Greetings,
    I was one of the fortunate few (?) to see the second night of college
hockey action at the Palace last weekend.  The Big 10 Challenge,
oops, CCHA-WCHA Challenge, oops, College Hockey Showcase,
was a little disappointing.  The Palace seems a little better at
staging hockey than they were last year (judging by John H.'s
report about the Notre Dame-UM games there), but they still
have a ways to go.
 
     There seemed to be occasional problems with clock operation
and with announcement of goal and assist scorers and goal times.
For a few of the goals, I think the announcers never did correctly
announce who actually had the goals and assists.  But the biggest
problem was the ice, the puck seemed to behave a little strangely on
it.  I thought it was just my perception, but I overheard several
people around me comment how the ice must have ruts or something
based on the behavior of the puck.
 
     Attendance was poor - it was announced as 13,000 the first night
and as 14,000 the second night, but that place was no more than
1/3 full on the second night.  I would guess that attendance was 6000,
maybe 7000.  In fact, an usher came around to our section and was
trying to convince people to move to lower sections to make the place
look full on TV.  He was issuing new tickets to those who would move -
maybe through this "double counting," the Palace was able to make
it appear that more tickets were used than actually were.
 
 
     I was also a little peeved with the hosing some of us took on tickets.
We paid full price for our tickets, plus a $3 handling charge per seat,
plus a $2 handling fee per order.  But when we picked up our tickets,
we found out most people were using coupons from the Detroit papers
that said "buy one ticket, get one free."  Guurrrrrr.  I wish that ticket
offers like that would be generally available as a matter of course.
 
    It will be a while before I go to the Palace again.  Crappy ice,
clueless off-ice officials and announcers, malfunctioning clocks,
and sky-high ticket prices to people outside the Detroit area are a
real souring experience.  I expected getting gouged on parking and food,
but didn't expect that I would be "taken" at every single opportunity.
 
     Tim Newman
 
PS - Congrats to the Wisconsin fans for following their team.  That
shows a lot of spirit!