Holy Cross may join Hockey East and play at DCU Center

[mikelvl]

The only challenge that I see is scheduling the weekend games between the pro team and the college team as both play mostly on weekends. But that is for the schedule makers to sort out regarding arena availability before the season.

Other than that, I don't see how 15 to 20 college hockey games a year is going to impact the livelihood of a pro sports franchise. If it does, then that's a sad commentary.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

The only challenge that I see is scheduling the weekend games between the pro team and the college team as both play mostly on weekends. But that is for the schedule makers to sort out regarding arena availability before the season.

Other than that, I don't see how 15 to 20 college hockey games a year is going to impact the livelihood of a pro sports franchise. If it does, then that's a sad commentary.

I think its the opposite.

35 or so AHL games all/most on weekends will undermine the ability of the college team to try and get some 10k+ crowds into a huge arena. No pro team to compete with is a big reason for the phenomenal success of UML last few years and they sell out every game against a top opponent these days. Not sure that happens if the Lockmonsters are still in Tsongas.


HC could lead the NCAA in attendance if they play well and market the team correctly.

Worcester is definitely a good enough market for that league and should do OK compared to other teams but its still the ECHL name one of our prospects you are interested in following for Gwinnett... Very few players in the NHL right now who have appeared in an ECHL game.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Hockey east was easily the best league last year (or at least 1-6 or so).

Yeah, that is just not true. I know the beating that UNO and No Dak caght in the Garden from PC and BU respectively would make someone expect that but that is just not the case.

Hockey East is still better than the ECAC but the gap is a lot smaller than any Hockey East lover like myself would want to admit. Quinnipiac rolled through Hockey East on the way to losing to North Dakota in the Finals.


#6 in NCHC was UNO who were coming off a Frozen Four that is a lot better than #6 Northeastern. #1 won it all blowing out a QU team that sholdn't have beaten 2 Hockey East teams and they had 2 teams in Frozen Four. Can't really say that UML/Providence/BC were better than St Cloud, Denver, and Duluth when you look at tournament results. The reason the NCHC is better is because there are 2 bottom feeders (CC and W Mich aren't awful programs both better than Umass) where as Hockey East has 6 bad teams no better than the bottom 6 of the ECAC.


No more CHA means out West there is a powerhouse conference and then the Big Ten teams and then the crap all out of the way everyone who belongs in a lower leage like the Metro/AHA is in one so noone good has to waste money travelling to Huntsville or Fairbanks.

I hope the Ivys break away because the ECAC is too close to Hockey East for my liking.


New Leagues:

Ivy
Harvard
Brown
Cornell
Princeton
Dartmouth
Yale


ECAC
Union
SLU
Clarkson
RPI
QU
Colgate
Umass
Uconn


Hockey East

Providence
UML
BC
BU
Northeastern
UVM
Maine
UNH
Merrimack
Holy Cross



PERFECT. ECAC is still top notch with easy travel and lots of good local rivalries a team like Uconn should be playing Yale and QU regularly that move would benefit them big time even if they took it as a blow to their ego. Hockey East gets to be old school again with the same geographic footprint it always had. Western teams made those moves time for the Eastern ones to do the same. Ivys playing 4 games a year against each other would be great for them too really ramp up their rivalries with each other and give fans of those teams 2 separate weekends/shots to see a certain opponent instead of 1.

 

[Speed]

The new ECHL team in Worcester is not happy about this - stay tuned




http://www.telegram.com/sports/20160914/holy-cross-hockey-could-be-moving-to-hockey-east-dcu-center

Railers have yet to comment.

 

[Speed]

No it isn't nonsense when you look at how the Worcester market operates.

Now IF the ECHL team in Worcester becomes a Bruins team that changes the equation but what I am hearing is Manchester is where the Bruins want to wind up.

http://www.wmur.com/sports/monarchs-sold-from-kings-to-boston-owners/41018570

There's zero chance of Worcester becoming Bruins affiliate. For one, Railers owner is building twin rinks in Worcester - taking away business from New England Sports Center (owned by P-Bruins owner).
Plus the Bruins have no idea how to deal with an ECHL affiliate.

No idea what you mean by how the Worcester Market operates. Please explain.

 

[Johnnyduke]

You didn't pay attention to college hockey last year if you can't admit that 1-6 it was the strongest league. Maybe not top to bottom like 1-12 but the top half of the league was tremendous.

 

[Johnnyduke]

Not sure why you are bringing up the Frozen Four from two years ago, i am talking about last year.

 

[Johnnyduke]

And i can say BC was better than duluth and st. cloud last year. BC beat duluth to advance to FF and st. cloud gagged against ferris st.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Not sure why you are bringing up the Frozen Four from two years ago, i am talking about last year.

I brought it up because it was a throwback to when Hockey East was hands down the best conference prior to its dilution and UNH and Maine falling off whist the Western conferences were still somewhat diluted. NCHC is far better top to bottom than any of those conferences were at 8 teams.

We can agreee to disagree but would you argue that the ECAC hasn't closed the gap with Hockey East BIG TIME? Doubt it.

And i can say BC was better than duluth and st. cloud last year. BC beat duluth to advance to FF and st. cloud gagged against ferris st.

Now this is highly flawed.

Doesn't Denver blowing out BU offset St Cloud losing to Ferris?

BC got past Duluth after Duluth took out the defending National Champs in double OT who were the only team that would have beaten No Dak or QU. Then choked against QU. Not sure the Friars beat BC if they didn't ring all those posts against UMD but they would have beaten friggen Quinnipiac even without their best player Jake Walman. Bummed the Friars never got to play overrated QU.

UMD had to play the best team in the tournament the day before while BC played the worst team after RIT with their overrated Hobey winner. BC snuck by Duluth and then embarrassed the conference in a game Hockey East really needed. And now their entire team bailed to play in the AHL when they would have been top dogs in all of college hockey with No Dak and BU.

PC was really good last year better than the National Championship season IMO but they were without their best player I don't consider that a bad loss Walman is amazing we should be trading for him not Shattenkirk.


Its not a huge difference between the two and its very small in terms of the top teams but they have the title and are better right now. Its mainly due to 8 teams vs 12 and not the top dogs head to head. A year ago its the opposite.

 

[Johnnyduke]

I can't argue with you anymore. BC losing 3-2 to quinnipiac while almost tying the game late embarrassed hockey east? You are clueless

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Also I have a perfectly good personal reason to gripe about the quality of Hockey East.

BC and PC only play each other twice this year. There is no home game for PC at Schneider Arena because it has been moved to Fenway. I have to keep my glass seats since I don't think seats that good will ever be available for the next decade (unless they charge more than the rows behind them) but the conference home schedule leaves A LOT to be desired with that game gone.

I actually would be 100% OK with that game being moved to the Dunk despite it making my tickets less valuable fwiw due to tickets being so hard to get b/c its so small which is bad for the casual fanbase that live in/around the city of Providence and likely prefer hoops but am upset about Fenway. Regardless there is only 1 'maquee' home game now it stinks. Trim some of the fat so there are more games against legit teams more often I don't consider Uconn or Umass a Hockey East game those matchups are no more appealing than freakin Bentley.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

I can't argue with you anymore. BC losing 3-2 to quinnipiac while almost tying the game late embarrassed hockey east? You are clueless

That was a little too much and not a good word to use.


But I am very disappointed Hockey East went 0-2 against Quinnipiac in the tournament. Everyone in the league that got a bid would have played No Dak tough in a Championship game. Way too many ECAC Frozen Four appearances recently.

 

[wildthing202]

I think its the opposite.

35 or so AHL games all/most on weekends will undermine the ability of the college team to try and get some 10k+ crowds into a huge arena. No pro team to compete with is a big reason for the phenomenal success of UML last few years and they sell out every game against a top opponent these days. Not sure that happens if the Lockmonsters are still in Tsongas.


HC could lead the NCAA in attendance if they play well and market the team correctly.

Worcester is definitely a good enough market for that league and should do OK compared to other teams but its still the ECHL name one of our prospects you are interested in following for Gwinnett... Very few players in the NHL right now who have appeared in an ECHL game.

It's the ECHL not the NHL. It's going to be interesting how attendance will be between these two as HC improves their standing going to Hockey East while the pro team drops down a level to AA hockey.

Manchester who also did this move dropped almost 1,000 going from 5,621 in their last AHL season to 4,622 in their first ECHL season. Worcester's last AHL season averaged 3,847 you could easily see the team averaging sub-3,000 while they are there especially since there are no other local teams aside from Manchester to help boost the numbers.

Meanwhile Holy Cross moving to Hockey East would be huge as they don't really have any local rivals in AH aside from Bentley in Waltham and AIC in Springfield. Those two would be replaced by 11 New England based teams, most are within a 2 hour drive from Worcester. The fact that they get to play the more popular local teams more on a regular basis with an improved roster would surely increase attendance numbers.

 

[Woo Hockey]

The only challenge that I see is scheduling the weekend games between the pro team and the college team as both play mostly on weekends. But that is for the schedule makers to sort out regarding arena availability before the season.

Other than that, I don't see how 15 to 20 college hockey games a year is going to impact the livelihood of a pro sports franchise. If it does, then that's a sad commentary.

Friday Nights for HC and Saturday / Sunday for the Railers could be a thing.

Even double headers on Saturday could be a thing.

Put into account that you're not playing at home every weekend and you one of the teams could play multiple games during those weekends.

That doesn't look like a hard thing to schedule.

 

[BigBadBruin8]

Friday Nights for HC and Saturday / Sunday for the Railers could be a thing.

Even double headers on Saturday could be a thing.

Put into account that you're not playing at home every weekend and you one of the teams could play multiple games during those weekends.

That doesn't look like a hard thing to schedule.

It presents a challenge, but nothing that cannot be solved.

I'm sure they will be able to work out the scheduling without too much issue.

The Railers are hardly "doomed" if and when the Crusaders make the move up.

 

[Speed]

Possible update:

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Possible update:

Shame. Yeah, I think some weekends ECHL teams play 3 games. With no local rivals other than Manchester all home games will be back to back to back nights due to travel. When HC plays UVM, Maine, or non conference teams not from New England they will need it 2 nights straight. So 4-5 weekends both teams could not overlap and then a lot of weekends where you have to squeeze 1 HE game inbetween 2/3 ECHL games. Add in concerts and no room for both.


ECHL screws over Hockey East and Holy Cross the biggest 'name' the city is home to.

Yay more meaningless games against UConn and Umass and road games I have no desire of attending as a PC fan. Hockey East loses out on a big opportunity to improve academics or at least keep pace for loss of ND which was the best school academically in the conference.

 

[HockeyMomx2]

Haven't read through the whole thread but has anyone looked up the NCAA requirements for DI programs? Pretty sure DI schools have to have their facilities "on campus" and they have to seat up to a certain amount as well. Could be the reason why no one from HC is commenting. There's still a lot of red tape to go through with the NCAA and it may never come to fruition.

 

[Gee Wally]

Haven't read through the whole thread but has anyone looked up the NCAA requirements for DI programs? Pretty sure DI schools have to have their facilities "on campus" and they have to seat up to a certain amount as well. Could be the reason why no one from HC is commenting. There's still a lot of red tape to go through with the NCAA and it may never come to fruition.

I cant find anything but I have my doubts. UMass football went up to D 1 and even though they have McQuirk Stadium on campus they play most of their 'home' games at Gillete in Foxboro.

 

[wildthing202]

http://www.telegram.com/sports/2016...r-railers-holy-cross-hockey-east-plot-futures

It's more about the ECHL team but they give some info on HE future conference schedule with a 24 game conference schedule.

 

[Woo Hockey]

Haven't read through the whole thread but has anyone looked up the NCAA requirements for DI programs? Pretty sure DI schools have to have their facilities "on campus" and they have to seat up to a certain amount as well. Could be the reason why no one from HC is commenting. There's still a lot of red tape to go through with the NCAA and it may never come to fruition.

UConn plays their games at the XL Center, which is not on their campus.

 

[HockeyMomx2]

I cant find anything but I have my doubts. UMass football went up to D 1 and even though they have McQuirk Stadium on campus they play most of their 'home' games at Gillete in Foxboro.

But Merrimack had to build a second rink, on campus, in order to get their program in. Am assuming there is some kind of for cause/loop hole built in for those schools who are large enough for a DI program but don't have the land available within whatever mile radius their facilities are required to be in, but I do believe the rule does exist. Just don't know the details of it or the amount of red tape to get through it. Know it would definitely require the approval of all AD's within the conference in order to happen anyways and it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon so this is all moot now anyways LOL

 

[OldScool]

But Merrimack had to build a second rink, on campus, in order to get their program in. Am assuming there is some kind of for cause/loop hole built in for those schools who are large enough for a DI program but don't have the land available within whatever mile radius their facilities are required to be in, but I do believe the rule does exist. Just don't know the details of it or the amount of red tape to get through it. Know it would definitely require the approval of all AD's within the conference in order to happen anyways and it doesn't look like that's happening any time soon so this is all moot now anyways LOL

That is not accurate. The 2nd rink was a gift to the program so the Islander Hockey Club youth hockey teams could use it.

 

[john03]

HC could lead the NCAA in attendance if they play well and market the team correctly.

Not a chance...

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Not a chance...

Lowell fills their barn. Smaller city. Averaging more than North Dakota is unlikely they fill their 11500 rink but the next spots are up for grabs Wiscy was #3 last year despite being horrible and Minnesota should stay at 2 despite also being bad right now.

So lets just say that top 5 NCAA attendance is very very doable.

Lot of people live near Worcester 18 home games a year against big name college hockey opponents and cheap tickets and free tickets to not only HC students but Worcester State, WPI, Clark, Assumption and I think they could average over 10k. Make a Frozen Four and it could be filled.