Red Hot Hockey "Presale"

[Swampy]

Box score does not show the attendance for 2021. It felt like 10,000-plus out of 18,006 for hockey. The $25 tickets we got in the corner were listed online as a "Boston" section. The two rows in front of us were all-Cornell and everybody needed to get up and leave to pee or get another beer while the game was in play. But okay, they did make it to the game.

It seemed as if the BU band had 75+ people, they played a lot, and they played YMCA. I assume BU sent two buses on the university's nickel.

The MSG scoreboard was urging us to download a wrapper or frame for, ah, TikTok?, which may have been a promo for MSG not Yell Cornell.

If 10,000 was what was the butts-in-the-seats turnout, that seems enough to keep giving Cornell that Thanksgving Saturday slot for hockey. Don't know if 2021 attendance reflected lingering concerns about lots of people jammed in the building and healthy safety/concerns or just the challenge keeping the excitement in a series that dates to 2007.  

BU looked better than a 4-9-2 team. Schafer said after the game that Joe Howe seemed a little off in goal early on.

"I thought he was a little shaky in the first," Schafer said. "Then I thought he kind of settled in ... It was good to see a young guy like that, on this big stage, settle down."

It was impressive that midway through the second, BU was so rattled by Cornell's offensive pressrure they called their timeout. I don't recall it being afte a BU icing (?).

Cornell Daily Sun story: https://cornellbigred.com/news/2021/11/28/mens-ice-hockey-10-mens-hockey-outlasts-bu-for-red-hot-hockey-title.aspx

Cornell PR story: https://cornellbigred.com/news/2021/11/28/mens-ice-hockey-10-mens-hockey-outlasts-bu-for-red-hot-hockey-title.aspx

These links look like the same PR web page. Here's the Daily Sun story.

[David Harding]

Does anyone know whether there is significant attendance from out-of-town?  I live in Illinois but typically spending Thanksgiving with my sister in the area. This was first year with an MSG game that I decided I just didn't want to travel.

[jtwcornell91]

It's from Davy! And let's go red might be used by other schools, mucking up the hashtag.

It's not. It's from "My Old Cornell" or "Carnelian and White." Indeed, "Carnelian and White" is from 1906, whereas MYOC is from 1917, so the earliest reference is from the seldom performed (except by the band, lyric-less) football song.

As one of the stalwart group of bandies that takes it upon themselves to learn the lyrics to the non-sung songs or non-sung portions of the sung songs, I can say that most view the lyrics for "Carnelian and White" as something of a joke. There are a great many other phrases from Cornell songs that I would prefer, as long as it's not the even more laughable, particularly given the current context, "Here we are, here we are again!"

I've always liked "victory makes history," from "Fight for Cornell." There are others. We have a bunch of great college songs, and I wish more of them were wider known.

There are several references in my copy of Songs of Cornell to "I yell, yell, yell ... Cornell!"  So I've always assumed the part My Old Cornell was once "...that's where they all yell 'Cornell, I yell, yell, yell ... Cornell!'"

+1 on "Fight for Cornell".  Does the band still do the medley including "Fight for Cornell" and "The Big Red Team" after football games?

BTW, I don't think I've ever heard "Carnelian and White", but reading the lyrics, I have kind of a soft spot for "Steady and true against the Red and Blue".

[ugarte]

It's from Davy! And let's go red might be used by other schools, mucking up the hashtag.

It's not. It's from "My Old Cornell"

this is what i was thinking of thank you

[Robb]

At some point, alumni with less of their undergraduate passion for hockey would be happier with MSG hockey that isn't every year (whether BU for RHH or Penn State, Harvard, etcetera in off years). Cornell-BU every three years might be okay. It hurts that Cornell-Columbia is now the final football game so when it's played in NYC, there are two promoted events in mid-late November trying to draw Cornellians.

This makes no sense.  Why would it make an occasional fan happier if the games were less frequent?  If they don't want to go every year, they could just, you know, not buy tickets.  Pretty sure I have never heard anyone say, "I'm so much happier that [event I was not planning to attend] was 1000 miles from my house instead of 10."

[Weder]

Does anyone know whether there is significant attendance from out-of-town?  I live in Illinois but typically spending Thanksgiving with my sister in the area. This was first year with an MSG game that I decided I just didn't want to travel.

I assume there is a decent number of folks in the Boston-DC corridor who go. I'm in DC and usually go but decided not to travel this year (and the NYC friends I usually go with didn't go either).

[adamw]

The CHN boxscore and story were updated the day after to reflect final attendance of 13,100 - FYI.

[billhoward]

Why would it make an occasional fan happier if the games were less frequent?  If they don't want to go every year, they could just, you know, not buy tickets.  Pretty sure I have never heard anyone say, "I'm so much happier that [event I was not planning to attend] was 1000 miles from my house instead of 10."

Not so much happier/sadder as more/less likely to take part. When the offering is frequent, if say BU-Cornell was annual not biennial, you're only a year away from your next chance to see Cornell take down BU, so what's the imperative to go this year.
In the early years, say 2007, 2009, 2011, the first three for Red Hot Hockey, two years was just the right amount of separation. Now, I'm wondering if RHH is less of a must-attend show for more casual Cornell fans. Thus it's not crazy for Cornell-BU to talk about every three years instead of two, have a Cornell vs. Penn State or Notre Dame or Michigan (school with lots of NYC-area alumni) team to come in on one of the off years, maybe Harvard vs. Yale or Princeton is the other off year.

[billhoward]

The CHN boxscore and story were updated the day after to reflect final attendance of 13,100 - FYI.

I believe attendance is tickets sold not butts in seats. But that's still better than 10,000, with 8,000 seats unsold.

[dbilmes]

Not so much happier/sadder as more/less likely to take part. When the offering is frequent, if say BU-Cornell was annual not biennial, you're only a year away from your next chance to see Cornell take down BU, so what's the imperative to go this year.
In the early years, say 2007, 2009, 2011, the first three for Red Hot Hockey, two years was just the right amount of separation. Now, I'm wondering if RHH is less of a must-attend show for more casual Cornell fans. Thus it's not crazy for Cornell-BU to talk about every three years instead of two, have a Cornell vs. Penn State or Notre Dame or Michigan (school with lots of NYC-area alumni) team to come in on one of the off years, maybe Harvard vs. Yale or Princeton is the other off year.

If my memory serves me correctly (which it often doesn't these days!), we were going to play Yale at MSG if there had been a Thanksgiving weekend game last year. Personally, I'd rather see us play teams from outside our league, since I've seen us play Yale plenty of time over the years. But I realize that there aren't a lot of potential opponents who have as many alumni in the NY area as the Ivies.

[billhoward]

Personally, I'd rather see us play teams from outside our league, since I've seen us play Yale plenty of time over the years. But I realize that there aren't a lot of potential opponents who have as many alumni in the NY area as the Ivies.

Exactly. I felt the same, us playing Harvard at MSG Thanksgiving 2018 (and losing). We're already playing Harvard twice, with decent odds of seeing them in the ECACs as well. The right team to play in even years (BU is odd) is a non-ECAC team with a large metro-New York alumni / student base; BC, Penn State, maybe UMass-Amherst, Michigan, Ohio State, maybe Michigan State, maybe UConn in 10 years, marginally maybe Maine, UNH, Vermont.

[Jim Hyla]

To everyone who gave me their thoughts, thank you.

Interesting that as much as I extol modern medicine, they still could not come up with a reason for my wife's stroke.

Fortunately physically she's doing well, but memory is still a problem. Issue now is to find someone to be with her so that I can get back to work.

Since she's still got the physical strength to get around, I'm hopeful that she'll still go to games with me. Might test it this weekend with the north country trip.

So thanks again to all, small words can have significant impact.

[djk26]

The right team to play in even years (BU is odd) is a non-ECAC team with a large metro-New York alumni / student base; BC, Penn State, maybe UMass-Amherst, Michigan, Ohio State, maybe Michigan State, maybe UConn in 10 years, marginally maybe Maine, UNH, Vermont.

Notre Dame?

[LGR14]

Personally, I'd rather see us play teams from outside our league, since I've seen us play Yale plenty of time over the years. But I realize that there aren't a lot of potential opponents who have as many alumni in the NY area as the Ivies.

Exactly. I felt the same, us playing Harvard at MSG Thanksgiving 2018 (and losing). We're already playing Harvard twice, with decent odds of seeing them in the ECACs as well. The right team to play in even years (BU is odd) is a non-ECAC team with a large metro-New York alumni / student base; BC, Penn State, maybe UMass-Amherst, Michigan, Ohio State, maybe Michigan State, maybe UConn in 10 years, marginally maybe Maine, UNH, Vermont.

Playing any school with a football culture (PSU, OSU, Michigan) is going to backfire because it's arguably the biggest Saturday of the college football season.  That's why the Penn State band didn't show up last time.

I think you get the biggest college hockey, non-ECAC school you can get (including some you named, plus a Minnesota school, Denver, etc.), regardless of NYC connection.

[scoop85]

Personally, I'd rather see us play teams from outside our league, since I've seen us play Yale plenty of time over the years. But I realize that there aren't a lot of potential opponents who have as many alumni in the NY area as the Ivies.

Exactly. I felt the same, us playing Harvard at MSG Thanksgiving 2018 (and losing). We're already playing Harvard twice, with decent odds of seeing them in the ECACs as well. The right team to play in even years (BU is odd) is a non-ECAC team with a large metro-New York alumni / student base; BC, Penn State, maybe UMass-Amherst, Michigan, Ohio State, maybe Michigan State, maybe UConn in 10 years, marginally maybe Maine, UNH, Vermont.

Playing any school with a football culture (PSU, OSU, Michigan) is going to backfire because it's arguably the biggest Saturday of the college football season.  That's why the Penn State band didn't show up last time.

I think you get the biggest college hockey, non-ECAC school you can get (including some you named, plus a Minnesota school, Denver, etc.), regardless of NYC connection.

North Dakota would seem to fit the bill. Although not a lot of alums in the NY area (presumably), I imagine they would travel in large numbers to NYC for a Thanksgiving weekend.