The New WCHA Final Five and New Broadmoor Trophy
by WCHBlog on Mar 20, 2010 4:39 PM PDT
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PrintThe WCHA held a press conference after today's WCHA third-place game to talk about the new WCHA tournament format.
As most everyone knew, the tournament will feature all 12 teams playing in one of six first round playoff series, followed by two games on Thursday, two on Friday, and just a championship game on Saturday.
Among the stuff I found interesting about the new playoff system...
-They looked at a number of different formats, but the coaches felt strongly about this system because they were excited about the opportunity for one more team to make it to the Final Five every year, which is a pretty big deal for schools.
-The times for the Thursday games will be 4pm and 7pm, and will be on one ticket. The reasoning is that they wanted to make it easier for people to get to the Thursday games if they were traveling.
-The "Minnesota rule" with the Gophers getting the primetime game regardless will still exist. Among the coaches, Don Lucia is the biggest opponent of the Minnesota rule, but it's a decision made with budgets in mind. They can't reseed teams in the tournament because of the Minnesota rule.
-They've petitioned the NHL for the Wild to hold a game at 1pm on the Saturday day of the championship game to give fans something to do during the day. There are also other activities planned for that day for fans looking for something to do, but not going to the Wild game.
The WCHA also unveiled--Quite literally. I gasped. No one else did.--their new Broadmoor Trophy. It's purdy. The original was just something a couple guys went out and bought one day, and the WCHA wanted something that looked a little better in comparison to the MacNaughton Cup. The trophy has a sculpture of the Broadmoor hotel atop it. There will be three versions of the trophy: a large one on permanent display at the XCel Center, a medium-sized one that will current title holder will keep, and smaller ones that each winning team will get to keep.
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NHL Game Championship Day
So, how will the WCHA handle the ticket problem? Wild season tickets holders would probably want to attend the game, especially if the Wild are doing well, (don’t hold your breath). How many season tickets are being sold and how many tickets would be available for purchase by the WCHA crowd? What might the ticket cost be for a ticket through Ticket King or the guys on the street? What will be the additional cost to the WCHA ticket holder to pay for the addition of 1 team to the tourney mix (presently a package is $160.00)? Let’s add the cost of an NHL game for a family of 4. Care to fund it? Sounds nice, but the 15,000+ (?) at tonight’s game wouldn’t all fit in with the Wild patrons there. The Colorado Clown comes up with another great plan.
Theoretically, the price of a ticket package would go down since there will only be four tickets in it(Thursday, two Friday, one Saturday.) instead of five.
Obviously not everyone will be able to get into the Wild game, but it will be an option, among other things apparently, for people that want to make a trip out of it.
Partnering up with the NHL is never a bad thing for college hockey, in my opinion.
NHL Game Championship Day
The number of games has not changed, albeit the sessions will be reduced by one. The factor to remember is that 6 teams will be coming to St. Paul, not 5 as in the past. Housing, meals, transport, etc. for the additional team will not allow for a reduction in the ticket package, and in all probability will cause an increase. A 5 spot says next years package price will be more that $160.00 as this year’s package was priced.
ballgamer2
