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]