Well, I have had two days to stew over the move of the Colgate-Maine
and RPI-UNH games from NYC to Hartford.  As one who had planned to go
to MSG for these games (I was going to be in NYC that week anyway),
I am disgusted about the ECAC and HEA making these plans and then
changing them.  Granted, this isn't the only change of locale that
has happened to a college hockey "tourney" in recent years.
 
I suspect that Greg Ambrose was more than correct when he wrote:
 
> the reason for the switch wasn't only the lack of ticket
> sales but the lack of interest in marketing possibilities by
> businesses in NYC.  Since Madison Square Garden Corp. also owns
> the Hartford Civic Center, I guess they decided to cut their
> losses and switch the doubleheader to Connecticut.
 
MSG almost certainly got little business interest in this.  Three
months before the game, they really could not have judged ticket
sales.  Oh, I suppose that there is some mathematical model of how
ticket sales go as a function of time before an event, but I believe
that this would vary a lot as a function of the sport involved.
 
One probably should not take this instance as being an indication of
college hockey's future in markets without schools that play hockey,
considering NYC's well-documented lack fo support for any college
sports.  However, it does speak poorly for college hockey in such
markets, and does mean that I probably will never see a Div-I game
in DC.
 
J. Michael Neal wrote:
 
> The original thought is still a possibility.  I passed this
> message along to a couple of people I've gotten to know in NYC
> who are into college hockey and are going to follow MAAC teams.
> Both of them wrote back saying, "Huh?  I didn't even know they
> were going to have hockey at MSG.  I'd have gone!"  Apparently,
> this incident is in no way, shape or form a test of whether New
> Yorkers will show up for college hockey.
 
This was the same problem that had afflicted the old Holiday
tourney in NYC -- no one heard about beforehand, and that was a
yearly event.  I remember going to MSG in the late 60s/early 70s
and speaking to Ranger fans who did not know about the Holiday
tourney.  I thought that this problem had been overcome when I
read here that MSG had sent out fliers for the December 22nd
games with Rangers/Knicks season ticket info.  Clearly, the word
didn't get out.
 
Kurt Stutt wrote:
 
> Great, but at RPI, most of the students don't attend games that are
> right on campus with lower ticket prices than at MSG.  Why the hell
> would they trek out to Manhattan and pay more?  What alumni are
> going to head out on a Tuesday??
 
Relatively few of the students would probably go, but I suspect that
alumni would go.
 
Kurt also wrote:
 
>Quote #1:
> After a 22 year absence, it is very exciting to have college hockey
> back at Madison Square Garden," said Paul Munick, Vice
> President, Athletics, Madison Square Garden. "This is the first step
> in establishing a premier college hockey tournament in New
> York."
>
> Moving the games to Hartford is not the first step in establishing a
> tournament in NYC.  Better luck next time Paul.
 
It sure isn't.
 
 
> Excerpt #1:
> The ECAC has enjoyed a long relationship with Madison Square Garden,
> highlighted by the successful Chase Manhattan ECAC
> Holiday Basketball Festival. From 1961 through 1976, the Garden was
> also home to the ECAC Holiday Hockey Festival.
>
> Notice they didn't use the word "successful" to describe the ECAC
> Holiday Hockey Festival.
 
I did get a chuckle out of this at the time.
 
> So now they've moved this to Hartford.  I don't think they'll be any
> better off.  However, I am fearful that RPI will like what they see,
> tell they're friends at Union, and suddenly next year the "Capital
> Skates Classic" will be in Hartford.  Well, at least the students at
> the RPI campus in Hartford would get to see their school play
> locally!
 
I suspect that few at the RPI Graduate Center in Hartford identify
much with RPI.
 
John Whelan wrote:
 
> 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 agree that Cornell is a better draw than any of the four teams that
were going to MSG, however, please don't tell me that Nassau Coliseum
is "in the City".  Last time that I looked, Nassau Coliseum was in the
midst of suburban sprawl and a slightly superior facility to the old
Capital Center (aka USAir Arena) near DC.  :-)
 
> I think moving the tourney to Hartford ensures that it will only
> draw fans of the teams involved.
 
I agree.
 
> No matter how you slice it, this move is a retreat.
 
That does summarize it all quite well.
 
Ralph Baer
RPI '68, '70, '74
 
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