Here is an impressive article on attendance for college hockey. Interesting how bad the Desert Dogs are drawing in Phoenix that three NCAA teams are out drawing them. I would imagine that the poor economy and high tickets prices of the NHL might be affecting some of the attendance numbers on Long Island and Phoenix.
Welcome, one and all, to USCHO.com’s newest blog. I hope to use this resource to address noteworthy material that falls outside the scope of my weekly ECAC Hockey column (though many of my readers would argue that over the years, precious little has qualified as falling out of range of a carefully crafted tangent).
Turnstiles do the Talking
Thanks to USCHO reader Vic Berardelli for noting this little nugget of college hockey information: the games are popular.
No, really. Three WCHA teams (Wisconsin, North Dakota and Minnesota) have out-drawn the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes in per-game attendance, and the Badgers are edging the New York Islanders as well. Wisconsin leads the nation in attendance with 12,638 per game, while UND (11,605) and the U (9,889) also draw quite well. (Michigan and New Hampshire rank fourth and fifth, but fall more than 3,000 short of Minnesota.)
The Coyotes, on the other hand, pull up dead last in the National Hockey League at 9,825 … which is to be expected from a team with high lame-duck potential. The Islanders – despite top pick John Tavares – only pull 12,429 through the gates at Nassau County Coliseum, and rumors are flying that they, too, could soon be on the move.
But it’s not just the pitiful that the WCHA troika is trouncing: they each topped the American Hockey League’s best draw, the Hershey Bears (8,906). Berardelli’s perspicacity also led him to note that in Lowell, Mass., the local UMass-Lowell River Hawks have walloped the AHL’s Lowell Devils by better than a two-to-one margin … while playing in the same building. Up in Rochester, RIT drew more than 7,400 against Colgate at the Blue Cross Arena, home of the AHL’s Rochester Americans. It took the “Amerks” three home games combined to equal that total. (Thanks to editor Ed Trefzger for that note.) The UNH Wildcats sit over 1,500 more per game than the Manchester Monarchs down the road.
Expanding the scope, 22 of the NCAA’s 58 Division I programs are beating the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s 3,202 per-game average. Wisconsin and UND are ahead of the Quebec Remparts’ 11,175, a figure that is more than doubling all other QMJHL teams. [USCHO.COM]
This is nothing new. Wisconsin has led the country in hockey attendance for years, with UND and Minnesota in 2nd and 3rd as well. Just another reason why the WCHA is what it is, the faithful legion of following fans that descend upon the 28 league games every winter. NHL tickets are way out of hand in price too and the product isn't nearly as good as the college game either, plus the atmosphere at many WCHA arenas whips the snot out of a snoozer at an NHL arena too. If I am not mistaken, 6 ouf out of the top 8 attendances in NCAA hockey are also from the WCHA (UW, UND, MN, CC, SCSU, & DU).
ReplyDeleteThe NHL is way more talented than college hockey, especially the goalies.
ReplyDeleteCollege and pro hockey are two very different games, even with the advent of the two line pass in the pros. In the NHL, there are seldom the gang clusters along the boards that occur regularly in the collegiate ranks. A good player is expected to win his share of duels on his own. College kids just jump in en masse. Even though, or maybe because, the pro game is faster and more physical, the puck carrier is given more room to operate on the perimeter. Not so in the university game, if you've got the puck, you're under assault. As the years have gone by, the NHL action has become more intense but the college game has really upped it.
ReplyDeleteAt the lower levels of college hockey, fan attendance is nothing to rejoice over. An MIAC game that draws more than 500 fans is considered a big success. A normal turnout would be around 300. Same with the NCHA. If the economy continues to flag, it'll be interesting to see if smaller schools can continue to support expensive programs like football and hockey. They have to be losing buckets of money even now.
Guys that wasn't my point, I realized that College is no where near as fast a moving game as the NHL, actually would rather watch the NHL because I like the game better but none the less, I think it was an interesting article because hockey in the NCAA is lout drawing a few NHL cities, I still believe that the Jets never should have left Winnipeg for the desert that is Phoenix. I still miss going to a NHL game up there...
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong Phoenix was a great city and I would love to go back and visit but it's not a hockey town. The Islanders may not be in NY much longer. We will see...
NCHA games only draw 300-500 people. I guess the last time I went to a NCHA game was when the Beavers were still in that conference.
ReplyDelete