I have seen, and heard from other posts that student fan support isn't what it used to be.
1. In WBL. everybody voiced their concerns about the new arena not being big enough. I've been to four home games at the Vadnais arena (Century "Grand Opening", Duluth East, Stillwater, and Roseville), and not one of them has been sold out, or even close to being filled to capacity. To top it off, the band was at the Roseville game and left after the second period.
2. I have read that student fan support is minimal at the Duluth East home games.
3. I attended the HM vs EP preview of the state tournament final, and was shocked at the lack of student fan support for a game featuring the best of the East Metro vs the best of the West Metro.
Why is this? Here are some reasons that I have heard around the arena's.
To expensive - I believe the students can buy an inexpensive student pass to all home games of other sports except hockey.
No fun - The games aren't any fun to attend, if the other team has no student section to cheer against.
To far to drive - I heard this comment from parents at the HM/EP game.
What are you hearing? Is this lack of support seen at every high school?
One big difference between hockey and most other high school sports that draw crowds (football, basketball) is the location of the arena--most schools have football fields and gyms right on campus, but only a few have hockey rinks. This means driving, often to a municipal rink, and they aren't always centrally located--even for the home team. That can be a problem for kids who don't have licenses, cars, rides, gas money, etc.
Also, students lives have become a lot more structured in recent years--you wouldn't notice the difference this causes from year to year, but over time, kids have been losing their free time in the evenings. That leads to fewer fans. Lots of casual fans also view games as social events; one might argue that the internet and cell phones have diminished the need for such social events, though I'm not convinced of that.
Also, schools have become more specialized, and students get shuffled onto different tracks and so on. This may have academic benefits, but it can strain school cohesion and spirit. Kids who only have to interact with their own little clique might never get to meet the school spirit-oriented kids--the ones who organize things--the way they used to.
The size of some of the giant suburban schools also might hurt; in some of them, it's probably possible to graduate knowing only one or two hockey players. Again, it's a lot easier to specialize there. One of the things I loved about our student sections at East was the wide range of people we got into the stands, and how we were all united as one, if only for a little while. Sadly that unity and identification with the school seems to be wearing off some.
Then there are administrators cracking down demanding PC behavior from the student sections. Of course there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed, but for the most part this effort is misguided. Very few people at Duluth East honestly believe that people from Cloquet all live in trailer parks, or speak Ojibwe, or think that wealth is something worth arrogantly bragging about (if they even are rich), and those who do have bigger problems. They are also perfectly aware that living in trailer parks or speaking Ojibwe is not a bad thing. When I was at East I had some friends in Cloquet (blasphemy, I know), and we'd always laugh about the ridiculous things we yelled at each other across the ice. It's part of a natural, joking give-and-take. With that said, though, being barred from chanting un-PC things is no excuse for not showing up to a big game. It's not even an excuse for not chanting things--better to be loud, dull, and repetitive than mute. Two years ago East had by far the most active student section of the 8 AA quarterfinal teams, but I don't recall anything particularly off-color then.
As a fan of EP hockey, I cannot express enough how disappointed I have been in the lack of student support for one of the top teams in the State. For a school as big as EP to have such a small and disengaged group of students following them is embarrasing. Not sure what the issue is as 2 years ago with Leddy and company, the following was much stronger. Kyle Rau is worth the price of admission alone.
One thing that sucks the fun out of EP games is the EP Community Center Nazi pack running the rink. You've got three layers of security just to ensure that no one dare enter without the stamped hand. Any outburst of any kind is met with the dreaded stare down. All I can say is "lighten up Francis" and let the kids have some fun!
We played Minneapolis last week and their fan base put ours to shame, on our rink
Also, why don't bands play anymore, in my high school days, the band played every game and it was awesome. I'm sure it has something to do with money, liability, all the same stuff that seems to take the fun out of everything these days.
What happened to all the school bands and cheerleaders??
Back in my day, every team had both of these at practically every home game. Now it's a rarity to see either one of these at ANY high school hockey game.
I've even noticed this at the state tournament. And that's a crying shame for a team to be playing on television with little support from the school.
I would have to say that this year seems like a down year compared to the last couple years in terms of excitement.
I went to the EP-Minnetonka game on Saturday and found the EP student section not even filling up one section at Braemar. It looked like Minnetonka was filling up two sections with their own students.
All in all, this whole season seems to be a down year maybe because of there being no real stand out teams. I mean look at this forum, last year you would see a fair amount more games getting topics than this year.
This seems to have been a pretty dull year but I hope that these last two weeks are filled with great games.
nikebauer05 wrote:I would have to say that this year seems like a down year compared to the last couple years in terms of excitement.
I went to the EP-Minnetonka game on Saturday and found the EP student section not even filling up one section at Braemar. It looked like Minnetonka was filling up two sections with their own students.
All in all, this whole season seems to be a down year maybe because of there being no real stand out teams. I mean look at this forum, last year you would see a fair amount more games getting topics than this year.
This seems to have been a pretty dull year but I hope that these last two weeks are filled with great games.
What really scares me, is that I have a brother-in-law who has kids growing up in EP. We were talking about this issue of EP fan support, and he said the basketball games are packed with students. Boys and Girls!
Sometimes it is the AD of one of the schools(usually the team on the wrong end of the score) that complains about the visitors or home team fans as has happened in our case. Then they spread the word to the other schools in the conference that we have an unruly "Dogpound". I've been to these games and the chants are well-spirited fun and not abusive.Some folks are just too thin skined when it comes to this. Let em' have fun!!
Student sections make the games better. It gives some extra motivation to a team to win in front of their home fans or win in front of a rivals fans. Student sections are going to be hostile and that just adds to the fun of playing in front of them or being a part of them.
nikebauer05 wrote:I would have to say that this year seems like a down year compared to the last couple years in terms of excitement.
This seems to have been a pretty dull year but I hope that these last two weeks are filled with great games.
What really scares me, is that I have a brother-in-law who has kids growing up in EP. We were talking about this issue of EP fan support, and he said the basketball games are packed with students. Boys and Girls!
I would disagree with the statement that it has been a down and dull year. I personally have been to a dozen games that would be called "great high school hockey games" by any who watched them (reference almost any Lake conference game this year). I do agree that fan support is weak at EP. I do not understand it. I know the fact that a lot of kids are in other activities has something to do with it, but then I also have heard that the basketball games are well attended which doesn't make sense I can't bring myself to sit and watch a basketball game though so I will not be finding out for myself.
BodyShots wrote:I have seen, and heard from other posts that student fan support isn't what it used to be.
1. In WBL. everybody voiced their concerns about the new arena not being big enough. I've been to four home games at the Vadnais arena (Century "Grand Opening", Duluth East, Stillwater, and Roseville), and not one of them has been sold out, or even close to being filled to capacity. To top it off, the band was at the Roseville game and left after the second period.
2. I have read that student fan support is minimal at the Duluth East home games.
3. I attended the HM vs EP preview of the state tournament final, and was shocked at the lack of student fan support for a game featuring the best of
the East Metro vs the best of the West Metro.
Why is this? Here are some reasons that I have heard around the arena's.
To expensive - I believe the students can buy an inexpensive student
pass to all home games of other sports except hockey.
No fun - The games aren't any fun to attend, if the other team has no student section to cheer against.
To far to drive - I heard this comment from parents at the HM/EP game.
What are you hearing? Is this lack of support seen at every high school?
I think there wasn't a big crowd for the stillwater game because it was a day game perhaps if it was a night game it would've drawn a bigger crowd. And for the other WBL games u mentioned I thought there wad good amount of ppl there maybe not sellouts but good crowds
The Suburban East Conference has been down this year, which draws less students to the games. White Bear always has fans, but it's hard to draw a crowd when the other team has no fans to interact with.
nikebauer05 wrote:I would have to say that this year seems like a down year compared to the last couple years in terms of excitement.
This seems to have been a pretty dull year but I hope that these last two weeks are filled with great games.
What really scares me, is that I have a brother-in-law who has kids growing up in EP. We were talking about this issue of EP fan support, and he said the basketball games are packed with students. Boys and Girls!
I would disagree with the statement that it has been a down and dull year. I personally have been to a dozen games that would be called "great high school hockey games" by any who watched them (reference almost any Lake conference game this year). I do agree that fan support is weak at EP. I do not understand it. I know the fact that a lot of kids are in other activities has something to do with it, but then I also have heard that the basketball games are well attended which doesn't make sense I can't bring myself to sit and watch a basketball game though so I will not be finding out for myself.
Another thing is that last year and the year before that seemed like there were more sellouts. I am really only referencing Lake games but I don't believe there was a single sellout this year in the Lake. Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that there were definitely more sellouts in years past.
hmmmmm.... well I can tell you one thing -- the fans in Bemidji Minnesota are out and excited! They are supporting their team. People who have never been to a high school hockey game are coming out to see them. This team's success this year has been a great thing for the community and the fans will be there cheering for them as far as they go -- hopefully all the way to state!!! It also seems that there are quite a number of folks from all around the state rooting for the Lumberjacks this year. GO JACKS!
BSM's is weak, but once sections start they are as good as anyone's. BSM had just as many if not more students than Wayzata (despite being out numbered in enrollment 3,000 to 900) on Saturday and were missing 75% of the sophomores because of a retreat.
I've noticed the same thing in other sports as well but more so in hockey.
There is more to do, kids sit home and can play video games against other kids without leaving their bedroom, you text your buddy and talk about whatever instead of sitting next to him at a game. Gas is expensive so getting there may be cost prohibitive. Budget cuts mean no band, and less of an atmosphere heck I was only at the afternoon semifinal games in Rochester this year but not one of the schools had a band while last year 3 of the 4 did (Winona, South, and New Prague), you do have parents and fans who do show up to hear the band, without the band you do lose some people.
I also think that unlike football hockey is no longer a community event, the kids, for the most part, aren't from every neighborhood anymore. Hockey players are from a certain socio/economic demographic that in most places doesn't represent the school or community as a whole. It's another topic but one I hear in my community about funding and sports fees, why charge hockey the same as track or wrestling when as a group one can clearly afford to pay more than the other?
I can't bring myself to sit and watch a basketball game though so I will not be finding out for myself. 
