As MTU tries to rebuild it's program, you'd think administration would do things to try to encourage season ticket sales. Instead they raised the parking fee to $5. A lot of empty seats on the "community" side of the rink will stay empty.
Second, the MTU fight song is always played by the pep band, and it gets even us geezers to stand and clap to rally the team or to celebrate a goal. At the first game this Saturday, some canned music was blasted when goals were scored, completely drowning out the pep band and the fight song on the other side of the rink. If it wasn't for the Misfits and the pep band, there'd be no spirit at the games.
The community is cautiously optimistic that Mel can turn the program around. Tech has a lot of good players that just need better leadership. Unfortunately, collegiate sports are all about the money, as demonstrated by the formation of the Big 10 hockey association and others. Tech needs to bring in ticket buyers, and you're not going to do it with goal buzzers going off prematurely, drowning out the pep band, and charging a ridiculous amount to park at the games. The community loves hockey, but not enough to support the greedy university.
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1 recs | 3 comments
Not only is the AD clueless, so is the MTU Administration.
They need to find a way to pay Mel’’s 250K salary somehow, might as well start in the parking lot. Realistically, I think the stands are going to stay empty as long as Tech remains in the "new" WCHA. The attendance is really going to drop once the teams that travel well stop coming to Houghton. Wisconsin, Minnesota, UMD, NoDak all have great fans that would make the trip every year. I do not see how Alaska Fairbanks, Bemidji State and Ferris are going to pack the barn or the local hotels for that matter.
This Administration hopes that the GLIAC rivals will carryover to hockey. We’ll have to see how that works out.
RealityIsOptionable - October 3, 2011
MTU Fan Base
What would the MTU fan base be without Mitch’s Misfits and the pep band? I’m a Tech alum from the 70’s and remember when that barn was packed. Back then there weren’t very many programs to choose from, so with MacInnes coaching it wasn’t hard to recruit despite the climate, isolation and lack of females.
With more and more schools adding programs, and a recent tradition of losing, Mel has a big task ahead of him to build the program.
As a Blue Line Club member, I tried several times to try to get administration interested in an “Away Game Party Bus” going to games without any luck. I think the school should at least put together a program for students, but a lot of us geezers would be interested in a bus as well.
Maybe now with Northern and Ferris coming in to the WCHA we can get the culture of away game attendance going. If we pack their barn, they might want to retaliate and pack ours.
YooperGrrrl - October 4, 2011
Who's clueless?
To answer your post:
"As MTU tries to rebuild it’s program, you’d think administration would do things to try to encourage season ticket sales. Instead they raised the parking fee to $5. A lot of empty seats on the “community” side of the rink will stay empty."
Every other school in the league charges a minimum of $5 for parking except for SCSU. And the seats at MTU haven’t stayed empty.
“Second, the MTU fight song is always played by the pep band, and it gets even us geezers to stand and clap to rally the team or to celebrate a goal. At the first game this Saturday, some canned music was blasted when goals were scored, completely drowning out the pep band and the fight song on the other side of the rink. If it wasn’t for the Misfits and the pep band, there’d be no spirit at the games.”
It was clearly a first-game mistake, and hasn’t happened at a game since (and there’s been 6 of them). Give someone a second chance before complaining.
“The community is cautiously optimistic that Mel can turn the program around. Tech has a lot of good players that just need better leadership. Unfortunately, collegiate sports are all about the money, as demonstrated by the formation of the Big 10 hockey association and others. Tech needs to bring in ticket buyers, and you’re not going to do it with goal buzzers going off prematurely, drowning out the pep band, and charging a ridiculous amount to park at the games. The community loves hockey, but not enough to support the greedy university.”
The “greedy” University is putting its support fully behind the program like never before, as are alumni and big donors. If you’re not willing to pay the still-lowest parking and ticket prices in the league to help out, the question should be asked if you really care to see the program improve. If you really enjoyed the last 30 disheartening years, it would be easy to go back……alot less money, sweat and tears for MTU to let that continue than to pull up their bootstraps and make the tough decisions to turn it around. I’m sure they’ve studied the costs of every other school in the league in order to ask realistic prices of their fans, but it seems like you want your cake for free. If you want a successful Division I college hockey team, you have to do what successful Division I college hockey teams do. Hard to believe with the success Tech has had in its young season that you’re complaining about a league-low $5. I can assure you, $5 is not paying any DI hockey coaches salary.
AK Hockey - October 28, 2011
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