On Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:21:06 -0500, Miller-Mackinnon <miller-
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I always thought Mercyhurst should throw in a bid with the folks at Hershey
>for the East Regional.  Great arena with a fan base deep enough to draw the
>required 5-7K curious Hershey Bears season ticket holders.  Within New
>England and most ECACHL schools driving distance, so could potentially fill
>the barn.

I would be happy to see Mercyhurst sponsor a regional, but the problem with 
this scenario is that it is a 7-hour drive from Erie to Hershey.  It would 
make more sense for Mercyhurst to sponsor a regional in Buffalo or 
Pittsburgh or Cleveland, all of which are within a 3-hour drive of Erie (or 
Erie itself!  Wouldn't the hockey fans love that!! :-)) )  Mercyhurst is no 
closer to Hershey than, say, RPI or Union.  The precedent of long-distance 
hosting of a site has been set, of course, with UAA the host of the Frozen 
Four in Anaheim probably the most extreme case.  The hosts do have to 
supply support for logistics, organization, media services, etc., and it 
seems that smaller schools don't have the athletic department staff to 
support this in most cases.  (A few schools make the special effort, but 
most D-II schools aren't that motivated.  Mercyhurst is D-II in all but 
hockey, I believe.)

Mostly it seems to come down to motivation.  Schools that want to host make 
the effort and others don't bother.  Boston College doesn't sponsor hockey 
regionals, they will only do basketball.  There is no reason they couldn't 
sponsor, like BU does, and guarantee their location should they make the 
tournament.  But they choose the higher-profile sport for their efforts.