State Tournament Attendence

[starmvp]

Anybody know attendance numbers for games today or the tournament so far?

[publicschoolpride]

Anybody know attendance numbers for games today or the tournament so far?

180xx

cant remember it exactly but it was about 500 less than the 18568 they announce at wild games

that was for tonight's session

[EREmpireStrikesBack]

18174 or something close to that. It was just barely over 18,000.

[karl(east)]

The announced attendance was 18, 031.

[espnmobile8]

It was packed on Friday night but I think the Gopher game prevented it from being even more chaotic.

[HockeyMN1]

Tonight I bet they get 18568.

[wbmd]

Final tourney attendance

The tournament total, including games played at Mariucci Arena, was 116,789, lowest since 2003.

Attendance for the afternoon session on Saturday was 6,032, and 15,967 attended Saturday evening, the lowest number since 2002.

[karl(east)]

AA QF#1 attendance: 15,494 (lowest since 1999)
AA QF#2 attendance: 16,571 (lowest since 2004)
AA SF attendance: 18,031 (lowest since 2002)
AA Final attendance: 15,967 (lowest since 2002)

Rough tournament, attenance-wise. Possibly a product of the bad economy, and 2 top seeds going down the first night probably did not help either, though that doesn't explain the low numbers on Thursday.

Still, if drawing 116,789 people to a high school tournament is considered a disappointment, I think this tourney is in pretty good shape.

[Doglover]

I think you're right as usual karl. I do think with Duluth East and Edina out after Thurs. night, the excitement and attendance probably both dropped a little. The weather certainly couldn't have been a factor Fri or Sat since it was absolutely beautiful. I'm sure the economy factored in along with the big Gopher game Sat. night.

Course, maybe people just didn't want to watch EP win...
Unfortunately we may all have to get used to it the next couple years. Sounds like most of the other teams may be down after graduating their top players.
Congrats to all the teams!

[goldy313]

I was suprised Thursday afternoon was so light, with Eden Prairie and Blaine you had two of the biggest schools in the state there. Century is pretty big as well and Hill has a large alumni following. I would have thought that those schools could have sold plenty of tickets, my area of season ticket holders was filled with the usual cast of characters for every session but last night but you could see plenty of green around the arena. I did notice that for the first time in years that every time I walked in there wasn't a line of more than 10 people at the box office though.

[Factsmatter1]

I think you're right as usual karl. I do think with Duluth East and Edina out after Thurs. night, the excitement and attendance probably both dropped a little. The weather certainly couldn't have been a factor Fri or Sat since it was absolutely beautiful. I'm sure the economy factored in along with the big Gopher game Sat. night.

Course, maybe people just didn't want to watch EP win...
Unfortunately we may all have to get used to it the next couple years. Sounds like most of the other teams may be down after graduating their top players.
Congrats to all the teams!

Doglover, I do think you are right overall but I wouldn't underestimate the importance of Leddy to the EP team. If you watch the video of the games he makes the very good EP forwards look like superstars. They didn't win by being the best in goals scored (third) but rather being the best by having the least goals scored (four in state tourney) against which means defense and goal tender. Without him (top scorer in state tourney for EP) and some graduating senior forwards (think at least 3-4 are graduating) who make big contributions this year I am not so sure EP is the same team next year. If you watch the tapes, every good team EP played Leddy was the difference maker which is why I think he is Mr. Hockey... I do think Ford being a sophomore is a big reason why they will be contender in future years but D is a big deal. I think Ford-Leddy = state champ but I don't think Ford without Leddy is state champ.

[Doglover]

Factsmatter - I am a HUGE Leddy fan. I think he is an amazing player and he and the rest of the upper classmen deserve most the credit for the State Tourney win - I don't really think Ford was much of a factor since most of his job was done by amazing defense on the EP Eagles.

Sorry my post was confusing on this point - I don't think EP will be nearly as strong without Leddy and I'm very glad we'll get the chance to watch him play with the Gophs!! I was very impressed with Molenaar and the Rau brothers.

Main point - maybe attendance was down Sat since no one wanted to watch EP win it. Heard some of those sophs are pretty cocky already. They should try to emulate Leddy more.