event if it weren't so far out in the middle of nowhere.

[Trotsky]

By the end of the Albany stretch fans had developed some nice routines and figured out how to make the most of it.  It really is the obvious, albeit far less romantic, choice.

I would like them to just pick a site and stop bouncing already.  Stability is the most important thing to the habit of casual fans going at all.  The hardcores will go even if it's in Sault Ste. Marie.

[CU2007]

Albany is great. Nice rink, lots of hotels, bars, restaurants in the vicinity of the rink. Seems to be somewhat the geographic center of the league, though I'm sure some other place with a decent rink is more central (Bridgeport? Hartford?) Wonder if a potential RIT addition might make somewhere like Syracuse, Binghamton or even Elmira more viable.

[Trotsky]

Albany is great. Nice rink, lots of hotels, bars, restaurants in the vicinity of the rink. Seems to be somewhat the geographic center of the league, though I'm sure some other place with a decent rink is more central (Bridgeport? Hartford?)

I believe somebody (jtw almost certainly) worked out the exact geographic center of the ECAC and it was about a mile east of the Albany rink.

From that perspective, it is perfect.

[Jim Hyla]

The last time it was tried, the ECAC teams were probably less able to compete with the HE Champ.

It was actually before HE opened up their big gap with the ECAC.  It wasn't the quality of the teams but the dominance of the HE of local fan base and media.  That would be even worse, now.  Boston would be, for a host (get it?) of reasons, a huge step backwards for the ECAC.

I don't know why it would be a huge step backwards. You don't think we could get 4-5000 fans, which is what we get now? You don't think we'd have better press than we get from LP?  Sure HE would be the main focus, but I still think being a lesser focus in Boston is stronger than the only focus in LP.

I know that if it were in Boston, my wife and I would probably go every year. There's so much to do there, but with LP, once you've been there a few times, well that's it. I'd probably go to the HE games, and my wife would pick up a museum or two. We'd both be happy. I thought about going to LP this year, but my wife wasn't interested. With Boston it would change the calculation completely.