Clay,

You can be sure that next year it will be a part of the package and 
simply added in.  I think the skills competition incorporated with 
Hobey and Humanitarian is a nice idea.  HOWEVER, the thought of 
charging people is a big loser, especially adding ticket thief charges 
to the process.

What they should have done this year is have it free to the public.  
The Bradley picks up concessions revenue, the NCAA gets extra souvenir 
revenue and the fans that go, some locals who may not have tickets to 
the Frozen Four get a fun night out.  I know that Friday nights I have 
typically planned non-hockey things if we are on the road, Cooperstown, 
Niagara Falls, Mall of America etc.

I think that charging will be a colossal flop, and if they continue 
this next year it simply will cost an extra $10 to go to the frozen 
four!

Bob Fitta
UMaine '83
On Dec 13, 2005, at 10:26 AM, Clay Satow wrote:

> Well, you can put me down as one who wouldn't do a skills competition 
> if it were free.
>
> I'd be interested to see how this came about.  Did they decide they 
> wanted to charge for the
> Humanitarian/Hobey ceremony, but didn't think they could get away with 
> it?  Did they come up with
> the idea for the skills competition, then decide to move the Hobey 
> ceremony?
>
> I also don't understand the economics.  Say you get a thousand people. 
>  That's $10,000 bucks, and
> I doubt that it would be worth it.  Do they think they're going to 
> fill the place up?  Far easier
> to jack up everybody's ticket price and tell us that this year for the 
> exorbitant increase in
> ticket prices, we get the "added benefit" of admission to the skills 
> competition.  I imagine this
> idea didn't come up early enough, though.
>
>
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