Lynah Attendance

[FD2024]

When my son went to Clarkson University from 2016 - 2020 the hockey tickets were free for students with their ID. I think without student ID they were like $6.00

[Trotsky]

Didn't Ned have a private jet called "Above It All"?

Back in the 60s, Cornell had a DC3 named "The Far Above."

That was it.

[Trotsky]

This has been an evergreen topic in all of college hockey for 20 years. Steady decline everywhere, except for a handful of places. And even those places are subject to decline when their team falls out of the top 20. Even Western Michigan - known for its "lunatics" and fresh off a national championship, had extremely meh attendance this past weekend against a good Duluth team.

I don't like it either - but it's not a Cornell problem - and there's likely very little anyone can do about it. Cornell has to be a consistent top 5 team for like half a season in order to fill Lynah like it used to.

Is top 5 significantly different from top 20?  I don't know that the greater Cornell community is looking at USCHO.

Don't they just need to win, and in particular at home?  I believe Bear's laudable goal of +500 per game is doable with an improvement of word of mouth and an improvement of marketing and atmosphere.  This will however require the university to stop treating students like farm animals to slaughter for revenue.  The sport has its own beautiful grassroots traditions.  It doesn't need geegaws and gimmicks.  Just let it bloom.  Take everybody with a bright idea for monetizing it and throw them bodily off the roof of Bradfield.  Monetize that.  I would pay good money to watch Flight of the Provosts.

[ugarte]

This has been an evergreen topic in all of college hockey for 20 years. Steady decline everywhere, except for a handful of places. And even those places are subject to decline when their team falls out of the top 20. Even Western Michigan - known for its "lunatics" and fresh off a national championship, had extremely meh attendance this past weekend against a good Duluth team.

I don't like it either - but it's not a Cornell problem - and there's likely very little anyone can do about it. Cornell has to be a consistent top 5 team for like half a season in order to fill Lynah like it used to.

Is top 5 significantly different from top 20?  I don't know that the greater Cornell community is looking at USCHO.

Top 5 means the campus is buzzing about a possible national championship. Top 20 means we're 7-4 in December.

[BearLover]

This has been an evergreen topic in all of college hockey for 20 years. Steady decline everywhere, except for a handful of places. And even those places are subject to decline when their team falls out of the top 20. Even Western Michigan - known for its "lunatics" and fresh off a national championship, had extremely meh attendance this past weekend against a good Duluth team.

I don't like it either - but it's not a Cornell problem - and there's likely very little anyone can do about it. Cornell has to be a consistent top 5 team for like half a season in order to fill Lynah like it used to.

Is top 5 significantly different from top 20?  I don't know that the greater Cornell community is looking at USCHO.

Top 5 means the campus is buzzing about a possible national championship. Top 20 means we're 7-4 in December.

I honestly don't think it really matters. Sure, if we totally suck and are noncompetitive in most home games then that will hurt attendance. But the missing fans are the casuals who have absolutely no idea what our national ranking is. We're in a period of incredible sustained success, back to back ECAC champs, 7 NCAA appearances in the last 8 seasons, multiple 1-seeds, and  yet in that time the slow decline of Lynah has continued unabated.

500 people per game is a small number so even if winning motivates a few more people to show up, then that's something. But I just haven't seen any correlation in practice.

Once again I want to clarify that despite the decline, we still have by far the best atmosphere in the league and one of the best in the country. It's just way worse than we had before.

[ugarte]

500 people per game is a small number so even if winning motivates a few more people to show up, then that's something. But I just haven't seen any correlation in practice.

Everybody loves a winner but, like, a WINNER. When I was in college, basketball games were a ghost town (within a couple of years of an Ivy title) but it was buzzing during the 2008-10 Ivy title years. *Columbia* has been selling out (or nearly so) some basketball games because they came close to an ivy title. But the general fact is true: students don't arrive on campus and get inducted into a cult the way most of us probably did.

[Will]

The sport has its own beautiful grassroots traditions.  It doesn't need geegaws and gimmicks.  Just let it bloom.

Traditions mean nothing if you can't get new people in the door to help keep those traditions going.  So, maybe a few gimmicks make for a necessary evil.  Something less than what's happening currently, but not zero either.

[adamw]

Is top 5 significantly different from top 20?  I don't know that the greater Cornell community is looking at USCHO.

Of course not. Cornellians are smarter than that.

[billhoward]

Honestly, as I've older I am not totally against having any kind of extra room. Lynah is a much better rink to stand in than to sit in. (Are more people buying alcohol since they expanded who can? When it was more limited I never saw more than a couple people in line.)

Yes! There is no shame in comfortable seats. Or less uncomfortable seats.

[Trotsky]

But the general fact is true: students don't arrive on campus and get inducted into a cult the way most of us probably did.

< Panhellenic joke here >

[BearLover]

The problem: Lynah attendance and energy have been in gradual decline for two decades, but this year has been particularly bad, definitely the worst I've seen in 16+ years of attending games. This has a compounding effect where poor attendance and energy makes the games less fun, thus further depressing ticket sales. It also kills our biggest recruiting advantage.

The goal: Increase attendance by 500 tickets sold per game on average. Achieving this goal would result in a sellout or near-sellout most games and is a highly attainable goal given the size of the student body and surrounding population. 

Possible ideas:
-lower ticket prices.
-package Harvard tickets together with Dartmouth (already happening) and two other games. I.e., to buy Harvard tix, you also have to buy ticket vs Dartmouth and two other games of your choice. People who get this package get first dibs on Harvard tix.
-similar package for Colgate game, which I assume is the second biggest ticket. Eg. to buy a Colgate ticket, also have to buy one other ticket.
-reach out to clubs, graduate programs, frats/sororities to promote group ticket sales. Eg. special deal for vet school if they buy 20 tickets together. Reserve parts of poorly attended sections (eg. F) for poorly attended games (which is most of them) for such ticket blocks.
-sell beer at the games. Bonus of creating rowdier atmosphere. Most other schools already do this.
-better coordination with the band. I don't know how this works but I believe there used to be a considerably larger pep band contingent on average. They should be taking up the top half of A. As it is, A is at least half-empty most games.
-more theme nights (Taylor Swift night or whatever they did last year)
-any other ideas?

People will disagree with some of these, or some may be untenable, which is fine. I'm not suggesting we implement all of them; they're just ideas. But I believe
+500 per game is absolutely achievable if they actually tried.

[CU2007]

Is Colgate really the 2nd biggest game at this point? Do they send a lot of visiting fans? I would have thought Quinnipiac at this point. I guess Colgate has the advantage of being the only home game on that weekend.

[BearLover]

Is Colgate really the 2nd biggest game at this point? Do they send a lot of visiting fans? I would have thought Quinnipiac at this point. I guess Colgate has the advantage of being the only home game on that weekend.

I don't think any team sends many visiting fans other than maybe Clarkson (doubtful). But Colgate has the toothpaste throwing thing (and as you said is the only home game that weekend) so I think that attracts fans. The casual fan has pretty much no idea what Quinnipiac even is. In my experience the Ivy League games see better attendance than the non-Ivy games, probably because the casual fans are familiar with those schools.

[andyw2100]

-any other ideas?

As for "other ideas", I had posted the following in a different thread a few weeks ago:

I think it's all about getting the kids that have never been to a game into Lynah the first time.

I went to my first game as a freshman in 1982. (It may even have been the Harvard game because I definitely was at the Harvard game that season.) I probably went to only three or four games that entire season, but then bought season tickets for my last three years at Cornell and for every year since then, except for the few years I was out of Ithaca before moving back. I had never followed hockey at all. It was the Lynah atmosphere that hooked me. Like BearLover, (and I'm guessing nearly everyone here) I'd really like to see Lynah more like it was in "the old days." I doubt there's a simple answer. I doubt even more that any discussion here will have any impact at all.

That being said, I think one thing that would help, if we could somehow get the administration to buy in, would be giving every freshman a personalized voucher good for one free admission to any game. Vouchers have to be redeemed for tickets, and the freebies could be allocated based on anticipated sales. So perhaps only 50 or 100 of these freebies set aside for the Harvard game, and hundreds available for games unlikely to sell out.

I have to think that there are students out there who would be "hooked" if they experience a game, but may never go if they aren't given the one free ticket.

The "up-front" cost to Cornell would be negligible, since they would manage the inventory in such a way that it shouldn't really cannibalize sales.

I doubt anything like this will ever happen, but I think it would work if it were tried.

[Trotsky]

My offer is this, Senator.  Win.

Win and keep winning.  That has always been the bedrock of any team's fan support.

Go 35-5 for a few years and we will have sell outs for a decade.