Larry writes:
 
>All those tables took away a lot of court-side seats from the fans.  I'd hate
>to see too more seats used for "non-fan" purposes at the Hockey Championship.
>The writers' tables there were up a ways and rather empty, as I recall...
 
There were way too many media spots, depriving some fans of good seats.
 There were many reasons for this:
 
- Some people requested credentials, but didn't show up
- Some media only stayed for games for a specific team they were covering
- They sat someplace else - which I think was the main reason. Besides
 the seats reserved in the media section, there was the pressbox
 itself, which had the TV and radio crews but additional room for other
 media, as well as the reception and press conference area, which was
 HUGE - it covered almost half of the upper glass-enclosed portion of
 the arena. Since the lunches and press conferences were held there, a
 lot of media just stayed and watched from up there.
 
Or, like me, they decided to sit next to their wife ;)
 
Seriously, we watched the NCAA hoops final, and both commented on the
 size of the media areas - they ran the entire length of court for a
 good 5 rows up - the best seats in the house. There were also reports
 of tickets going for as much as $8,000 - New Jersey temporarily
 removed their scalping limitiation of 20% over face value....perhaps
 because the Governor had about 50 to get rid of? Hmmmmm...
 
 I hope hockey never gets to that point.
 
Chris Lerch
US College Hockey Magazine
 
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