At 09:23 AM 3/20/2004 -0800, Mark Lewin wrote:
>And I also agree about the atmosphere. Only Clarkson seemed to bring a
>large number of fans. Of course, there are a large number of Clarkson
>Alumni in the area, so that helps. Dartmouth didn't even bring a band.
>As much as I love having the ECAC's in Albany instead of Lake Placid,
>you just can't get a "full house" feeling when you get 5640 fans
>(attendance from the morning T-U) into a rink that holds 14,000. 5640 is
>slightly over the capacity of the RPI Field House but, in the Pepsi,
>that's empty.

And most of that 5640 left after the first game. I honestly thought that it
would have served the ECAC better if they had scheduled Clarkson-Colgate
as the late game, allowing their fans to filter in during Harvard-Dartmouth.
It probably would have felt like a ghost town at the beginning of the first
game, but I think that's better than a ghost town for the entire second game.

>I think they'll take a financial bath this weekend without
>having RPI, Union or Cornell in the tournament. If it weren't for
>Clarkson, it would be even worse. Last year, they didn't fill the arena
>but I think they drew more people than they could have fit in the lake
>Placid arena (mostly due to the Cornell fans). That won't be the case
>this year

They drew more because of the capacity and Cornell making the final. And
they might keep taking a financial bath in the future unless Cornell, RPI,
Union,
Clarkson, and probably Colgate reach the semifinals each year. I won't complain
about the tournament being hosted here (it helps to live 20 minutes away), but
I think Lake Placid is the much better choice.

-Andy