So is this an “upriver” problem then? We clamor for heads of coaches, but should we be clamoring for further up the chain? Fundraising’s great, but if doesn’t improve results, what’s the point?
Or maybe this is just the new norm and just have to get used to mediocrity.
Yep, that’s how I see it. I only know one trustee, she was in Mobile supporting our football team. That’s good. Do the trustees care about sports? Do they care if we are winning or losing? The best way to put pressure on the president and thus on the A D and onto the coaches is from the top. I may be alone, but this is not a “build it and they will come” thing. A new building would help, but good coaches and winning will attract more crowds and better players. I hope this crap we are experiencing is not the new norm.
David sayler should never gave him in the contract extension
Every single sport at Miami is a ‘money pit’. There’s not one sport who’s budget isn’t subsidized significantly by student fees.
If hockey was to be cut then there would be cost savings but the students who pay student fees would also be losing out on having the hockey games to go to. Would/should the cost savings be transferred to other sport’s budgets or be used to reduce student fees?
Sorry… I should’ve used quotation marks. A member of the athletic department described men’s hockey in the NCHC as being a “money pit.” Their words, not mine.
I’m guessing he was referring to exorbitant travel costs, the complete lack of media coverage for the sport in general, the lack of quality opponents, and the notion that we cannot win in that conference.
…the “money pit” also probably stems from a decline in season and suite ticket sales…plus what was said earlier.
Hard to believe this is the Fire Jack Owens thread. Lol
Travel in the NCHC is indeed exorbitant. The TV coverage is limited to an expensive subscription to the NCHC Network. Our games are never on any network that casual fans or even serious fans can watch easily. And no program is located within our geographic footprint except former CCHA mate WMU. But the programs in the NCHC are generally the best in college hockey. Their hockey teams are the primary athletic programs at their respective universities. They get their ICA departments’ full undivided attention. Our program shares attention with D1 hoops and G5 football. We shouldn’t be in the NCHC.
Western has a good football team and a solid basketball team
I’d like to point out that while we all may miss the old CCHA, I don’t think the NCHC is our primary problem. We are loosing to the juggernauts of Long Island University, Mercyhurst, Ferris State, etc. Bottom line, we can’t win anywhere right now, how’s switching to a bottom of the barrel conference going to rectify things if we can’t beat their titanic teams?!
I hate the current state of hockey but as the great Mr. Moon once said in “Sing” the great thing about hitting the bottom is there’s only one way to go from there. And that’s up.
Western is the only other one that looks like us in the conference - and they sit in the middle of a fertile hockey recruiting ground. They have some advantages that we don’t.
Could be. I don’t know enough about hockey to know.
Western also has another major advantage–the City of Kalamazoo. I was born and raised there. Most of my family is now buried there. But for decades, I have said that I wished that we had the advantages of a large student population and a good size metro area to support the teams. My brother was a 50 yr season ticket holder for fball and bball. They always have good season ticket sales. When they were good/very good, their attendance and local sponsors were many and generous. I went to many fball and bball games there (mostly Miami) and fball was a good venue. Bball has a lousy facility, but, again, when good, they get a great deal of support. Something we just don’t have and I think it is a distinct disadvantage.
Maybe the answer to Miami’s success lies in getting large companies to relocate to Hamilton. But, these days, work is more virtual than ever before so that’s probably not viable.
Butler County has always been a disappointment in terms of being a solid local fan base for Miami. When I worked in Hamilton and Middletown in the early 70s, 39% of the county’s population was Kentucky-born. The most popular college in the county was UK. Back then the urban areas of the county viewed Miami as the College of Suburban Dayton/Columbus/Cleveland - an other peoples’ university.
That’s probably somewhat true today, although Ohio State has always been popular and UC has probably eaten most of what could have been our share of fans everywhere south of the Rusty Nail.
To me, CCHA is an option if we cannot find a way out of the NCHC basement after a couple more years…at least in that conference we could compete better with just a little progress on the capability of our team/program…to do that in the NCHC would be a real Hill to climb. I agree w the comments that hockey is a fun place for our students to go, but they want to see some winning …not sure being in the toughest conference matters unless you can compete in it.
Those who understand these things, I’d like to know a quick figure: 1. How big is the population within 30 minutes drive of Miami and 2. What is the realistic average a sport like football, basketball, or hockey) can expect to draw of it (assuming that sport is good and worth going to.) Is this the way I should view attendance or is there a better metric.
Attendance is down throughout the country, couple that with the fact that we haven’t won in quite some time, I’m not sure what our average ceiling is.
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Are our hockey games still crowded with students? I graduated a decade ago when student tickets were hard to come by. Haven’t been back since and they are never on TV