As a priority 5 we received our confirmation letter for tix, but the
note really is what I'd like to throw my 2 cents worth on!

Like many of you I can remember walking up to the ticket office, and
buying tickets the semi-finals and finals on the day of the game ('82
Providence).  Now the NC$$ has discovered, what many of us new all
along, that this is a great tournament, and they are trying to
capitalize.  This is a sport that they give short shrift to all year,
and then try and cash in on when the finals roll around.

Who gets stiffed by the changing of the rules?  The real fan does!!!
We attend games all year go to the tourneys and then the regionals in
pretty empty buildings, but when the finals roll around our reward
could be to not get in!  The NC$$ says they want a more FAIR system.
Yes, if I were 24 and looking to go to my first tourney I would say
that the present system is against me.  But it is those of us that have
been attending these games for 20+ years that have made the Hockey
tournament a success and we should be rewarded for our loyalty.

If as someone reported they go to a format where you can enter 10 times
with each time being charged a processing fee I will really have to
weigh my options.

In my humble opinion this organization is not about student athletes or
fairness, they are plain and simply about money, and now the hockey
community is seeing that affect.

I feel strongly a letter campaign is needed, and if we can find out who
the letters should be addressed to so we can FLOOD one individual with
our outrage we can hopefully send a message!

Let's be as strong a community on this as we have been on other issues
in the past.  NC$$ hockey events will not succeed without the support
of this community!

Let the debate continue!

Bob Fitta


On Aug 28, 2004, at 2:17 AM, Hampton, Nathan E. wrote:

> William Sangrey makes note of some interesting (aka bullshit) points
> from the NCAA letter:
> (1) Apparently a priority number of 1 was not good enough again this
> year.
> ***I hope Bill means "1" as in first time (aka virgin) applicants
> because for those who have been doing this for 9 or so years, I would
> hope no one of those get zero tickets. Yes, I got my four.
> (2) half of the tickets have been set aside for "the four
> participating institutions, the NCAA membership (e.g.
> ADs, coaches and various committee members), the host institution, the
> local organizing committee and other groups affiliated with the NCAA."
>  That seems like a lot of non-fan tickets to me.
> ***Yeah, to me too that seems like alot of "nonhockey fan" tickets but
> to one degree or another, that is a fixed number of tickets, leaving
> the number for the "lottery" equal to "size of the arena" minus "fixed
> number set aside". If that is the case, then lets hope all future NCAA
> frozen fours are at the largest arenas in the nation.
> (3) Also interesting is a suggestion that they may change the
> distribution of tickets, possibly to totally random lottery (no
> priority for past attendance),
> ***This is not interesting but pure bullshit. Why offer these
> suggestions in the letter? My bias against the NCAA says they have
> already decided to ax the lottery tickets (see #2 above since that may
> leave more tickets for the NCAA to distribute by their own whims and
> deals). Note the factual stupidity of the NCAA when they suggest that
> "all applicants will have the opportunity to submit up to a maximum of
> 10 application to increase their chances being selected for tickets."
> This is abhorrent stupidity, because if everyone (or even the average
> fan) submits 10 applicants then their odds of winning change from one
> in 9000 to 10 in 90,000. So your odds of winning do not increase at
> all. Welcome to the world of the mushroom -- the NCAA is keeping us
> all in the dark and shoveling shit on us to keep us alive.
>
> Note that the "Note" on the "priority ticketing system" was one-third
> to one-half of the letter. No one should take this lightly. If we are
> smart, we would some how organize a letter, email, or other campaign
> to the NCAA expressing our support of the current system. If we are
> not smart and do nothing and let the NCAA make their own uncontested
> decision, then we are mushrooms.
>
> Nathan Hampton
>