D B Doucette wrote:
 
>1.  Many college hockey fans find the prospect of St. Paul or (gad !)
>Cincinnati much less attractive than southern California for a substantial
>trip away from home.
>
>2.  The traveller will find it much cheaper to get to LAX or Orange County
>than to the out-of the way places of previous years, or future years.
>Really, how easy is it to fly into Albany, how much choice do you have, how
>expensive for the extra trip up from a "major" airport on a puddle-jumper ?
>Also, what about when the Phinal Phour takes up ALL the good local hotel
>rooms near the venue, and they ask extortion prices for rooms, or off to
>the boonies to flea bags for cheap money ?
 
Ah, but the bulk of the sales for the Final Four typically isn't to people
who fly in.  In Cincinnati this year, there were lots of empty seats on
Thursday and then the place filled up with folks driving down from SE
Michigan on Saturday.
 
While many people might consider LA a more attractive place to plan a
vacation, it won't have locals to draw on.  Sure, there are some transplants
(including alumni), but if that were going to make the big difference, they
would have produced better attendance at the Freeze-Outs.
>
>3.  As to game tickets, does anyone really think the non-participant-school
>ticket allocation will NOT sell out, when you consider how the Mouse will
>promote it ?
 
Yes, I think that.  One, I'm dubious about how effective the promotion would
be.  Your trying to sell it to locals who are not able to really follow the
regular season and so have not built up any serious following.  Besides
which, LA remains a basketball town.  As for the tourists, what kind of
campaign would Disney run?  I maintain that for most of the people planning a
trip to Southern California, a hockey tournament is not going to be a huge
added bonus.  They're going out there to do things that they can't do at
home.  Remember, most of the people who attend college hockey games do not do
it with the same devotion that those of us on the list do.  I know a number
of fans, and not a one of them has expressed any interest in travelling to
the Final Four, wherever it's held.  Sure, when I'm headed for the airport,
they say that the trip sounds like fun.  They don't ever take any steps to do
it themselves, though.
 
Two, why would Disney go to any great lengths to promote it?  What's in it
for them?  This isn't like the Olympics, which have so much name recognition
that sponsors drool over the right to slap the logo on their products (though
I'm not convinced that even that is worth the money they pay for it).  It's
not like the Ducks, where they own the team and can crank out merchandise to
sell for their own profit.  How is this going to make money for Disney?  It
won't boost the overall market for hockey; if that's going to happen, they
can do it with the Ducks alone. Maybe they draw fans to town who also
purchase tickets to Disneyland; it better be a whole lot of them to pay off a
multi-city ad campaign.
>
>4.  Paul Kariya won the Lady Byng trophy this year, the Hobey Baker while
>in college. Is Kariya the promotional tool the Mouse would absolutely use
>as their "ambassador" to that year's games ?   Is it entirely out of the
>question that the Ducks could be a contender in 1998-99 when you consider
>the Florida Panthers rise this year ?  Remember, they don't have to win the
>Cup, just contend.
 
Is it entirely out of the question? No.  Is it likely?  I don't know yet.
 But pointing at the Panthers doesn't say much.  They are an extreme
statistical outlier.  Look at the history of expansion teams in general and
decide which is a better guide for the likely performance of a given team.
 
J. Michael Jackson
 
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