ECAC Reportedly Considering Moving Tournament to Albany

[melissa \'01]

well. he IS jobless....

unless his new gig has started. what's the deal greg? when are you moving and to where?

[Josh '99]

Eric Hoffman wrote:

Let the arguments begin about whether the Pepsi Arena and Albany qualify as "city" and "bonafide arena".

From the US Census Bureau's Metropolitan Area Population Estimates, found at http://eire.census.gov/popest/archives/metro/ma99-02.txt
Minneapolis-St. Paul: 2,872,109
Detroit: 4,474,614
Boston: 3,297,201
Albany-Schenectady-Troy: 869,474
Which one of these is...  ahh...  not quite on the same scale?  Moving to a city with less than half the population of Newark (1,954,671) doesn't help shed  the ""small time...EZAC" image".  Sorry, but compared to the other locations, Albany's a second-rate city.

[jtwcornell91]

Anyone who cares has likely read them before, but for reference

http://www.spiritone.com/~kepler/hitch/hitch_lake.html

and the first section of this:

http://uscho.com/news/2002/03/20_004307.php

Greg, do you have any odes to Placid on the web, outside of forum archives?

[jason]

I'd be happy with Albany for the convenience, drive-wise and lodging-wise (family lives about an hour away, could stay with them) and would probably choose Albany over Lake Placid if push came to shove, but there's another problem with Albany from my recollection of going there for NCAA regionals: the area where the arena is located is DEAD on the weekend. Albany is a "get the hell out of here and back to the 'burbs" town (from what I gather) so there is almost no businesses open on the weekend, and this includes restaurants, bars and the like (anyone with more intimate knowledge of Albany please feel free to correct me if I'm off base). It makes for a somewhat creepy environment.

[judy]

there's jillians down the street from the arena and a couple of empty bars around it but that's about it...

[Anne 85]

I'd say "creepy" is the perfect adjective for Albany.  Especially the area around the arena.  

I think the only defense will be to set up our own little "Cornell hockey town" -- preferably at a decent hotel not too far from the rink and near a nice bar -- and hope that some decent movies are out in March.

Drat -- you mean we might NEVER get back to Mudpuddles?

[Greg Berge]

On the bright side (I'm trying here), even though Albany is a cesspool, there must be one decent sports bar there to host a cup-raising.  Right?

[melissa]

jillians is a cool sports bar but it is big and perhaps TOO happening (for albany) on a sat nite.

hmmm. was cool with the move until i realized the mudpuddles dilemma. damn! i really wanted to see that place! maybe the change won't occur  until the 03-04 season. maybe there's still  a chance to see the inside of that dump!

[Jim Hyla]

Greg, I have a suggestion. From the "How to win friends and influence people" mode, you might find things alot nicer if you tried to find the good in situations rather than  bad-mouthing what you don't like, such as calling Albany a cesspool.

It seems clear from your past statements about Syracuse that you are not fond of midsized upstate NY cities. Well that's OK. But you know, some of us would rather not be on the west coast, seeing as how far away it is from alot of what we enjoy. On the other hand, where you are is beautiful and I'm sure a nice place to live. We chose our way, you chose yours; let's just try and appreciate what everything has to offer, and wherever we end up, just have a good time being there.

[CowbellGuy]

Just about any city has some redeeming factors (like Armory Square). That having been said, Albany is a cesspool. This bites.

[jtwcornell91]

Maybe we'll just have to party at Melissa's place... :-D

[jtwcornell91]

True enough.  Even Brownsville has a good Mexican restaurant or two...

[Greg Berge]

Oh for Pete's sake.  Sorry, sorry, sorry, and/but take a pill.

If anyone has such a misguided identification with a place that criticizing it offends them, that's their issue.  I have no problem whatever with anyone who lives in Albany -- in fact, they have my sympathy.  For the record, though I love Oregon, if you want to write that Oregon is a shithole -- or even worse, that it could be in even the smallest measure inferior to Washington -- that's ok by me.

To be holier than thou: Age hates the Islanders and talks trash about them whenever he can.  That ticks me off because I'm an Isles fan.  But I GET OVER IT.  I figure Age is as entitled to his absurd and wrongheaded opinion (which given many of Age's opinions is a very good thing) as I am to my reasonable opinion that the Rangers bite.  (I actually kind of like the Rangers too, but that wrecks the parallelism.)

At the same time, if somebody writes that Cornell sucks, them's fightin' words.  So, if you feel THAT sort of allegiance to Albany, then I'm sorry to offend.

Now let's have *nobody* ever say *anything* negative about *anything* *ever* *again*, since somebody out there will be offended.  ::rolleyes::

[melissa]

i just KNEW that was coming.....

people are more than welcome to use my place as a meeting/ hangout spot - tho i don't know how many people could actually crash here. my place is rather small and there's only 1 bathrroom.

[CowbellGuy]

.........and Harvard still sucks.