My sister lives in Irvine and more than half of the people out in that
part of California are transplanted Midwesterners.  Could be better
attended than you think
 
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Cathy Smith                                      Go Lake State Lakers!
Walker Cisler Center
Lake Superior State Univ.                        Go #18  Bobby Labonte
Sault Ste. Marie, MI                             Interstate Batteries Chevy
 
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On Wed, 19 Jun 1996, J. Michael Jackson wrote:
 
> On the specific issue of having the Phinal Phour in Anaheim, I think that
> it's going to be an attendance disaster.  College hockey isn't going to
> create a whole bunch of new fans in the area with three games in three days.
>  There isn't a large fan base there to begin with.  While those of us on the
> list sound as if we're going to be there in abundance (I will be), we aren't
> exactly a representative sample of the college hockey fan base.  I don't
> think that there will be a huge number of people who plan there whole
> vacation structure around going to Southern California for a hockey
> tournament.
>
> Besides which, the Phinal Phour only draws really big crowds for a team that
> is almost local, in particular folks who show up on Saturday after their team
> has won the semis.  We had the Maize and Blue river that poured down I75, the
> BU fans in Providence and so forth.  I had a lot of trouble unloading an
> extra pair of seats I had picked up in St. Paul two years ago, and that was
> with the Gophers in the event, but not thought likely to win the first game.
>
> In general, I think a lot of people are jumping to the conclusion that hockey
> is really going to take off.  There was a previous expansion of the NHL into
> the south (the Atlanta Flames, anyone?) and it didn't last.  Already, the LA
> Kings have had trouble getting fans into the building, even before they
> traded away Gretzky.  Before people talk about how the Cup Finals in Miami
> will help build a fan base, remember that they had one of those in LA, too.
>
> This will be exacerbated by the Gary Bettman/NBA approach to building the
> game.  I'm afraid that what he ends up with are fans interested in the
> spectacle but not as much into hockey, per se.  Beyond having aesthetic
> qualms about the arena filling up these kinds of fans, I don't suspect that
> they are they most loyal bunch.  The NBA is starting to experience some of
> this, and it has a larger natural base (far more people play youth and pickup
> basketball than play hockey) than hockey does.
>
> So, I don't think that college hockey ought to put too many eggs in the
> basket of extending it's regional support.  And I certainly think that those
> of us trying to get tickets in Milwaukee for next year ought to be given
> priority if we agree to buy tickets for Anaheim.
>
> J. Michael Jackson
>
> HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
> [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
>
 
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