Disclaimer: this post is written regarding the "average" sports fan in
Boston, not those of us that follow college hockey dearly. IE, there's no
way you should take this personally. <g>
 
At 10:36 AM 4/18/98 -0500, Greg Ambrose wrote:
 
>My comment re:  college hockey was a comparison to support for college
>basketball in this area.  College hockey consistently outdraws college
>basketball in this area, it is only the myopic sportswriters and
>newscasters who think that squeakball is the only winter game that counts.
 
If you take the city of Boston itself, of course college hockey outdraws
Basketball. There aren't ANY good (heck, even reasonable) college
basketball teams in the city. However, with Providence, Rhode Island, UConn
(men and women), and UMass all within an hour, you're making a pretty bold
statement to say that in Boston "area" college hockey draws greater
attendance.
 
Yet even within the city, if you look at total attendance over the last 10
years, you'll see that basketball at both BC and Northeastern has outdrawn
hockey; having teams in the Top 25 in basketball means a hell of a lot more
than having a Top 5 hockey team to people in this city.
 
Even at Boston University I've seen basketball outdraw hockey. In my 9
years in Boston, one event stands out at Walter Brown Arena as the most
attended, loudest, and hardest-to-find-a-ticket game I've ever been to:
 
Basketball. BU versus Duke.
 
Friends of mine that attended Northeastern tell similar stories of Reggie
Lewis' last two seasons there, and that it was nearly impossible to get a
ticket. Same goes for the Bobby Curley days at BC. I can remember a number
of BU-BC games at BC that were sold out from about 88-92, while in the same
season having gone to games at BC such as BC-Lowell which would pull only
about 1,500 fans.
 
Put simply, BC and Northeastern (as well as the aforementioned basketball
powerhouses above) have had basketball seasons where EVERY game is a
sellout; with the exception of Maine and perhaps UNH, I don't think this
has happened to a HEA school within the last 10 years.
 
Just look at this season -- BU versus Merrimack, first round of the HEA
playoffs -- the first two games attendance averaged just over 2,000. Sure,
the kids were on spring break, but if Boston really loved its college
hockey, I'd certainly expect better attendance for those. In fact, that
first round of playoffs was very, very poorly attended, as attested by the
users here on Hockey-L.
 
And regarding the media -- while we may all claim the media is myopic and
close-minded about college hockey, the simple reality is that if there was
greater interest in the newspaper-reading and tv-viewing public, you'd see
more college hockey. Period.
 
As for the Globe's coverage this year, it was quite good. I'd say the only
other time I saw similar coverage was in Minneapolis. Would this coverage
have been as good without BC and UNH? No way. The reason I say this is that
the Globe put maybe one or two full pages into their paper for the
championships in Providence -- including the Maine-BU final. They did put
BU on the front page after winning the championship, but quite simply the
Globe doesn't care too much about college hockey because their readers
don't. For regular season games, I've see the same (sometimes better)
coverage by the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain news of CC and DU games.
This in a town that for the most part still doesn't understand "icing."
 
When TV games are broadcast in Boston, the only ones that get ratings that
mean anything are the Beanpot games. For a comparison in public interest of
college hockey, take this little factoid: The New England Revolution, the
pro soccer team (MLS), has an average TV rating in Boston higher than any
college hockey broadcast, including this year's championship with BC.
Nationally, ESPN's and ABC's "MLS Game of the Week" pulls in higher ratings
than any national championship NCAA hockey game ever has.
 
 
Throughout all my travels to various college hockey towns and venues, I've
encountered a large number of teams whose fans are overhwlemingly devoted
-- for better or worse, lauding both cheer and criticism -- much more so
than any Boston team. UNH and Maine are the only New England teams that
come close to the likes of Colorado College, Michigan, Michigan State,
North Dakota, Vermont, and now, Nebraska (haven't been there yet though,
maybe next year).
 
One city will forever stand out however as being so devoted and attentive
not just to their local team(s) but also to the sport in general --
Minneapolis. How many other college hockey teams s have received repeated
mention in the movies lately? ("Fargo")
 
I love Boston and my dear BU Terriers, but when it comes to being a "major
college hockeytown" Beantown falls short of that claim.
 
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