 |
| (above) North Dakota hockey fans ... keeping things classy since ... well, never |
From: Grand Forks Herald
by Brad Elliott Schlossman
The University of Denver is trying to make some money on UND men’s hockey fans — or keep them out of Magness Arena this season.
When
single-game tickets go on sale Friday morning for UND’s road series at
Denver, the Pioneers will require that fans buy tickets to two other
selected Pioneer games if they want to go to a UND-DU game. The website
doesn’t currently list which other games will be part of the three-game
pack, but it won’t be a second UND-DU game.
For fans who don’t want to purchase sets of three, there are two other options.
The first is getting them through the UND Alumni Association, which has a number of tickets for that series.
The other option is for fans would to get group tickets, which can be purchased by groups of 20 or more.
The
new single-game ticket policy comes after several years of UND’s fan
base — and its large alumni base in Colorado — virtually turning that
series into a home game for UND.
.
.
Before last year’s series, Denver captain Paul Phillips explained the UND fan factor to U.S. College Hockey Online.
“As
crazy as it sounds, even though it’s a home game for us, it’s kind of
like a home game for them,” Phillips said. “They bring so many fans with
them and their fans are so loud. It’s real important that we can’t let
their fans get into the game. We have to throw the first punch.”
21 comments:
Interesting.
The Avs, Blues, and Predators are using this same ticketing ploy to keep Chicago Blackhawks fans from over-running their barns during the upcoming NHL season.
Of course, with the NHL, there is always a hefty secondary market for single-game tickets on Craig's List and from resellers (scalpers) at the games, so I doubt if it will be entirely successful...college hockey, however, who knows...
DU will now have to deal with UND fans cheering against them for an additional two games. This wouldn't be an issue if DU fans would actually buy tickets to the games.
@ 12:48...
Agreed. DU's attendance woes are well documented and often lamented. Particularly here.
From an overcrowded fall/winter sports marketplace, to a relatively apathetic student body that abandons campus for the mountains in droves on any given weekend, to a woefully ineffective (and, it must be said, underfunded) sports marketing department, the reasons for this phenomenon are many. But that doesn't change the fact that visiting fans have a field day in DU's barn; and, unless something changes drastically, that will continue.
I like the fact that DU is DOING something about improving home ice advantage this year.
First, they've dropped student season tickets from $50 to $20 this season, which is about $1 per game. That should help with student attendance, I am hoping. Hockey will never trump skiing here, but it would be cool to get 1/10th of the undergrads (500 or so) to
The UND extra ticket deal is a step in the right direction. About 95% of the UND fans at Magness escaped North Dakota to live here in Colorado. The die-ards will be here anyway. The arena will sell out and DU will sell more tickets to other games. It's all good. And if UND fans complain, screw 'em.
The $20 ticket price for students is a huge step in the right direction, but more marketing must be done to combat the perception on campus that hockey games are for the Freshmen.
Looks like UND fans will be attending more games than Boone.
Not sure why you tools dislike us so much. Now we will help your attendance woes at your pathetic rink.
This is going to be a huge plus for Piggly Wiggly with surging demand for chicken pies and TV dinners. Crickets for Olive Garden and Perkins.
The jealousy continues......
DU fans, never to be outdone on classiness
I don't like this trend at all. NoDak has a great fan base - not their fault that DU doesn't
For the record, I have been a DU season ticket holder for 15 years, doesn't change the fact that our fan base is thin at best
DU is a small private school that is buried in a city with 8 pro sports teams, and four larger D-I universities within an hours drive, plus the world class ski mountains. More than half the student body comes from outside of Colorado, and few grow up cheering for DU or grow up with hockey,
UND is a state flagship school with no local competition whatsoever. It is the largest athletic attraction in the entire state of North Dakota.
It's easy to see why one has a huge fanbase and the other doesn't. Apples and Oranges.
DU still draws crowds in the top 1/3 of college hockey and compares very similarly to Michigan and BU in terms of crowd size. We have nothing to apologize for...
There is one tiny difference between the two bird flipping pics. The DU people were students. The UND guy was chaplain of the state senate.
As an alum, who can't afford season tickets, the single game tickets are really kind of high .. no way can I afford season tix .. $17 a game? I'm there .. $30 a game, ouch, I do buy 3-6 games a year, but I would buy way more at a lower price, and without getting screwed by all the fees.
The latest is that right now there is a code one can enter that is now public to avoid this policy and you can get single tickets for this series and avoid this policy. It was on the GF Herald UND hockey blog
http://undhockey.areavoices.com/?p=94742
DU hockey is pretty cheap relative to other entertainment options. Comparable to a movie in price. Much less than major pro sports, concerts, skiing or dinner out at a date restaurant.
If you can't do the full season , buy tickets for the big opponents in advance and then show up to Magness for the other minor games and buy tickets outside for less than face value, especially close to game time.
old pio said...
"There is one tiny difference between the two bird flipping pics. The DU people were students. The UND guy was chaplain of the state senate."
Oh right...the DU pic was just a regular season game where a few students actually do attend
For the NCAA lax, DU charged an extra fee so Syracuse fans would not sit in our section. The xtra fee ($100) is to be used for DU Lacrosse; in essence, a charitable contribution to DU. No sweat.
How much fun would it be to force UND fans to pay a premium with the money going towards DU Hockey?
Hey....DU can do whatever they feel like they need to do to actually sell out their small arena in a metro area of over 2M. They must be really worried about upcoming sales if these are the stunts they have to pull.
Have fun dealing with UND jerseys on the non UND weekends. I'll be one of them.
How does one "deal" with a UND jersey, aside from the usual ambivalence, or perhaps confusion as to why someone would intentionally walk around in public with something that says "North Dakota" on it.
I actually think this is kind of a lame stunt--I seriously doubt that it's meant to decrease North Dakota attendance at games. Just to make more $$$, plain & simple.
The 3-pack policy is in effect for anyone buying single game tickets, even DU staff/faculty. I picked up my tix on Wednesday for DU v UND and I had to buy two other games. The options were Merrimack, Nebraska-Omaha, Brown and Western Michigan.
I don't mind because I like to support DU Hockey and I didn't want those seats to go to a UND fan for that game. I also picked up the DU v CC games for good measure. Got to keep the riff raff out of our house.
Post a Comment