STrib; Gopher Hockey Attendance Rebounds

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Get your tickets to see the show. Only 1 for sure home game left, better be two.
 

Ope3 said:
Odd, but I like the idea of having students to taunt the opposing goaltender in the 2nd Period (and potentially OT). Probably better overall to have 1 big section.

At Old Mariucci/Williams Arena it felt like students were scattered in all 4 corners of the arena.
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When I first attended old Mariucci, there was no student sectioni. The upper deck (the greatest seats in hockey) and a section in the southeastern part of the arena were general admission. At the time, student tickets were general admission. The student section (in the northwestern corner by Goldie's perch) was created when the switch was made to all reserved seats.
 

bonin21 said:
It was between 2009 and 2011 that the secondary student section across the arena was moved.

The band was already where it is now at that point.
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Students squeezed a bit at Mariucci but their section getting name

The number of student seats at Mariucci Arena is being reduced about 150, but the student section will have a name by the time the season opens Oct. 8 against Massachusetts.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com

I forgot the squeezing and the naming:

The U of M is eliminating half a section of student seats this season. The top 10 rows of Section 2, behind the Gophers' net in periods one and three, will be sold to the public this season instead of students. That's about 150 seats.

Section 3 on the same end, and sections 13 and 14 (with the band) on the opposite end, will remain student sections.

"What we found, much like with football, not all the students come to games," said Mike Chandler, the Gophers assistant ticket manager. "We always sell as many tickets as we can, but we don't need as many sections. We always oversold a little bit."

A college hockey reporter's observation: Despite all the student tickets being sold, there often were empty seats, especially for nonconference games or teams who were not big rivals.

With just three sections this season, instead of 3-1/2, there will be seats for about 1,100 students, Chandler said, adding that only Wisconsin in the WCHA has a much larger student section.

In 2012-13, when Mariucci Arena is reseated, all three student sections will be on one end. Section 3 will be swapped for Section 12 for student seating, Chandler said, adding that "Sections 12 and 3 are almost mirror images."

Sections 12, 13 and 14 are all behind the net on the west end, where the visitors' goalie can hear the heckling easier in the first and third periods when the Gophers shoot at him.

The student section will also have a name soon, by Fri., Oct. 8 when the U opens the season at home against UMass.

Name suggestions can be submitted to [email protected] until Wednesday. Students will vote on a list of names from Sept. 17-24.

The student section at Williams Arena is called The Barn Yard and students sometimes come dressed like barn animals.

"The more students we have, the better," Chandler said. "The public gate probably drives the train financially, but nothing is better than having students at games."

Students can buy tickets for either Friday nights (the Maroon package) for $143, or for Saturday nights (the Gold) for $156, but not both. Maybe the U figures they need one of those nights to study.

My suggestions for a student section name is Ucci Goochies or Ucci Poochies or something more clever with Ucci
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Ignatius L Hoops said:
When I first attended old Mariucci, there was no student sectioni. The upper deck (the greatest seats in hockey) and a section in the southeastern part of the arena were general admission. At the time, student tickets were general admission. The student section (in the northwestern corner by Goldie's perch) was created when the switch was made to all reserved seats.
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Completely agree on those Upper Deck seats, unbelievable view.

I remember going to games in the late 70s when I was mite/squirt age. My dad and I would get there before the doors opened and would just haul it as quick as possible.

It felt like while he was dragging me, and my feet weren't even touching the stairs as we were racing to the 2nd deck, trying to get in the first couple of rows.
 

Ope3 said:
Completely agree on those Upper Deck seats, unbelievable view.

I remember going to games in the late 70s when I was mite/squirt age. My dad and I would get there before the doors opened and would just haul it as quick as possible.

It felt like while he was dragging me, and my feet weren't even touching the stairs as we were racing to the 2nd deck, trying to get in the first couple of rows.
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Yes. There were two main routes to the upper deck-straight up the stairs or a combo of stairs, lower deck then stairs. 1st row, west blue line was our goal.
 


Ignatius L Hoops said:
Yes. There were two main routes to the upper deck-straight up the stairs or a combo of stairs, lower deck then stairs. 1st row, west blue line was our goal.
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Yes, sounds accurate. I am sure the steps are the same ones that are still used to get to the 2nd deck of the SW corner of the basketball portion of the venue.
 

Based on how many tickets disappeared basically instantly yesterday, they must have opened up tickets to more students or did a big group sale to someone. In the end as a fan it's better to have a full arena at the expense of some revenue.
 

It's down to about 300-400 seats left all behind the single attack net.

Also credit to the sales staff, as I have gotten gentle sales pitches over the past month (text, voice & email) for season tickets next year. I think having bought tickets to multiple games (now 3) they feel it's worth their time to pursue.

At this point I am a solid "maybe".
 

Question to those who went tonight, how did the crowd look in person?
 



Very, very good. Probably 8,000+ scanned of the 9,029 paid
 

bonin21 said:
Very, very good. Probably 8,000+ scanned of the 9,029 paid
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Agree. Noticed the club level was about half full. I would have seriously looked at grabbing a couple of those but I didn't see them available.
 


Best crowd we’ve had on tourney weekend since the final five days. Very impressive. As we’ve known all along, win and people will show up. Mariucci is back to being the most fun venue in town.
 



bonin21 said:
Very, very good. Probably 8,000+ scanned of the 9,029 paid
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Based on history with no show ratio, I agree that is probably about right.

Just before the puck dropped the only sections with lots of unoccupied seats were behind the net opposite the student section. There were still several hundred of those when I checked early yesterday morning. Midway through the 1st period though, even most of those were filled with walk-ups I presume.

It was an interesting ride to campus. Freeways were fine, but the streets on campus were extremely slick. There was a 3 car crash on Oak right in front of Frontier Hall.
 

Ope3 said:
Based on history with no show ratio, I agree that is probably about right.

Just before the puck dropped the only sections with lots of unoccupied seats were behind the net opposite the student section. There were still several hundred of those when I checked early yesterday morning. Midway through the 1st period though, even most of those were filled with walk-ups I presume.

It was an interesting ride to campus. Freeways were fine, but the streets on campus were extremely slick. There was a 3 car crash on Oak right in front of Frontier Hall.
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You're right. The drive from Eden Prairie was fine; but then I put on the breaks coming down the hill behind the Weisman and slid onto river road. Walking was fine except for the crosswalk between Maturi and Mariucci which was ice.
 

Ignatius L Hoops said:
You're right. The drive from Eden Prairie was fine; but then I put on the breaks coming down the hill behind the Weisman and slid onto river road. Walking was fine except for the crosswalk between Maturi and Mariucci which was ice.
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We came down that same hill.. Had to hit the breaks before even getting to Comstock.
 

Interesting that people take that route from the SW. I think I have once in about 100 trips from Bloomington.
 


bonin21 said:
Interesting that people take that route from the SW. I think I have once in about 100 trips from Bloomington.
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Normally would not go that route, but it looked like 94 was backed up/busy with traffic due to the Loons, State Hockey & weather.
 

I did get another text from the U's Ticket Office about season tickets for next year, so credit to them for trying to strike while the iron is hot.

I did inquire about non-full season options. Was told packages with as few as 6 games would be available based on remaining inventory sometime this summer.
 

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