Pulling Greg Ambrose's response, more or less at random, out of the
slew of reactions to "College Hockey Returns to Hartford":
 
> "back to the Big
> Apple", "spend the holiday week in New York", etc.  Lost in all this
> pie-in-the-sky dreamworld stuff is the fact that no one in NYC gives a damn
> about college hockey.  If the sport couldn't make any impression 25 years
> ago, what made people think that it would now when the NYC metro area is
> consumed totally with pro sports.  College football can't make it there . .
> . and college hockey can?
 
We'll see how the second Cornell-Colgate game at Nassau Coliseum goes;
if Cornell can't draw in the City, no one can.
 
> I can tell you that interest among UNH fans in this one day trip was luke
> warm at best.  Did HE/ECAC really think that fans would trek down to NYC
> the Tuesday before Christmas, that is, two nights before Christmas Eve, pay
> some exorbitant hotel rate (assuming that they could get a room) to watch a
> non-league game?  Personally I missed only 3 UNH games last year and there
> was no way I was going to this one.  Hartford, maybe, NYC on Dec. 22nd, no
> way.
 
I think moving the tourney to Hartford ensures that it will only draw
fans of the teams involved.  The MSG tourney held some interest for
me, since I'm thinking of flying back to the States for the Holidays,
and the idea of flying into Kennedy or LaGuardia, staying a few days
with friends in the City, and catching a rare college hockey event,
seemed like fun, even though Cornell's not involved.  But there's no
point in schlepping out to Hartford to see Colgate and RPI play.
OTOH, for RPI/Colgate/UNH/Maine students/alumni/fans without a reason
to go to New York, Hartford is a much more manageable trip.  But the
whole thing is reduced to the status of an ordinary holiday tourney,
and only half of one at that.  No matter how you slice it, this move
is a retreat.
                                          John Whelan, Cornell '91
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                                     http://www.amrgsval.org/joe/
 
Attention ECAC:   Eight is Enough--Flush the Final Five!
 
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