It's ironic that two of RPI's faithful are debating this one.
 
On Sun, 24 Jan 1999, Mark Lewin wrote:
 
> >Why do the fans deserve a reward?
> Fans deserve a reward, because, whether you like it or not,
> the NC$$ sees hockey as a business, and, as business people
> have a tendency to want, they want to make a profit. Perhaps
> there's not a lot of money to be made from admissions, but with
> advertisers and TV contracts, there is a lot of money to be made.
 
Sounds like an argument for first round regionals to me. There are only
campus arenas that seat more than 10,000 (Mariucci and Kiel).  Virtually
every neutral site venue is 10,000+.  If I'm a fan, I'd rather go to a
nice big arena with all the amenities than some dingy campus barn.  How
would you like to have to travel across the country to spend a weekend at
Merrimack, for example?  (Only commenting on the quality of the building.)
 
> >Isn't it the players who deserve the
> >fairest possible tournament?  Shipping the 9-12 teams off to home ice
> >venues is tantamount to dooming their chances of going further, certainly
> >more so than playing an extra game in the current Regional format.
 
BTW, that should have been 9-16.
 
> No, the players don't deserve the fairest possible tournament. They
> deserve the fairest possible chance to win a national championship
> which includes not only the tournament but the results of the entire
> season. Working hard for 30-40 games deserves something better than
> the possibility of travelling thousands of miles to a neutral site
> to play a single game against a lower rated team who might have an
> exceptional single game and end your entire season.
 
But it's better to travel thousands of miles to play in a packed arena
of fans who are all rooting for your opponent?  In fact playing in campus
sites could result in some outrageous travel distances.  It is conceivable
that you would end up playing three games in Fairbanks, and, if you win,
having to jet to another site with virtually no opportunity for practice
time, let alone classes.  That is, by some fluke, you could beat the
home team.  In a campus site scenario, long travel distances would be the
rule since half the teams would have no guarantee of playing a game in
their home region.
 
Anyone have statistics on the home team's success rate when campus sites
were in vogue?
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Brian Morris                 RPI Engineers--First in the ECAC
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