[log in to unmask] writes:
+
+ The only potential downside is that with the increased coverage of games via
+ TV - it's not uncommon to watch a Northeastern-Providence game midweek where
+ there's only about 1500 people in the stands. I don't know what it is, but
+ ECAC games still tend to fill closer to capacity for all games. Perhaps the
+ local community (non students) don't attend if they can just sit at home and
+ watch.
 
  I'm not so sure you can generalize the cause and effect like that.
For one thing, there are very few college students that can afford to
get the cable and pay for NESN to watch the games.  For another, the
games themselves would be cheaper, in general, than the cable deal.  At
least that is the case with the BU games, since as a student you can
get the sports pass which can get you into all of the games for all of
their teams for less than $50.  [Was $26 when I was student, not sure
of the exact price now. :)]
 
  Actually, 1500 people attending an NU-Providence game in the middle
of the week is a pretty good turnout.  Providence hasn't drawn over the
last few years like it used to, and Northeastern is a commuter school,
with very few of the students actually living near their campus.
Whenever BU plays at NU, BU's road crowd is a major portion of the
total attendence, and I've been to a few games where there were more BU
fans than NU fans.  It was nice to see that there were more NU fans at
the games last year, though, as they did get increased support as there
team played better.
 
  Also, if you are talking about a BU-Maine game, chances are that NESN
would be the only way to watch the game for many, since the tickets
would be sold out.  It's nice that I can go into local bars to watch
the game on cable if I was unable to get a ticket or make the trip up
to Orono.
 
  I would actually argue that NESN increases attendence by making
people more interested in the teams and more likely to attend the
games.  After all, isn't that the point?  I know of a few people that
had't seen a game live in years, but because they were able to keep
track of BU on NESN decided to head out to watch a game at the end of
the season.  BU's playing well was a factor, I'm sure, though.
 
adam
BU '89