In article <[log in to unmask]>, Matt Wickey
<[log in to unmask]> says:
>
>On Mar 26,  8:42am, Eric Carlson wrote:
>> Subject: UIC News and Link to Tribune article
>> 7. Administrators may want one high profile sport instead of two mediocre
>> ones
>>-- End of excerpt from Eric Carlson
>
>Here's a question: who's to say it's easier to be "high profile" in
>basketball than in hockey?  There are fewer hockey teams to contend
>with, especially when you have an existing program at the Div. I
>level.  Granted basketball itself is a more "high profile" sport
>with a larger fan base and more $$'s in play.  But, given the competition
>for those dollars, I don't think a university can guarantee a money
>making operation simply by "focusing" on the sport.  What if UIC chose
>to can basketball and focus on hockey?  Could they possibly be as
>successful monetarily with a top notch hockey program as they would
>be with a middle-of-the-pack basketball team?
What is worse, Chicago is a great Hockey town and a lowsy basketball
town.  For the past 2 years their was a CBA team that played in the
same facility as UIC.  They are leaving town because they could not
atract a crowd.  By my estimates they were averaging ~1500 per game
and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this year.  their
are many basketball programs in and around chicago and none of them can
atract more than 2500 a game.  Even the bulls had trouble filling the
stadium until they found michael.  When he is jone give it five years
an then they will be back to a half empty facility unless they cut
ticket prices in half.
 
On the other hand hockey does do well in chicago.  Even when the
blackhawks were loosing they filled the stadium.  The IHL team from day1
did a good job filling the rosemont horizon, capacity ~15,000.  Although
the statistics that were posted don't show it hockey almost allways
outdraws basketball.  This year 4 of UIC's games were moved out of
chicago to 7 Briges Ice Arena, a facility that if you exceed the safty
limit could fit 1500 people.  UIC telded to average ~4000 for saterday
night games but tended to do poorly on friday nights since all the
would bring their kids on saterday.
 
No matter what they do, basketball will not fill the pavilion unless they
can solve the student appathy problem.  They game t-shirts to students
that attended games this year and that did not seem to improve
attendance much.  Maybe they have to pay them $10 each game!
 
Enough for now, Drepressed webmaster,
avrom
________________________________________________________________
Avrom Litin                    University of Illinois at Chicago
[log in to unmask]                           Department of Chemistry
[log in to unmask]                                Mail Code 111
[log in to unmask]                            845 W. Taylor St
72567,[log in to unmask]                  Chicago IL 60607-7061
           http://WWW.uic.edu/sports/hockey
   -   =   -   =   -   =   -   =   -    =   -   =   -   =   -
OS/2 in '92, Warp in '95                      Windows '96 in '98
________________________________________________________________
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.