Count me among those who vote a resounding "NO!" for continuation of
the neutral-ice regional format for the NC$$ tournament.  Just as
others have noted, the result has been very poor attendance and
a terrible disservice to fans in the participating teams' areas who
have been denied televison coverage.  As Mike or someone noted earlier,
for the distances involved for all the fans in the West, with the
exception of Michgan's, either you're going to make the huge effort
to cover many hundreds of miles to get to Detroit, or you're not--the
presence or lack of TV coverage has nothing do with your decision.
True, Sunday's second round game between Michigan and Northern Michigan
will have a decent crowd due to the closeness of Ann Arbor (and one
can hope the fans will come early to see the Lake Superior-Minnesota
clash also).  But a 200-300 mile blackout radius would have been more
than sufficient to guarantee the presence of whatever Wolverine fans
might attend in person, and still allow the Gopher and Wildcat followers
to watch if they couldn't afford the time and/or money to make the trip
(and, as others have noted, would have provided some much-needed
exposure for college hockey!).
 
I don't think the "fairness" of the "neutral" ice (remember Joe Louis
is 25 miles from Ann Arbor, anyway) is worth the incredible diminution
of attendance, fan support, and overall exposure which was sacrificed
to go to this format.  I bet the hockey committee hears a lot about
this during the off season.
 
Mindbender of the week:  How did the NC$$ authorities figure out that
it is OK to telecast to Anchorage, but not to Minneapolis or Marquette?
I'd bet a lot that the air fares between these three cities and
Detroit are pretty comparable (at least on supersavers) and believe me,
neither the Twin Cities nor Marquette are anywhere nearly close enough
to Detroit to make tempting the drive when it's suddenly announced
there will be no TV coverage.   (As I noted in a private message to
Brian F. earlier, we're 535 miles from Detroit by land, and I would
guess Minneapolis is about the same.)
 
Bah, humbug, etc.!
 
                      ***********************************
                     *      Steve Christopher, NMU       *
                    *  "Go 'Cats!''Going for two in '92!" *
                    *      1992 WCHA Playoff Champions    *
                     *        [log in to unmask]         *
                      ***********************************