This article, from Monday's Milwaukee Sentinel, caught my attention.
It talks about the just-concluded championships, the $$ that the NC$$
will probably get as a result, and the possiblity of the Phinal Phour
returning here in the near future.
 
I'll confess to some local pride in relaying this to the rest of the
list, but I think that it is of interest to hockey fans everywhere.
Hopefully the sport can build on this weekend's success and move
further into the mainstream.
 
== begin quoted material ==
College hockey comes of age
by Michael Hunt
 
For more than four decades the sport cried for attention.  It took
only a weekend in Milwaukee to place it on a larger stage.
 
"College hockey has come of age," Maine Coach Shawn Walsh said.
 
Based on the tremendous success of the Final Four at the Bradley
Center, who can argue?
 
An NCAA record three-day crowd of 52,553 watched a tournament that
culminated in Maine's thrilling 5-4 victory over Lake Superior
State in Saturday night's championship game.
 
And by all accounts, the show put on by the University of
Wisconsin, the city [of Milwaukee], Hockey Wisconsin and the
Bradley Center was the best in the 46-year history of the
tournament.
 
Impressive enough, say NCAA officials, that Milwaukee could get
the showcase 1997 tournament, which will commemorate college
hockey's 50th anniversary.
 
"I think the committee is going to pay extra special attention to
that," the NCAA's Ted Breidenthal said.  "I think they'd like to
have it in a place befitting the 50th anniversary.  I hope the
people of Milwaukee are going to pursue it.  It would be a lot of
fun to come back here in 1997."
 
"The University of Wisconsin and the city of Milwaukee put on an
outstanding championship," said Phil Buttafuoco, the NCAA's
assistant director of championships.  "The people who were here saw
and felt the first-class attitude of the people of Milwaukee and
the Bradley Center.  It was an outstanding weekend."
 
A financial success, the tournament will provide the NCAA a minimum
of $400,000, and possibly as much as $800,000, when profits are
divided this week.  UW and its partners will realize about
$200,000, making it almost a break-even affair, after expenses, for
the sponsors.
 
UW decided to take on the project largely for the good of college
hockey.  The nature of the championship game and the overwhelming
reaction of a near-capacity crowd was the payoff.
 
"If you can't sell college hockey to anyone after a game like that,
you're not going to sell it," UW Coach Jeff Sauer said.
 
Most of the tournament's success was attributed to Joel Maturi, a
UW associate athletic director who also invested hundreds of
outside hours as the tournament director.
 
"All of our internal people did a great job," Sauer said.  "The
people behind the scenes really made the thing work.  You've got to
compliment them.  The Bradley Center and their staff made it happen.
That's the difference in this tournament and every other tournament
I've been to.
 
"We all sat down when we knew we had the bid (four years ago) to
take the bad from all the other tournaments and turn it into a
positive.  I think that's what we were able to do."
 
Compared to last year's problematic event at Albany, N.Y., the
Milwaukee tournament was virtually error free.  "There were no
problems at all," Buttafuoco said.  "The people here were
excellent."
== end quoted material ==
 
--
Steve Manning         Milwaukee, WI           [log in to unmask]