On Sat, 25 Feb 1995, Ryan R Bowman wrote:
 
> For a school of 40,000 students, there are very limited student seats
> available, it is bad enough that tickets are $16 a game, and that most
> fans remain quiet during the games.. The game that I really noticed this
> at was the MN/SCSU game way back in the beginning of the season.. a
> friend and I were setting in Section 16.. we were going nuts, having a
> good time, and the people around us were absolutely shocked.. When I
> looked at what they were wearing I realized why.. they were all dressed
> up like they went to a nice dinner instead of a college hockey game and
> they weren't really cheering at all, except for an occassional clap after
> a goal.. This doesn't help home ice advantage when half the crowd doesn't
> get loud to help the team..
 
You got my vote here.  People in Duluth seem to be fairly reserved, too.
The students are usually pretty loud, but obnoxious, being the age they
are.  (I am in that age group, too, so don't flame me for ripping on
college students.)  Many of the season ticket holders are at least 50,
and there are many that are in their seventies, and I don't know if
that's part of the reason or not, but it's a lot nicer atmosphere with
the noise.
 
>
> *Gopher attendence isn't a gate count, just the number of tickets sold..
> Example of this.. When the GOphs played Michigan Tech earlier this year
> at home, the listed attendence was around 9,200.. which is supposedly
> above seating capacity.. If you looked at all teh empty seats, you would
> swear that only half this many were in attendence.. This means that many
> with season tickets don't try hard enough to sell their tickets when they
> can't attend a game, or they just don't want to watch the Gophs play a
> lower caliber team.. Meanwhile you have students like me who have to hunt
> for the scalper to get into games that are sold out, yet many seats
> remain empty..
> *Even Frank Mazzocco and Tom Reid of MSC have voiced their opinions about
> this.. the fact that not many tickets are their for the student..
> We need a student arrangement like they have in St Cloud, only 5 bucks a
> ticket for students.. and sold for a single game, lose the season ticket
> packages for students..
 
I think we had this discussion this summer, but most places do the
attendance by ticket sales, not attendance.  There should always be
tickets available for students.  At the DECC, a student can get a ticket
anytime, except of course for sellouts, and anywhere in the arena, not
just the three sections that most of the students sit in.  As far as
prices, ours are $3, but it's a supply and demand thing down in the
cities, if you're going to pay $16, they'll keep charging $16.  I really
am against the idea of no season tickets though.  I think it's a good
system to have season tix, but the students should think about it when
they can't make a game, and give (sell, whatever) the tickets to their
friends, or post it on a bulletin board at school that they have extras.
 
Just my $0.02
Tony
 
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Anthony J. Frolik                            University of Minnesota Duluth
Go Bulldogs!                                  10-15-4 WCHA, 13-16-4 Overall
            My views are not representative of the University.
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