Winds of change

BGFan · Post by **BGFan** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:52 am

For those of you bemoaning the attendance at the hockey games you only need to look at the statistics to realize that changes are happening. One striking statistic is attendance verses the basketball team. Here are the statistics for the last 5 seasons (including the current season) for basketball and hockey:

-- Date -- Hockey - Basketball
'01 - '02 -- 2345 ---- 3545
'02 - '03 -- 1838 ---- 2684
'03 - '04 -- 2207 ---- 2498
'04 - '05 -- 2671 ---- 2451
'05 - '06 -- 2715 ---- 1614

The one that surprised me was '01 - '02. I guess a lot of the die hard fans hadn't given up yet on the hockey team.

Back in the eighties the hockey team constantly outdrew the basketball team (much to the chagrine of many BB fans). While I believe it's still possible for the basketball team to outdraw the hockey team right now, it won't happen unless the basketball team starts winning. This town is fickle and has a band wagon type attitude when it comes to sports. As long as we're winning they'll come. The '01 - '02 season shows me that the hockey fans are less so and it took a long time for some of them to give up on the team. As such, it won't take long to get the arena rocking again on a regular basis. The OSU and UM games are a good start (I believe that had the students been back for the OSU game we would have seen a similar attendance figure as the UM game).

Hockey is slowly coming back to dominance as the winter sport of choice in BG!

ffejfalcon · Post by **ffejfalcon** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:00 am

That's fine with me. I love all the BG athletic teams but I am a HUGE hockey fan and can't wait to see us competing for a national title in hockey again....real soon.....

BGFan · Post by **BGFan** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:27 am

I'd like to further qualify this as NOT being a jab against the BB program. I've never been a huge round ball fan but that doesn't mean that I want the program to fail. I would be ecstatic if the program was succeeding right now and the attendance was overflowing!

What I would really like is for both programs to be succeeding right now and be at the top of their respective leagues. But hockey is my winter sport of choice and it's always been fun to see how it competes with the BB program in terms of attendance.

Here's to seeing both programs return to prominance!

The Niz · Post by **The Niz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:51 am

There's nothing like the adrenaline you get from being part of the home crowd in a packed house like last Saturday against UM, and the week before at Anderson against UT. Those were two great games the the fans were really into from start to finish. If we had attendance like that every game for both sports life would be good. Its no big secret that the home crowd gives our boys an extra edge when we're out in full force! Michigan found that out the hard way, and hopefully we can show every team that skates on our ice the rest of the season the same thing.

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:54 pm

Nothing beats the electricity in a packed arena when the light goes on.

The Niz · Post by **The Niz** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 8:32 pm

I just heard that there is some huge Greek deal going on next weekend where all the Greeks on Campus are competeing to see who can get the best attendance from their own fraternity/sorority at the hockey. Should mean another big night for us!

Rightupinthere · Post by **Rightupinthere** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 9:23 pm

The Niz wrote:I just heard that there is some huge Greek deal going on next weekend where all the Greeks on Campus are competeing to see who can get the best attendance from their own fraternity/sorority at the hockey. Should mean another big night for us!

No better way to start cleaning things up and to reintroduce some traditions.

Perhaps a quick Section A Screamer for the Geek folks?

FreddieandFrieda · Post by **FreddieandFrieda** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 10:10 pm

The Greek Night *should* be on Feb. 17th vs. ND, but I am not totally certain of that just yet.

Will keep you posted

Freddie

bgsufalcon24 · Post by **bgsufalcon24** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 12:26 am

FreddieandFrieda wrote:The Greek Night *should* be on Feb. 17th vs. ND, but I am not totally certain of that just yet.

Will keep you posted

Freddie

If anything, the February 4 game vs RIT doesn't mean much, that's not the night we should have masses of students. The games against Notre Dame on the 17th and 18th, then the Miami game on the 26th loom much larger, and those should be packed.

rc_ziggy84 · Post by **rc_ziggy84** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:18 am

BGDrew wrote:Nothing beats the electricity in a packed arena when the light goes on.

Amen brother.

pdt1081 · Post by **pdt1081** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:34 am

bgsufalcon24 wrote:
FreddieandFrieda wrote:The Greek Night *should* be on Feb. 17th vs. ND, but I am not totally certain of that just yet.

Will keep you posted

Freddie
If anything, the February 4 game vs RIT doesn't mean much, that's not the night we should have masses of students. The games against Notre Dame on the 17th and 18th, then the Miami game on the 26th loom much larger, and those should be packed.

A nice loud crowd for Wilson and Hill's homecoming would still be nice though...

The Niz · Post by **The Niz** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:22 am

Originally posted by FreddieandFrieda:
The Greek Night *should* be on Feb. 17th vs. ND, but I am not totally certain of that just yet.

Will keep you posted

Freddie

I think the date was determined a long time ago, and I don't think they were going for the idea of showing up for an important game (don't ask me why, that's just how backwards greek life is). I'm hoping that a big howing on the fourth might get a lot more people exposure to how exciting the ice arena is, and maybe then we won't need big special events to draw fans, Then they'll just want to come out of pride and having a great time!

transfer2BGSU · Post by **transfer2BGSU** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:36 am

Paluch had a comment in yesterdays Sentinel that gave the crowd a lot of credit for what happened Saturday evening.

The blurb was about how the Ice Arena last Saturday night resembled the Ice Arena in the 80's. Paluch stated something about knowing it was going to be a great night based upon how the crowd reacted during player introductions (if I recall the article correctly).

Freddie · Post by **Freddie** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:30 am

FreddieandFrieda wrote:The Greek Night *should* be on Feb. 17th vs. ND, but I am not totally certain of that just yet.

Will keep you posted

Freddie

If you continue to sign my 'registered user' name to your posts, I will have no choice other than to report you to the forum administrator.

The Niz · Post by **The Niz** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:07 am

sorry, I did the quote thing wrong I guess