That's obvious and I think it's obvious why it has been played in Duluth in the past. The weaker teams in the section have always been the cities teams while the stronger teams have been the the northerners. This is changing with CEC dropping off greatly this last year and from the looks of their JV team the 1 game i saw against East this year they dont have much to look forward to and Rapids will need to move up before they get caught by Andover.karl(east) wrote:1. Can't we say the same thing about the DECC then?
2. Take a look at this map of 8AA and tell me if you think TRF is remotely centrally located. http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/googlemap.asp
The thing is in TRF because they're practically certain that the final will involve one or both of Roseau and Moorhead. There's no other explanation for it.
Again the move of stronger teams into the section (Andover improving since being created, Anoka moving in although they may soon move out and likely will not have much talent in the near future) and the normal contenders CEC and Rapids not building as solid teams as they have in the past this tide is changingkarl(east) wrote:Well, this is the first year since 2002 that all of those 3 have not been in the top 4 seeds or the semifinals, and it took one of the worst years in Cloquet history to do that. If the trend continues and no one else moves up, I'd understand the need for some sort of change. But one year is not enough to upset something that has worked very well for a number of years now.
I know that they havent had much luck and I'm not saying that's the reason but it just seems somewhat fair to find an area in between at least the top teams. I think we can all agree that East, Rapids, Andover (recently) and Elk River are clearly the top teams going into the future unless other teams begin to show more life outside of the section. That in my math is 2 cities and 2 northern and is a pretty good wash as to where the split like Roseau/Moorhead is at.karl(east) wrote:And the northern teams would be driving just as far to get to anywhere down south. No one wins in that scenario. Plus, as GR and Cloquet fans will gleefully tell you, East hasn't seemed to have enjoyed any sort of home ice advantage at the DECC in recent years.
It was just an idea and i'm sure UMD and the DECC wouldnt mind some suite/concessions sales at the newer arena to where the cost might actually be comparable but again I dont deal with this kind of stuff so i'm not much of one to speak of where the better place would bekarl(east) wrote:I'm not sure that the new one would bring in more revenue; an East-Cloquet final probably would sell out the current arena, but there have been empty seats at the GR-Cloquet finals in recent years. In fact, East-Cloquet was maybe 100-200 tickets short of selling out in 05, though East was on break that week.
