Greg Ambrose writes:
>Carl Sussman writes:
[I think the original post was by Greenie]
>>>In a way I almost kind of wish that no Boston team would have made it to
>>>the final four this year, as the house would have been filled only with
>>>solid hockey fans and not bandwagon jumpers. Now *that* would have been the
>>>best way to judge if Boston is "hockeytown" or not.
 
>>That's not necessary, I can tell you conclusively that Boston is not
>>hockeytown.  I was at the Fleet last night for a Bruins game.  After one of
>>the most impressive single-season turnarounds I've ever seen, the Bruins
>>are headed to the playoffs.  You would think the Boston fans would be
>>excited -- instead the place was dead and empty.  Now I'll grant that Bruin
>>ticket prices are absurd (cheapest seats in the place were $29 -- even in
>>New York you can get the cheap seats for under $20), but this was
>>ridiculous.  (Of couerse, my perspective may have been a bit skewed -- I
>>had to have been the only Rangers fan at a Bruins-Islanders game).
 
>>Anyway, isn't it Detroit that calls itself "hockeytown"?
 
>Please, if Boston is not a hockey town, where is there one - Albany,
>Cincinnati, Denver, Providence?  Only on Hockey L could there be discussion
>like this about a town which banged out the Fleet Center for three
>consecutive games, setting NCAA attendance records in the process.
 
>I may be provincial, but the newspaper coverage of this tournament far
>exceeded what I have seen in any other town during the NCAA's.  Now
>granted, BC being in the final had something to do with it but college
>hockey consistently outdraws college basketball in this town year after
>year.  It was nice to see the print media (television is hopeless) awake to
>this fact.
 
        Don't forget, this was the first time in a while that the
Frozen Four hasn't been opposite the squeak-ball Final Four, which may
have a lot to do with its share of media attention.
 
        But I think you've hit the nail on the head: Boston's
reputation is as a *College* Hockeytown.  Lack of attendance at Bruins
games may just mean that Bostonians have figured out that college
hockey is a much better deal than the NHL.  As you've said, it's
cheaper (and you're comparing a RS Bruins game to the NCAA
championship) and it's a lot more fun.  Withing the span of a month
last year I attended two NHL games (in Chicago and New York) and five
NCAA Division I games (three at Cornell, one at Vermont and one at
Dartmouth), and was struck by the juxtaposition.  The college games
were a much more enjoyable experience, and the average ticket price
was under $10.
                                         John Whelan, Cornell '91
                                               <[log in to unmask]>
                      <http://www.cc.utah.edu/~jtw16960/joe.html>
 
        Learn about the NCAA selection process on the web at
       http://www.slack.net/~whelan/cgi-bin/tbrw.cgi?pairwise
 
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