Should Hockey East move away from the traditional Friday/Saturday schedule? (Dan Connolly)

[huskymedic]

 

[SubbaBub]

No, it should honor it more. Any attendance issue has to do with access to tickets.

For UConn that means fewer "season" tickets and more student season tickets.

I would divide the rink roughly into quarters with one quarter being student season tickets, one half for season tickets and one quarter to single game/3 game packages.

 

[SubbaBub]

For TV have more production options and ler local partners carry games more easily. Every UConn home game could be on a local channel, road games too if the production capacity improved.

NESN had one crew that basically stay in Boston with an occasional trip outside 128.

 

[The Viking]

I think your divvying up the seating has merit due to the small size of toscano.

As for scheduling, totally agree with Cav and Leaman they have to scattershot some of the games instead of loading most of them at the exact same date and or time.

I dont want to start the whole argument about rink size again, i guess i understand from a financial situation why they had to do what they did at the time, but its ridiculous that a team that has been at or near the top 10 for much of the year is boa constricting off a ton of their fanbase.

Expand toscano - even if just 500 seats, and add a couple more games to the XL schedule for god sakes.

Imagine Maine vs UConn tonight at the XL. Place would be jumping.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

What was so hard about having bench seating behind the goals for the students on a Friday night? There was your increase in seating capacity.

 

[cellocgg]

they want to "maximize viewership" of a league that is hardly aired in New England lol. How many people are realistically watching the ESPN+ streams?

I wish we could have our home games later in the evening but it's the price we have to pay for hoops

 

[Patman]

absolutely not, friday saturday drives up attendance and you aren't going get tv numbers going unless there's a huge shift in the zeitgeist that challenges college basketball. Worse is these 6PM games I keep seeing that i know lowell has had a lot of. I think that's with attendance because fans are caught by surprised or can't get off work

 

[Viet Vet]

First, the league admits a twelfth team (Quinnipiac the gold standard, Sacred Heart a good choice, please not holy Cross). Then, and I've suggested this before, adopt the Ivy League basketball Friday/Saturday travel pairings. They pair Harvard/Dartmouth, Yale/Brown, Columbia/Cornell, Penn/Princeton. Each league weekend pairs travel to another pair, playing one team on Friday, the other on Saturday. If Yale/Brown are playing Penn/Princeton, then Harvard/Dartmouth are playing Columbia/Cornell. It cuts down on travel and provides continuity year-to-year. They have been doing it this way since I was going to Yale games in the early 1960s.

Whomever HE admits gets paired with UConn (QU, SHU or HC). Other pairs could be BC/BU, PC/NU, Lowell/ Merrimack, Maine/UNH, UMass, UVM.

Currently, for example, UConn travels to BC on a Friday, then back to Storrs for Saturday vs BC. Then another weekend, they travel to BU on Friday, then back to Storrs for Saturday vs BU. Under pairing they travel to Boston once, vs BC on Friday, BU on Saturday.

 

[freescooter]

First, the league admits a twelfth team (Quinnipiac the gold standard, Sacred Heart a good choice, please not holy Cross). Then, and I've suggested this before, adopt the Ivy League basketball Friday/Saturday travel pairings. They pair Harvard/Dartmouth, Yale/Brown, Columbia/Cornell, Penn/Princeton. Each league weekend pairs travel to another pair, playing one team on Friday, the other on Saturday. If Yale/Brown are playing Penn/Princeton, then Harvard/Dartmouth are playing Columbia/Cornell. It cuts down on travel and provides continuity year-to-year. They have been doing it this way since I was going to Yale games in the early 1960s.

Whomever HE admits gets paired with UConn (QU, SHU or HC). Other pairs could be BC/BU, PC/NU, Lowell/ Merrimack, Maine/UNH, UMass, UVM.

Currently, for example, UConn travels to BC on a Friday, then back to Storrs for Saturday vs BC. Then another weekend, they travel to BU on Friday, then back to Storrs for Saturday vs BU. Under pairing they travel to Boston once, vs BC on Friday, BU on Saturday.

I like the travel pairs myself. The ECAC uses it and the NESCAC (D3) does too. So you have 2 home games against different opponents some weeks and 2 road games others. You could add the odd midweek game too if you want with non conference opponents.

I also wish they would let a local tv station carry games at least sometimes if they want. I could see WFSB picking up at least a few games. During COVID when all the games were available I had a couple of friends who became fans. One is in our group now.

 

[zls44]

Likliest team 11 to join the league, ranked by realistic chances:

1. Holy Cross
2. Sacred Heart
3-34. The 32 Current National Hockey League clubs
35. Quinnipiac

The league also will not pair Maine or Vermont with anyone else for a back to back. Too far, too snowy. There’s a reason UConn or Maine’s trips are almost always paired rather than home and homes (this year was an exception since the rotation led to 3 matchups)

 

[Viet Vet]

Likliest team 11 to join the league, ranked by realistic chances:

1. Holy Cross
2. Sacred Heart
3-34. The 32 Current National Hockey League clubs
35. Quinnipiac

The league also will not pair Maine or Vermont with anyone else for a back to back. Too far, too snowy. There’s a reason UConn or Maine’s trips are almost always paired rather than home and homes (this year was an exception since the rotation led to 3 matchups)

According to Google Maps, it takes 3.0 hours to drive from UNH to Maine, 3 hrs and 2 minutes from UMass to UVM. Those pairings are shorter than Columbia/Cornell (3:45).