At 10:36 PM -0600 7/16/96, Pam Sweeney wrote:
> I think there are a couple other factors to consider:
>    1)  At the risk of being maligned as a Canadian-basher, let me point out
> that this is the "US Hockey Hall of Fame Game".  If you were to set up a
> college hockey game celebrating US hockey, I suspect Minnesota and BU would
> be the first two teams you would pick, since both teams consist primarily
> of US-born players.  (Yes, there are others, including St. Cloud, but these
> are arguably the two most prominent...)
 
I don't know, I would be surprised to learn that this was a factor in
deciding the matchup.  It's apparently never been a factor before, and last
year Maine and Michigan both had a significant number of non-US players if
not more than 50% each.
 
Also, if this was to suddenly be a factor, it would greatly cut down on the
number of schools who would be "eligible", especially when you consider all
of the criteria that would probably have to be met by other schools that
would be likely to be potential participants (more below).
 
>    2)  Woog and Parker are, I gather, friends.  Perhaps they like playing
> each other and want to take the opportunity to build up/prolong a friendly
> rivalry.
 
I do get the feeling that Woog and Parker like and respect each other.  I'm
sure it had a lot to do with setting up the game.
 
IMO, the underlying factor is that the organizers wish to attract maximum
interest in the game, and one of the ways to do that is to have a meeting
of two of the better teams in the country - teams with a pretty decent
following, and who have name recognition and would draw the interest of
both local fans and national tv viewers (although I do not know if this
game will again be televised nationally on ESPN2 or someplace else).
 
If the intent is to have "name" teams play in the game, it's going to be
interesting to see what the future matchups are.  Maine, Michigan, BU, and
Minnesota all have name recognition and a large following, but of all of
the DivI teams remaining, very few come close to matching these four.
 
It would be nice to see the game rotate such that many different teams get
to play in it, but I realize that there are not many teams who have the
combo of being very good, having a large following, and having national
name recognition.  So I won't be surprised to see the field limited to a
very few teams over the upcoming years.  That's ok with me if it helps
promote the sport.
 
>    I can see that, BUT, in this case, part of the purpose of the
> Hall-of-Fame game is to raise funds for the Hall.  Maybe they won't get one
> of those 9500-count crowds like against CC last February, but I'm guessing
> that it's a pretty good bet the crowd will be bigger at Mariucci than it
> would be at Walter Brown.
 
I thought the game was going to be at the Target Center - no?
 
If the game was going to be in the East, I don't think it would have been
played at BU.  When the original rumors of the matchup hit the papers
several months ago, reports were that the FleetCenter would host it.  I
don't know if that was true, or if so, what resulted in the game being
moved.  Could be that either the FleetCenter was booked solid for that time
of year or the financial arrangement was not to the organizers' liking.
The FleetCenter has already gotten a reputation for being a very expensive
arena to hold an event in, as well as being very expensive for the fans
when you factor in ticket prices, parking, and concessions.
 
---                                                                   ---
Mike Machnik                   [log in to unmask]            *HMM* 11/13/93
*****       Unofficial Merrimack Hockey home page located at:       *****
*****   http://www.tiac.net/users/machnik/MChockey/MChockey.html    *****
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.