Cutler, Ken wrote:
 
> Eeyore you are dead wrong.  Yes, hockey is dying in the city schools just
> like most sports (other than basketball) are dying in the city schools.
> But, to say that Edina, for example, doesn't support high school hockey is
> crazy.  Go to one of the Edina games.  They are well attended (and full of
> old Edina players) although perhaps like all HS events not nearly as well
> attended as before TV inundated us with 8 basketball games each weekend day.
> (My old Illinois HS used to fill a 6,000 seat arena for HS basketball on
> weekends, but no more). And actually a lot of people read the Edina
> Sun-Current if for no other reason than to see their kids or friends kids
> names in the paper.
 
And not a single thing you've said here contradicts any of my statement.
Everyone you've listed as following Edina hockey has a direct connection to the
team: former team members and family and friends of current team members.  The
size of the suburban high schools is enough that you can get good game
attendance off of just these, plus some current students.  But to be a community
event in the sense that was being discussed, you have to have general townsfolk
there as well.  How many people who attended Edina high school fifteen years ago
and don't have kids there are attending?  How about participation by the hordes
of Edina residents who have moved there since they graduated from high school
somewhere else?  If *these* sorts of people are following Edina hockey, then you
have a town event.
 
J. Michael Neal
 
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