I wouldn't be surprised if minor league and college hockey attendance
was up slightly this year, although most NHL cities are not college
hockey hotbeds.  However, here is an interesting point to ponder:
Suppose the NHL goes out of business. Or more likely, suppose that the
NHL abandons their expansion plans and actually cuts back on the
number of teams, trying to consolidate their profit in the cities
where hockey is popular.  With the resulting decrease in the number
players that will make it to the NHL, I wonder if the number of kids
who play junior, prep school or college hockey will decrease. Some
number of athletes compete at the college level for the pure love of
the sport with no intentions of ever playing professionally after
their college careers.  However, there are significant numbers of
athletes who play college hockey with the intent of being scouted,
drafted and signed to professional contracts. I wonder if a decreased
number of roster spots in the NHL would cause these "career minded"
hockey players to reconsider their choices.

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 06:18:37 -0800, Anthony Buffa <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I presume some of you saw the interesting article (syndicated) today by
> John Eisenberg of the Baltimore Sun entitled "The highs ... and lows of
> hockey." The basic thrust is how the NHL blew it after the rise in
> popularity of hockey following the 1980 miracle at Lake Placid. The
> article asserts the owners assumed they could expand the league and pay
> their stars at the level of the NFL, NBA, etc.  This then led to the
> "financial ruin" claimed by the owners. I dont know if that is entirely
> correct, but it sounds plausible, although I am sure the players
> attitude is involved also.
>
> However ... for the college hockey content:
>
> In it there are some interesting quotes from Jack O'Callahan. One of them is
>
>  "I love hockey, but I also love junior hockey, and college hockey, not
> just NHL hockey. If (the players and owners) dont want to come back and
> split $50M (in annual salaries) per team, I'd be happy to watch college
> hockey."
>
> I wonder if the overall attendance at the D-I level has shown a
> signficant increase in areas of NHL hotbeds, say for example, the Boston
> area? I think we theorized about this before the season started.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Tony Buffa
> RPI '64
>