Our TV station had the rights to Minnesota-Duluth hockey from 1990 through this past season. In 1993 when UMD was invited to the West Regional in Detroit, the NCAA would not allow us to televise the games back to Duluth unless 9000 seats at Joe Louis Arena were sold, because they didn't want TV to hurt the gate receipts. This, despite the fact that Duluth is several hundred miles from Detroit, and with the first round on Friday evening, fans travelling on less than a week's notice would have to have left on Thursday and take two days off from work. As a contingency, we put a production crew in Detroit on stand-by and flew in four of our own people in the event enough tickets were sold, but that didn't happen. At least now, three years later, the NCAA's blackout only pertains to a 200 mile radius around the site. But that's small consolation for those fans close to Albany who can't be there.. WDIO-TV Duluth, MN HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.