In article <[log in to unmask]>, Matt Wickey <[log in to unmask]> says: > >On Mar 26, 8:42am, Eric Carlson wrote: >> Subject: UIC News and Link to Tribune article >> 7. Administrators may want one high profile sport instead of two mediocre >> ones >>-- End of excerpt from Eric Carlson > >Here's a question: who's to say it's easier to be "high profile" in >basketball than in hockey? There are fewer hockey teams to contend >with, especially when you have an existing program at the Div. I >level. Granted basketball itself is a more "high profile" sport >with a larger fan base and more $$'s in play. But, given the competition >for those dollars, I don't think a university can guarantee a money >making operation simply by "focusing" on the sport. What if UIC chose >to can basketball and focus on hockey? Could they possibly be as >successful monetarily with a top notch hockey program as they would >be with a middle-of-the-pack basketball team? What is worse, Chicago is a great Hockey town and a lowsy basketball town. For the past 2 years their was a CBA team that played in the same facility as UIC. They are leaving town because they could not atract a crowd. By my estimates they were averaging ~1500 per game and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars this year. their are many basketball programs in and around chicago and none of them can atract more than 2500 a game. Even the bulls had trouble filling the stadium until they found michael. When he is jone give it five years an then they will be back to a half empty facility unless they cut ticket prices in half. On the other hand hockey does do well in chicago. Even when the blackhawks were loosing they filled the stadium. The IHL team from day1 did a good job filling the rosemont horizon, capacity ~15,000. Although the statistics that were posted don't show it hockey almost allways outdraws basketball. This year 4 of UIC's games were moved out of chicago to 7 Briges Ice Arena, a facility that if you exceed the safty limit could fit 1500 people. UIC telded to average ~4000 for saterday night games but tended to do poorly on friday nights since all the would bring their kids on saterday. No matter what they do, basketball will not fill the pavilion unless they can solve the student appathy problem. They game t-shirts to students that attended games this year and that did not seem to improve attendance much. Maybe they have to pay them $10 each game! Enough for now, Drepressed webmaster, avrom ________________________________________________________________ Avrom Litin University of Illinois at Chicago [log in to unmask] Department of Chemistry [log in to unmask] Mail Code 111 [log in to unmask] 845 W. Taylor St 72567,[log in to unmask] Chicago IL 60607-7061 http://WWW.uic.edu/sports/hockey - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - OS/2 in '92, Warp in '95 Windows '96 in '98 ________________________________________________________________ HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.