Biggie you gotta admit you were 100% wrong about the support of Uconn hockey. While the first BU/Uconn game had lower attendance this fall tonight was the 3rd largest home crowd at the XL center for the huskies. Now even i did not expect attendance to be ramped up as much as it did but i always had faith that despite the poor record a month ago people were supporting this team at a high level. The chants, the crowd and the energy tonight were amazing. And a few things can be learned from this
Sure BU and BC are having down years. But for a team 1 game below .500 the crowds that UConn hockey is getting downtown for for big opponents is an amazing feat. I mean even the beanpot with 4 premier Boston area teams isn't drawing what Uconn has drawn for UNH, BC, and BU round 2. Hope**lly they find a way to keep endzone seating low for 2018-19 and start making the upper decks value tickets. The middle seats at the same prices are being purchased. We just need to keep lower prices for the cheap seats because clearly it is working.
And while we're on this subject. to piggyback Monizzle...I don't ever want to hear another word about how the WolfPack are Hartford hockey. They play here, yes...but that's it. Last night was the loudest I've heard the XL in quite a while for a hockey game, I'm not even sure it was that loud for the first HE home game against BC back in 2014. Walking out of the building last night, you heard people yelling, screaming, celebrating...horns honking in the garages and people just enjoying what they just witnessed.
Monizzle touched on the tickets, and I agree 1000%, doing those value tickets in the upper corners (they actually RAISED the curtain on the Ann Street end during the game, haven't seen that since they were installed...) for all home games will boost the numbers, and, UConn has to sit down with Global and figure out a way where they can do their Sa****ay games at night. They had 7372 last night...put a BC or a BU on a Sat urday, and they might have had their 2nd "sellout" in Hartford.
It was a beauti**l site to see and a great game as well. I just don't know if they'll be able to keep the process down like this because Hartford is trying to add their own ticket tax to everything in Hartford. There is already a 10% state tax on tickets, and the city has been talking about adding their own on top of that. The Wolf Pack have already warned fans that prices would more than likely be going up because of that next year, and there's been talk that UConn will be doing the same.
Do you happen to know what the average even is for tickets? I've only been to a couple of away games but they're all around $20. I just don't know if UConn can go lower for every game. Special events and promos are great but I just don't if they could do what they need to do at the prices you're suggesting.
And while we're on this subject. to piggyback Monizzle...I don't ever want to hear another word about how the WolfPack are Hartford hockey. They play here, yes...but that's it. Last night was the loudest I've heard the XL in quite a while for a hockey game, I'm not even sure it was that loud for the first HE home game against BC back in 2014.
Either way, that crowd last night was electric. The place was practically shaking when UConn tied it, and the roof almost came off when Letunov's backhander won it.
Most teams have seats between the blue line for 20-25 second tier seats in the corners and goals anywhere from $11 to 20 granted any seat in most college hockey rink is a great view.
New taxes aside i think that uconn could easily make more affordable upper level seats for a few reasons.
1. With most of these promos people are still paying $20 for the premium seats between the blue lines helping uconn and the XL to make a base amount of money on around 1,500 to 2,000 seats that have great views. After that in my opinion the rest of the seats in the XLC mind should be bonus money. By that i mean opening up the already empty upper levels behind the goals doesn't cost any more. If the lowest crowds this year were around 2,500 why not add $15 lower goal seats and $10 upper end seats? Yesterday being in the upper level center everyone by me was buying beers and food constantly during the game. Uconn doesn't see that but that concession money cold help the XL get some of it's cost back. And on top of that all the local parking areas and bars last night got a boost from people going there after.
2. Use the upper level to reward sponsors/uconn ticket holders. Some of these uppper level seats were given to loyal uconn football season tixs holders and if they wen't yesterday or to UNH or BC i bet you they will come back based on those games being great experiences. Get these paying football and basketball ticketholders in the cheap seats behind the goal and maybe you sell them on getting a mini plan next year for uconn hockey. My girlfriends parents went last night and as football season ticketholders the experience makes them wanna go back.
My season ticket in 105 came out to something like $20/game. That's more than fair, in my opinion. The seats from say...102-105 and 114-117 should be a little more than seats in the corners or in either end zone. And upper level tickets should be less than that.
I think a system like this would boost the numbers. But...like with any sport anywhere...the thing that will absolutely guarantee getting more people into the arena/stadium/ballpark.....is winning.
What you're talking about is basically what the Wolf Pack have for their tickets, but they have extra sections at center ice and down by the gl*****.
The crazy thing about this entire run is this team has been below .500 and been far from being ranked but they are getting crowds as large as ranked teams. That's why I have hope for the **ture support of uconn hockey in hartford. If they continue to get better recruits and can try to maintain being in the middle of hockey east things are looking great.
They really can be like the 80s and 90s Syracuse men's basketball teams that for big games got crowds much larger than the average venue and the energy intimidated road opponents. I don't expect uconn to have 6 or 7K every game. But if they can get those crowds 3 or 4 times a year the college hockey world will take notice. And it will be a good look for hockey east.
Uconn football below .500 is brutal to watch. Uconn mens basketball at .500 is brutal to watch. But even these last few years of losing seasons for hockey i have brought friends and they had a great time due to most of these games being 1 or 2 goal games. That's why i think it is critical for Uconn Athletics to this year and next year give season ticket holders for basketball and football free tickets or comp tickets to a uconn hockey game. Not saying they will automatically covert hundreds of those fans to buy hockey season tickets. But they could at least get those uconn fans of other sports to take time to see 1 or 2 games a year at **ll price in the **ture. My girlfriends stepfather got discounted tickets to Friday's game due to his football season ticket commitment. And a game like Friday night can't do anything but make him wanna go back in the **ture.
It's a great idea, the question is if it's allowed under Hockey East and the NCAA rules and sanctions. That's the reason UConn can't sell tickets in the entire building. If HE/NCAA let them then that's exactly what they should be doing. You need to get people in the building. Having games of 3000 is great in a building that holds 5000 people. In the XL Center it looks like the place is still empty. The other thing would be getting now games in TV, which I've heard might be happening. If more people see how **n it is then maybe they want to come see games in person.
I doubt hockey east and the NCAA will do anything. I frequently check the empty seats galore twitter page and there are tons of NCAA venues with tons of empty seats the same size as the XL (KFC Yum Center, Bryce Jordan Center, John Paul Jones Arena). And as far as Hockey East as long as Uconn continues to bring more exposure to hockey east i am sure they will make ammends like they have with the Hockey east logo being behind the goal line. Mind you being at some of the low crowd games this season it didn't look any worse than the photos from this years Beanpot Mondays where there were larger packs of yellow seats everywhere.
While the XL is big the curtains do make it look better and most hockey games aren't even on TV so the games with 3,000 fans aren't even exposed to a National market. And the games that are making TV are some of the highest attended games. Uconn downtown could be a case study to prove to Hockey East what happens when you allow a team to play closer to suburban hockey fans instead of playing on an isolated campus.
Most non student hockey fans don't really wan't to go to on campus hockey games even on the weekends. This is present across the entire nation where students can get in for free or for cheap and there are tons of empty seats at schools like Minnesota and Michigan State and Notre Dame and Boston University. But fans are actually showing up the last few months to support a sub .500 uconn hockey team because games were played much more closer to the uconn fanbase instead of being out in storrs.
I do get why HE capped the number at 8,089 for that first game (though the UConn page on the Hockey East website says the XL "Capacity" is 9,000). That said, I don't like the idea of giving away the store. You want to give STH for football of hoops freebies for hockey once or twice a year, OK. But not for every game.
And for a second time, I agree with Fraudie...(this is frightening), games on TV are a good thing. It's possible with the new radio deal on ESPN 97.9 comes something where UConn games could end up online (ESPN3) similar to BC, UNH and other HE teams. It's a start.
Yeah i don't think there should be freebies the entire season to boost attendance however one free game or one discounted game for those STH of other sports is the gateway into them considering paying **ll price in the **ture.
Same thing with youth groups, and schools and mentor programs. I took a mentor group to a game and most of the kids from it hadn't been exposed to hockey ever. But that game where we got a group rate for Ohio State these kids were raving about going again next year. If they started a promo next year where they marketed low demand games to various groups in the community and gave them a special rate of $5 a kid (or maybe free tickets) you are bringing in kids that will want to go again and then you can have them back next year for 10 or 15 per person or they will ask their parents to take them for **ll price later in the year.
To me live hockey even in a state like CT is something people have to have an incentive to see once for free and a % of those who see it for free will be hooked for life. Same thing happened with high school friends that never saw me play live even though my team at one point was #1 in the state 10 years ago. Some of those same friends went to college in Boston and got dragged to college hockey games at a low student price and fell in love with the sport. They are now rangers or bruins fans that pay NHL prices for tons of hockey games now.
I'd like to know where they can up with that number as well. Was that Hockey East's decision, did Spectra say they had curtains that would reduce the building to that number so Hockey East made that the cap, it was there someone else to it? I'm not happy that their games are being moved for no real reason and losing Joe D is going to ****, but moving to ESPN 97.9 might be a good thing. I'm just worried about how many games will actually be on air and how many will just be steamed online. Also, all of UConn's hockey games are on ESPN 3. That's how my brother-in-law has been watching the games since I took him to the game against Northeastern around Thanksgiving.
From what I heard, nobody has been "lost" just yet. I have to think ESPN would try to keep Joe D and Wayne Norman together. Why mess up a good thing?
I think ESPN gave UConn the proverbial "offer they couldn't ref use", and when TIC said they wouldn't (or couldn't) match, they left.
Joe D's post on Twitter made it sound like they were both done and not going to be a part of the broadcast team at all next year. I hope you're right about them staying.
Now I personal think doing that for that reason is total BS. Sounds like they wouldn't have minded if the station was politically slanted the other way.
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