I hate to jump in at the tail end of this conversation,  but I've been away for a few days and am just catching up.
 
While I didn't attend the Phrozen Phour in Anaheim and haven't attended any outside the northeast, I have followed with great interest the discussions that occur every year at this time.
 
IF (and that's a big if), we would like the finals to move around, then there are a lot of pluses for Orlando.
>From the northeast and midwest, at least,  there are numerous,
inexpensive flights into and out of Orlando. There are so many hotels in the area, that all New England could travel down there and not have a problem finding a room. There are thousands of restaurants ( a large number within walking distance of the "O") and parking is not a big problem.  The only drawback I can
see is that the Orlando public transportation system is not first rate (but they're improving year by year).
 
The down side of Orlando is that it's a cross country flight
for west cost fans (just as Anaheim was for east coast fans).
 
I guess I just don't see what the big deal is about having the tournament in a "college hockey friendly" city.  Once we're
in the Arena, we're all fanatics. The worst case scenario is that there are no facilities nearby and nothing to do on the off day. In Orlando, there may not be any hockey related venues for the off-day, but there are a lot of things to do in Orlando and central Florida.
 
To me, the fact that locals are not savvy fans is a plus.  We've just spent weeks complaining about the unavailability of tickets
for the tournament. If there are no local hockey fans, then less local people will enter the lottery a year in advance to get tickets. That increases everyone else's chances to get tickets. It seems as if being local to the tournament
doesn't help in acquiring tickets anyway. I live 6 miles out of Albany and can see the Knick from my office window, but I have to enter the lottery to get tickets, just like everyone else.
 
What it all boils down to is that we can't have it both ways.
If we want the expand the fan base of college hockey, we need to expose more people to it. But, once we do that, it becomes more and more like round-ball and we quite probably will price ourselves out of the market for tourney tickets.
 
As far as Orlando is concerned, it's probably no better or worse than any other city.
 
Mark Lewin
RPI
class of '69
 
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