Steve Twombly writes:
 
> HAHAHAH...yeah, sounds like a great idea to me...but you have to understand
> this school....1)  The scholl wouldn't spent a couple bucks for that
> 2) Fans STILL wouldn't be all that numerous...support sucks here for local
> teams....my high school girls basketball teams(Haverhill) get more of a
> following than LOwell..sad huh?
 
I'll have to disagree to some extent.  I agree that a very small number of
students support the team.  This is for two reasons:
 
        1) It's not a huge school, certainly not compared to other hockey
           powers in the region.
 
        2) Even for its size, on a percentage basis comparatively few students
           support the team.
 
IMO the key problem is that Tully Forum is 6 miles from the main campus.  I'm
not sure if any other Division 1 school faces this problem, but I think it
goes a long way towards explaining the student attendance problem.  As a
result, a much larger percentage of the fans come from the community.  I'll use
myself as an example.  I have never attended UML, nor do I have any ties to
UML.  I got involved because my son plays on the Jr. Chiefs, which practices
immediately after the "Big Chiefs".  As a result of the Youngstars program,
a *wonderful* program that kids pay $20 for a year, get free admission to all
regular season games, a sweatshirt, four free hockey clinics, plus other stuff
-- in other words, a can't lose promotion -- my son and I got addicted to
Chiefs hockey.  If you look at the UML crowds there is a very high percentage
of young kids and their parents.  This starts to make up for the lack of
student support, but clearly doesn't go all the way.
 
So does support for the team suck?  I think student support sucks, but the
community support is very good.  IMO the only way to fix the student problem
is to have a rink on the campus.
 
What I find amazing, even INCOMPREHENSIBLE, is that now that a new rink is
apparently going to happen, *it might not be put on campus either.*  What I've
heard is that Tsongas and other local politicians are pushing for the rink to
be in downtown Lowell and it'll be owned by the city when the Chiefs aren't
using it.  And supposedly, the school administration is kowtowing to the pols.
My sources for this are *very* shaky, though, and I'd appreciate any inside
scoop that anyone has.
 
But IMO if a new rink goes up off-campus, the same problem will remain.  I
don't see why Umass-Ameherst should get a state-of-the-art rink on campus
while UML gets hoodwinked by the pols.
 
I *am* proud of the community support of the Chiefs.
 
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