{"id":58409,"date":"2014-04-05T16:40:52","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T21:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=58409"},"modified":"2020-08-24T19:33:51","modified_gmt":"2020-08-25T00:33:51","slug":"commentary-regional-attendance-improves-but-its-still-time-to-try-something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2014\/04\/05\/commentary-regional-attendance-improves-but-its-still-time-to-try-something-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Regional attendance improves, but it’s still time to try something new"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The West Regional in St. Paul, Minn., involving local draws Minnesota and St. Cloud State had a two-day attendance of 18,125, leaving about half of the Xcel Energy Center empty (photo: Jim Rosvold).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The formula is simple: uncommon opponents, neutral sites, national television audience and a propensity for unpredictable results. Only, it’s not basketball. It’s March Madness, college hockey style.<\/p>\n

As per usual, the NCAA men’s ice hockey tournament’s opening weekend took place across four neutral regional venues last week, mimicking the men’s basketball regional format.<\/p>\n

However, one major concern facing this year’s tournament was a recent downturn in attendance. According to official box scores filed to collegehockeystats.net<\/a>, a total of 37,321 fans passed through turnstiles in four regional sites in 2013, the lowest total in the 11-year history of the 16-team format.<\/p>\n

Happily, the tournament rebounded this year with total attendance of 54,416, aided by juicier matchups closer to home venues, with Massachusetts-Lowell, Boston College, Minnesota, St. Cloud State, Quinnipiac and Providence all within about an hour’s drive of each venue.<\/p>\n

Since peaking in 2006 at 64,527, total regional attendance has been virtually flat or has declined in most years. While 2014 bucked the trend, the figures have become increasingly worrisome to the college hockey community.<\/p>\n

While the NCAA and its men’s ice hockey committee have resolved to consider all options over the next two years, it’s increasingly apparent that some kind of shakeup is required.<\/p>\n

Returning to campus sites has long been discussed but hardly makes sense in the context of a format that uses predetermined venues.<\/p>\n

For all that the ideal of a truly neutral-site tournament may hold, the tournament has been straddling the home-ice line for years, giving guaranteed close-to-home games to host schools if they make the field of 16, regardless of seed.<\/p>\n

So instead of an unfair home-ice advantage, why not reward higher seeds with home games in the first round, as was the case before 1992?<\/p>\n

One option is the lacrosse model: campus sites in the first round and neutral sites for the second round. That might address some of the tournament’s ills.<\/p>\n

It would inject a dash of atmosphere into first-round games, reward teams who finish in the top eight of the PairWise Rankings and (by adding another weekend of play to the tournament) keep momentum going strong all the way through the Frozen Four.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are questions. Where would you host the regional finals? How would TV be impacted? Would the coaches go along with it? Would small arenas even have the resources available to host a tournament game? How would you avoid bumping into the basketball Final Four?<\/p>\n

The Western problem<\/h4>\n

For that first question, it’s important to note the tournament’s particularly acute trouble in the West and Midwest.<\/p>\n

Since 2009, outside of St. Paul, Minn., an average of 3,780 patrons attended a regional session in the West and Midwest. During that time, venues included Grand Rapids, Mich.; Green Bay, Wis.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; St. Louis; and Toledo, Ohio.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati, drawing an average of roughly 5,500 last weekend, was actually the most well-attended Midwest regional since 2008, when Wisconsin hosted at the Kohl Center. It was certainly a vast improvement from 2013 in Grand Rapids, when a paltry 1,918 fans saw Yale complete its improbable run to the Frozen Four by defeating North Dakota in the regional championship.<\/p>\n

The average of 2,104 across two days in Grand Rapids was the lowest for any venue in the history of the 16-team tournament format, which started in 2003.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t always this way: Between 2003 and 2008, West\/Midwest neutral-site regionals (excluding St. Paul) drew an average of 6,649 per session, virtually equal to crowds in the East.<\/p>\n