Kurt Stutt <[log in to unmask]> writes:
 
<lots of interesting facts deleted>
 
> The bottom line is this:  Getting a successful college hockey team in
> NYC is an incredibly difficult task because the local populace is far
> more geared to watching professional sports than probably anywhere
> else.  No great college following has been fostered there for two
> generations.  Instead, parents take their children to Knicks, Rangers,
> Islanders, etc. games or watch those games on television, thereby
> breeding more professional fans.
 
Kurt makes an excellent point here.  I too am from the New York area and I
am a Clarkson alum.  The realization of the above really dawned on me
during my freshman year in Potsdam.  A group of friends and I (there were
about 10 of us) all went to Pizza Hut one weekend for dinner.  We were sitting
eating dinner when a small boy came up to us - about 7 or 8 years old - and
said "Are any of you guys hockey players?"  He had a piece of paper and a pen
in his hands.  After we responded "No" he asked "How about basketball players?"
(For those who don't know - Potsdam College had a really good Div III hoop
team and at one time had the record for longest win streak).  We responded no
again and the poor kid walked away looking awfully dejected.  I, being from
New York, said to my friends "For crying out loud - it's just college sports -
it's not like they're pros or anything."  to which all my friends responded
"Yeah Mike, but to people up here - the college teams are the pros."  Wow -
what a snob I was - to me the pros were all that really existed.  What was a
college athlete?  I have since learned... :-)
 
After graduation I moved to the Boston area.  And behold!  They follow college
athletics here too!  Here's a city that has professional sports steeped in
tradition and excellence - except maybe the Red Sox :-)  But they give a damn
about the college teams - locally mostly - but also nationally.
 
So I guess what I am saying here is that I agree with the statement that
infiltrating the NY area would be a formidable task - especially with three
local pro hockey teams - each with incredibly large and loyal fan bases.
 
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Mike Kahn                       "I swear by my life and my love of it, that I
Xyplex Inc.                      will never live for the sake of another man,
Littleton, MA                    nor ask another man to live for mine."
e-mail: [log in to unmask]         -John Galt et al
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