Concerning Cathy's observation below (in part)
 
After being at the Whittemore Center last weekend for Maine-New Hampshire,
one could almost make the appropriate substitutions and you'd have been
talking about their crowd.  I had been to many games at "Lively Snively"
before it got its "growth"; a local partisan could easily say: " I will
forever miss the old ****, which shook with the might of the crowd.  You
really felt like part of an entity unto itself in that barn."
 
Kudos, BTW, to the large Maine contingent last Sunday in Sec. 113 of the
New Hampshire rink for keeping its intensity level up the entire contest.
Whilst there were a large number of students there that day, especially
compared to the Governor's Cup games, our fans kept the cheers going more
often.
 
My thoughts:  any time that season ticket sales outnumber available single
game-ticket holders in a crowd, intensity suffers.  Any rink with "luxury
boxes" is also suspect.  Maybe even adverts along the boards is another
sign of a decline.  Not that I object to these things going on, and the
growth of any program, but it is different when the body in the seat sees
it as "just another game" or "one more night out" rather than "my (insert
name of rink) experience" .
 
Methinks the same thing will happen when they finish the new Jackie Parker
"Whineatorium".
 
I'll be curious to see what happens when we get to the new Tsongas Center
in Lowell...Often we would outshout the locals when games were at the "dear
departed" Tully Forum.
 
Dave Hendrickson should be concerned that the same thing would happen if
Merrimack ever replaces the Volpe Center.   But the trend is mega-rinks,
and Merrimack will seriously be trailing the league in their facility, the
longer they stay with their old meat locker.  Imagine a recruit going to
Lowell, then visiting Volpe, almost right next door ?
 
Face it, Maine fans, compared to the early 1980's, college hockey has
become more of a business than a passsion for many.
 
>As far as the crowd is concerned, let's discuss that.  I saw very few students
>there, and, with the exception of the "B*** S***" boys in the corner, there
>were few yelling anything!  Am I just not sitting where the action is???
>Gotta change my seats if the students are yelling somewhere else!  At least
>when I sit in my seat behind Alfie, I do NOT get told that I can't yell, which
>happened to me in DDD at the last home game!  ( I disagreed...)
>
>It does seem to me though that the fan base is still there, very few waverers,
>team still entertains!  I will forever miss the old Alfond, which shook with
>the might of the crowd.  You really felt like part of an entity unto itself in
>that barn.
>
>When it finally gels, it'll be real, and intense, and Alfond magic will be
>back.
 
 
 
Dan Doucette
UMaine 78 MPA 80
 
*** Beers may now be in the booth, but Jean-Yves Roy ***
***    should be kept with the big club in Boston     ***
***   Is there anyone better now with Providence ??  ***