Clay Satow wrote:

>There is an interesting demographic this year.  Two participants relatively far away, with loyal,
>but small fan bases.  One team with a loyal, reasonably sized, willing to travel fan base, about
>1000 miles from Columbus.  And probably the largest, most loyal fan base of any college hockey
>team.
>
>I’ve rambled a bit, but I’m interested in what other folks think.
>

The Gopher fan base may be large and loyal, but Minnesotans don't travel
well. Doesn't matter what sport. I can't tell you what it is,
particularly given that we live next door to the world's largest
travelling carnival; Badger fans would be there in droves if you held
the Frozen Four in Pyongyang. There just aren't that many North Dakota
fans, though they travel well and punch above their weight. Denver and
CC are really small, and really far away. So, there really isn't any
significant draw to any of these teams.

In all honesty, as much as it's too bad that people like John Whelan are
stuck with extra tickets, I'm kind of glad to see something like this
happen every few years. Unlike a lot of people, I see almost no upside
to a dramatic increase in the popularity of college hockey. It's hard
enough to get tickets as it is. (Though, it's easy for me to say, since
my team has had a TV contract that shows alomst every game since I moved
up here eighteen years ago.) Anything that works to convince the NCAA
that this isn't the basketball tourney, and they can't just turn it into
a ridiculous cash cow has positive consequences far beyond the costs.

My father and I have missed only one Frozen Four since 1989. When the
NCAA announced that they were going to switch to the system of allowing
everyone to submit ten applications, we decided that this year was going
to be our last. In addition to the difficulty of getting tickets, they
were turning the Frozen Four into an event that we simply did not feel
comfortable supporting. The response to a low turnout may keep us coming.

J. Michael Neal