BG ties vs. UConn on Sat.

[Falcon Fanatic]

On a side note, I haven't met Coach Bergeron just yet but from everything I hear about him I can't help but get increasingly happy about this hire. Great recruiter, great coach, great guy = BG success VERY soon.

There was a "Hockey 101" chalk talk event with Coach Bergeron before the Saturday game. I didn't get back into town early enough to attend, but heard it was a good Q and A session. I also heard that he will be doing them again. If I get info about it, I'll pass it along here!
(I didn't know about the first one until late on Friday when someone mentioned they had gotten an email about it. I hope to be on that email list soon... )

GO FALCON ICERS!!
SWEEEEP THE CHARGERS!!!

[pdt1081]

musicman - didn't know it was fall break that explains the student section. Still sad to only get 1300 people.

Friday games won't be a good draw until football is over. As nice of a day as it was Saturday, it's easy to understand why the general population didn't come out. Two weekends on the road then we host Notre Drama. If we don't get close to a full house that weekend, then start worrying.

[falcons86]

Saturday night re-cap. Falcons came out of the gate slow...UCONN has some very good skaters and a very solid goaltender. But I love the fact that the boys got it together in the 2nd and fought hard the rest of the way. They're very young...they will only get better. Both seniors weren't even in the lineup on Saturday night. Garrett Bartus, UCONN's goalie, plays very good positional hockey. Not taking anything away from Hammy, it was just one of those nights. Very soon, this team won't tie or lose these games. Congrat's to Dan DeSalvo on getting his first collegiate goal, our other goal scorers were Cam Wojtala, Bryce Williamson, and Bobby Shea. I don't know if anybody else noticed, but Marcus Perrier (6-1, 225) has an absolute bomb from the blueline. Haven't seen that in quite awhile. Here's the telling stat about how good UCONN's goalie was, we outshot them thru the OT, 44-15, (for the weekend, we outshot them 83-36) and that was with 16 freshmen and sophomores in the lineup. Another thing I noticed was the guys aren't getting knocked off the puck in the corners like in years past...a good sign. Is this the best we're going to be? Not even close. Could we have done things better? Absolutely. Are the boys going to learn from this? Of course. I'm sure they guys aren't happy with the outcome last night, and hopefully that feeling carries over to the Huntsville series. Bring your friends, family, acquaintences, everybody, to the Ice Arena this year and be a witness to the re-birth of Falcon hockey. It's going to be a fun ride, and YOU should be there to see it.

Jim and Cookie

GO FALCONS!

NEVER GIVE UP!
NEVER SURRENDER!

[unfalconbelievable]

Interesting conversation I had with someone tied to Falcon Hockey and the athletic department between periods on saturday night.

Currently there is an NCAA hockey policy that if a new league is formed that they will be on "probationary" status for the first year, the most interesting part was what he told me next, new leagues while on the probationary status leagues DO NOT get automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. However, he thought money and pressure from a number of schools effected by the new league creations (NCHC & Big Ten) the NCAA might be hard pressed to hold the policy.

[Falcon Fanatic]

Interesting conversation I had with someone tied to Falcon Hockey and the athletic department between periods on saturday night.

Currently there is an NCAA hockey policy that if a new league is formed that they will be on "probationary" status for the first year, the most interesting part was what he told me next, new leagues while on the probationary status leagues DO NOT get automatic bids to the NCAA tournament. However, he thought money and pressure from a number of schools effected by the new league creations (NCHC & Big Ten) the NCAA might be hard pressed to hold the policy.

Wow, that i$ VERY intere$ting info!! Thank$ for $that! I am $ure that ca$h will do the talking...like it alway$ doe$ for the big ten...

[Freddie]

I am so sorry......we were in Kalamazoo to watch that fiasco! Not many BG fans there either other than parents. I think GC has PO'd many more fans than some on this board think, with this whole athletic program. It wasn't long ago we would have a great following on a beautiful day at WMU.

Dont blame GC for this...everybody knows its Obama's fault.

[musicman2343]

Dont blame GC for this...everybody knows its Obama's fault.

Why do I feel another thread stemming from this.....

[bgsufalcon24]

Do not blame GC for people not going to WMU to watch that football game. A few years ago we put a winning product on the field... a few years ago gas wasn't consistently above $3.00... in all my years being here traveling with the football team, the only places that we had a good following were Toledo, Miami, and maybe EMU... aside from going to the big name places like Pittsburgh or the game we hosted at Cleveland our fans don't travel that well... I have witnessed it with my own eyes

There's definitely been a dropoff in recent years. In the early years of my time at BGSU, BG and Toledo fans were vying with one another for title of Pittsburgh Steelers of the MAC. Many games that I went to in conference, Kent State and Miami in 2005, Central Michigan in 2006, Eastern Michigan in 2007, Akron in 2008, etc, all had rather large contigents of BG fans present, and some of these games were on weeknights in November when it was cold and nasty!

We just had much bigger attendance back then across the board, football, hockey, women's basketball, etc. Men's basketball was the only exception and that's because that program was suffering bad at the end of the Dakich era.

Drawing just 1300 a game on opening weekend in hockey is a bad sign...just like football only drawing 15k on a beautiful warm sunny day in September is a bad sign too.

[BGDrew]

Win and the fans will come back.

[pdt1081]

Drawing just 1300 a game on opening weekend in hockey is a bad sign...just like football only drawing 15k on a beautiful warm sunny day in September is a bad sign too.

It would be interesting to see what opening night attendances look like over the years. My bet would be not too far from average.

[jpfalcon09]

Do not blame GC for people not going to WMU to watch that football game. A few years ago we put a winning product on the field... a few years ago gas wasn't consistently above $3.00... in all my years being here traveling with the football team, the only places that we had a good following were Toledo, Miami, and maybe EMU... aside from going to the big name places like Pittsburgh or the game we hosted at Cleveland our fans don't travel that well... I have witnessed it with my own eyes

There's definitely been a dropoff in recent years. In the early years of my time at BGSU, BG and Toledo fans were vying with one another for title of Pittsburgh Steelers of the MAC. Many games that I went to in conference, Kent State and Miami in 2005, Central Michigan in 2006, Eastern Michigan in 2007, Akron in 2008, etc, all had rather large contigents of BG fans present, and some of these games were on weeknights in November when it was cold and nasty!

We just had much bigger attendance back then across the board, football, hockey, women's basketball, etc. Men's basketball was the only exception and that's because that program was suffering bad at the end of the Dakich era.

Drawing just 1300 a game on opening weekend in hockey is a bad sign...just like football only drawing 15k on a beautiful warm sunny day in September is a bad sign too.

A lot of damage has been done to the football and hockey programs and we're just now finally seeing some positive things happen. Its no secret how much Paluch set back the hockey program and the same with GB in football. The fans see that, fair weather or hardcore and it affects decisions on spending money to go and see a team play. Its no different than a crappy pro team...fans aren't gonna show up if the product is mediocre and the play is inconsistent. As Drew said, win and they will come back, and in another year or two we will be at that point.

[rood]

Drawing just 1300 a game on opening weekend in hockey is a bad sign...just like football only drawing 15k on a beautiful warm sunny day in September is a bad sign too.

It would be interesting to see what opening night attendances look like over the years. My bet would be not too far from average.

Attendance figures are roughly averaged for the two game series:

2010 vs Michigan - 1650
2009 vs Providence - 1750
2008 vs RIT/Niagara - 1050
2007 vs Notre Dame - 2424 (single Tuesday night game)
2006 vs Uconn/UAH - 1875
2005 vs Merrimack/Boston College - 2400
2004 vs LSSU - 1400

I could go on but I think I've proved your point for you. 2005 saw 1800 for Merrimack and 3000 for BC so that's a bit of an anomaly. Also, 2008 was Paluch's last year and all of these games were later in October than this year's games (sometimes as late as the last weekend of October).

Some people need to drop their Chicken Little routine.

[Falcon1970]

Hard to imagine for many considering the current number of seats in the arena. Which is some where near what 5000. But back in the 70 we were consistently averaging 2400. Which was a lot. Near capacity every night, and there were lots of sell outs. Now with those numbers the place looks empty. Not nearly as much a black hole as the Schottenstein arena.

[unfalconbelievable]

Drawing just 1300 a game on opening weekend in hockey is a bad sign...just like football only drawing 15k on a beautiful warm sunny day in September is a bad sign too

Agreed 100%


Though I heard the Athletic Department Head of Marketing on ESPN radio 106.5 the other day and was absolutely blown away when he said "good turn outs for this past weekends hockey games" then continued on about falcon athletics. WOW.........if thats a good turn out then our athletic department isn't looking at hockey as a revenue sport anymore. I'll buy that it was 80 degrees both days and students were on fall break, but to considered that a good draw for fans, seriously lets not set the bar to high because we might be disappointed. Part of having a winning program is disappointment because no matter how good you are your hearts going to be broke with a tough loss that ends your season from time to time. To openly accept 2,500 fans total for opening weekend is unacceptable in my book, as a falcon club member and as a season ticket holder for many years. I hope this guy is volunteering because if the athletic department is paying him minimum wage we aren't getting our moneys worth.

[BGFan]

Uconn is not a "talented team." They do not even give athletic scholarships for ice hockey. I agree that it was good they fought back, but bottom line these games were scheduled to get wins. Tying that team isn't a positive performance.

FWIW, INCH had UConn ranked 38th and BGSU ranked 53rd out the the 58 Division 1 teams just prior to last weekend's games. BGSU outplayed UConn for the large majority of the weekend. Hammy and the D struggled Saturday night and we ended in a tie. In prior years, being down 2-0 after 1 period this team would have packed it in. This is a different team.