I too must weigh in in opposition to Mike "the guru" Machnik, and believe me,
it's not an easy thing to do. :-)  I think the neutral site idea works best,
both in terms of overall attendance, and the future growth of college hockey.
 
Attendance-wise, the problem has been the West.  Although Worcester apparently
suffered a drop in attendance this year, the previous two years were quite good.
Albany did great last year with 12,000 in on Friday night, and probably  10,500
for the Saturday finale.  The year before I believe Worcester was in the 10,000
range.  The West, for various reason, as many have sent to me privately, is a
difficult sell in a neutral-site arena.  Right now the NC$$ has decided to play
it $afe, and rotate the Regionals between Michigan State and Wisconsin, thereby
maximizing the odds of attracting a home crowd for the tournament.  I don't know
why you would want to turn back the clock with the East, since I think the
tournament is beginning to pick up support, and generate interest.
 
The problem is always the first game on Friday.  Many fans can't get to the
5:00 start because of work, and usually the organizers schedule the marquee
matchup, i.e. the one with the home team, for the night cap.  There isn't any
easy solution for this; moving the games back a day to Thursday might exacerbate
the problem.
 
The other problem cited--teams get too tired playing Friday and Saturday nights,
might have a solution.  First, I'm not convinced it's that much of a problem--
RPI lost on Friday night all year, and won on Saturday!  I think the top seeds
deserve an advantage for being the best during the regular season, and a bye is
the fitting reward.  But perhaps you could play the tournament on Friday night
and Sunday afternoon.  Perhaps that would be too close for the Thursday session
at the Finals, but at least all the teams would be equally tired.  And the
times seem to be in a bit of flux as ESPN forces the NC$$ to modify its schedule
to accomodate their ratings desires.
 
Finally, as a couterpoint to Mike's desire to return the games to the college
sites, I think this would stultify the growth of the sport.  Witness the
audience at Madison--Badger supporters grabbed almost all of the tickets (not
that it was wrong) leaving few tickets for others.  However the Minnesota/RPI
game had very few spectators because the Badger fans didn't really care that
much about either team.  And that's to be expeceted.  Regional competition at
campus sites will be attended by that college's students and loyal alumni, and
few others.  That is not in the best interest of college hockey.  In Albany
a contingent of fans has emerged who travel to the finals when they're in the
East, and attend the Regionals in the off-years, (especially if it's at the Kn
Knick.)  I imagine that Worcester has also developed a loyal cadre of fans who
show up to watch the game, regardless of whether their team is in or not.  It
would be wrong to deprive this core group of fans access to the Regionals, and
eliminate the possible exposure of college hockey to members of the public who
have experienced its pleasures yet.  As the Finals evolve into a real event, w
with sell-outs a near-certainty, the Regionals, at least in the East, will
probably catch-on as well.
 
IMO, a quick gain in numbers at a campus site, doesn't justify the long-term
harm.  And, like one poster said, what happens if one of the sites is up in the
North Country  ?  (no slight to those fine teams intended)
**********************************************************
Brian Morris                        RPI
[log in to unmask]           Engineers--1995 ECAC Champions
[log in to unmask]                      Tenth Anniversary of the '85 Championship