Road trips.

[Jim Hyla]

Where have all our trippers gone. Almost no fans at the weekend games. Granted we get fans at games around Boston and NYC, but there used to be a traveling fan base.

I was hoping that, at least at Clarkson, we'd have a large group of fans.

I guess traveling fans have gone the way of video, just like in everything else.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Is anybody going to LP? Assuming the top 4 go, if we don't pull a large group at LP, it won't be good for ECAC attendance and Clarkson will dominate.

[CU2007]

Bad weather Friday? Games available on TV.

[Trotsky]

Is anybody going to LP?

Anne and I will be at all the game from LP on.

[Trotsky]

I guess traveling fans have gone the way of video, just like in everything else.

While the kids' iPacifiers make it less likely that they'll travel for non-event games, I have every confidence that the party atmosphere and irresponsible drinking and sex will still make the playoffs attractive.  Today's kids may be boring, but they're not aliens.

[Jim Hyla]

Bad weather Friday? Games available on TV.

Actually the weather on Friday was okay. It was worse Sat, for those of us who came back after the game.

Unfortunately I think video is it. I say unfortunately, because we're not giving the team support and retreating from person to person interaction, in favor of solitary video action.

I should have given mention of the band, without them, the games would have been super quiet. They are great. When and if you donate to CU, put a couple of bucks to the Pep Band Fund. It helps them to travel.

As an aside, I was talking to a parent of a prospect at last week's Friday game, the seats next to me are Athletic Dept. seats and often have prospects. He was from CT and was really impressed with the enthusiasm, especially from "townies". He said he expected students to cheer, but was surprised that the "adults" were so in to it. He was also impressed when I told him that the band travels.

Fans do make a difference.

[BearLover]

Games being available on video has probably hurt visiting attendance the most. Though I will say the Cornell contingent sounded very loud on-air for the Yale and Havard games.

[Jim Hyla]

Games being available on video has probably hurt visiting attendance the most. Though I will say the Cornell contingent sounded very loud on-air for the Yale and Havard games.

Agree, the cities help.

It used to be a source of pride to go to opposing rinks and come away as winners. Maybe, if we can continue to have success this year, it will lead to more traveling next year.

I should mention that not being able to buy tickets from CU, for away games, is also a hindrance. Online tickets disperses the fans. It was a bad decision, made for monetary reasons.

[scoop85]

Games being available on video has probably hurt visiting attendance the most. Though I will say the Cornell contingent sounded very loud on-air for the Yale and Havard games.

Agree, the cities help.

It used to be a source of pride to go to opposing rinks and come away as winners. Maybe, if we can continue to have success this year, it will lead to more traveling next year.

I should mention that not being able to buy tickets from CU, for away games, is also a hindrance. Online tickets disperses the fans. It was a bad decision, made for monetary reasons.

Traveling is down because virtually all games can now be watched from the comfort of your couch. But the big games (Lynah East and LP) will still be well attended.  I'll certainly be in LP if we make it.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

I plan my annual vacation schedule around going to LP and the NCAAs.

If we're there, I'll be there.

[Dafatone]

And here I was thinking our crowd sounded pretty good at Clarkson. Weird.

[andyw2100]

We've got our LP reservations. (Well, Saranac Lake, but close enough.)

[Jim Hyla]

And here I was thinking our crowd sounded pretty good at Clarkson. Weird.

Band sounded good, and definitely more fans than for SLU, but nothing like past years. Oh well.

[dbilmes]

Games being available on video has probably hurt visiting attendance the most. Though I will say the Cornell contingent sounded very loud on-air for the Yale and Havard games.

There was a huge Cornell contingent at Harvard. The crowd was approximately 50-50, and that's being conservative. There was also a sizable contingent of Cornell fans at the Yale game. For some reason, there always seem to be a lot more Cornell fans at Yale games than at Quinnipiac, even though the rinks less than 10 miles apart.

[Chris '03]

And here I was thinking our crowd sounded pretty good at Clarkson. Weird.

Band sounded good, and definitely more fans than for SLU, but nothing like past years. Oh well.

In two trips to the north country as an undergrad I don't recall much of a cornell crowd at all. Well below typical crowds we'd see in the other buildings. In the '02 season, when the band didn't make the trip, it felt like you could probably count the cornell fans on one hand at that game. While I agree that the traveling faithful has by and large been supplanted by the local alums faithful around the league for any of a number of reasons, was the north country ever not the least populated trip?

[billhoward]

A road trip in February to the North Country can be iffy. If you drive, you wind up with a car full of grime, you need to stop at Walgreens every couple hours for another gallon of windshield washer fluid, there's so much sludge on the grill the adaptive cruise control radar is worthless, and if Larry Baum flies in he won't fly out for a couple days. You will see some crappy houses on the outskirts of Potsdam. You will see a high-tech commerce park out by the airport with one building (Silicon Valley, watch your backside). You'll see a lot of plows. You'll also see moments of beauty such as the falls in St. Regis and the St. John in-the-Wilderness church in Paul Smiths. You'll drive through a winter carnival in Saranac Lake although I'm not sure how the dozens of sombreros relate to Saranac. In Lake Placid, you'll see the Olympics live, on a jumbo screen outside the Olympic center.

Yes, the availability of hockey video may cut down on attendance. Students may have even more of a workload than we had. Maybe they go to the gym and get in shape rather than watch athletes who are in shape. I like that you have multiple ways to get tickets; for Clarkson you could call or go online and when the Cornell section was sold out, they worked to find a ticket in the next section over. If they turnout wasn't what it was a generation ago, it's still enough that the host schools are in awe of Cornell's turnout.