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Was watching the boys semi final AAAA tourney basketball games last night and was quite surprised as to how few people were at the Target Center compared to the Excel for the AA hockey semi final games. Very loud statement to the popularity of hockey in MN compared to basketball.......... :)

TV ratings will actually be quite similar....

But you're right; the difference in ticket sales is night & day. One thing basketball does have going for it though is more classes. On Saturday, the ticket sales will actually be pretty high as so many people come & go as their team/class plays.

I'm not surprised. The State League ruined the state tourney in basketball when they expanded beyond two classes. Even when they had two classes, they offered something (for a while) the hockey tournament did not--a Monday night game between the winners of Class A and Class AA. Hockey needs to follow this example. Not necessarily on the following Monday, but on the following weekend.

Lee

nahc wrote:Was watching the boys semi final AAAA tourney basketball games last night and was quite surprised as to how few people were at the Target Center compared to the Excel for the AA hockey semi final games. Very loud statement to the popularity of hockey in MN compared to basketball.......... :)

Do you know what actual numbers were?
I'd also say it has to do with the stadiums and their seating. There is literally not a seat at the X where you can't see clearly what's happening on the ice; the same cannot be said for the Target Center.
Classes and TV coverage play a role here too...

Another big difference is Minnesota develops a larger quantity of and higher level hockey player than basketball player. How many Minnesota kids currently play in the NBA vs. NHL? Or at the NCAA Division 1 level in both sports? People want to watch the best players. In high school hockey...our tournament is the best in the nation.

east hockey wrote:I'm not surprised. The State League ruined the state tourney in basketball when they expanded beyond two classes. Even when they had two classes, they offered something (for a while) the hockey tournament did not--a Monday night game between the winners of Class A and Class AA. Hockey needs to follow this example. Not necessarily on the following Monday, but on the following weekend.

Lee

And that didn't even last too long. But it was nice to see the Class A champions beat the AA winner.

Really though, hockey beats every other sport in this regard. I know wrestling packs the X for the state tournament pretty well, but I think that has a lot to do with the huge variety of schools represented as opposed to the eight for hockey.

If you watch football at all, neither the Bank nor the Dome fill up much at all. I can't even imagine the baseball tournament, or other spring sports for that matter.

Cadets16 wrote:Really though, hockey beats every other sport in this regard. I know wrestling packs the X for the state tournament pretty well, but I think that has a lot to do with the huge variety of schools represented as opposed to the eight for hockey.

If you watch football at all, neither the Bank nor the Dome fill up much at all. I can't even imagine the baseball tournament, or other spring sports for that matter.

A sellout crowd at the Metrodome was 64,000. Capacity at TCF is 51,000. Th X can hold 18,500. A sellout crowd for the X will look like an empty house at the Metrodome or TCF Bank Stadium.

luckyEPDad wrote:

Cadets16 wrote:Really though, hockey beats every other sport in this regard. I know wrestling packs the X for the state tournament pretty well, but I think that has a lot to do with the huge variety of schools represented as opposed to the eight for hockey.

If you watch football at all, neither the Bank nor the Dome fill up much at all. I can't even imagine the baseball tournament, or other spring sports for that matter.

A sellout crowd at the Metrodome was 64,000. Capacity at TCF is 51,000. Th X can hold 18,500. A sellout crowd for the X will look like an empty house at the Metrodome or TCF Bank Stadium.

Yeah, I understand that. Still, I don't think the Dome or TCF sells as many football tickets as the X did for hockey. I'd be interested to see the numbers.

luckyEPDad wrote:

Cadets16 wrote:Really though, hockey beats every other sport in this regard. I know wrestling packs the X for the state tournament pretty well, but I think that has a lot to do with the huge variety of schools represented as opposed to the eight for hockey.

If you watch football at all, neither the Bank nor the Dome fill up much at all. I can't even imagine the baseball tournament, or other spring sports for that matter.

A sellout crowd at the Metrodome was 64,000. Capacity at TCF is 51,000. Th X can hold 18,500. A sellout crowd for the X will look like an empty house at the Metrodome or TCF Bank Stadium.

Yeah, I understand that. Still, I don't think the Dome or TCF sells as many football tickets as the X did for hockey. I'd be interested to see the numbers.

The MSHSL lost a significant amount of money this year on the Football tourney. The crowds the last three years for the big school BB finals have been between 10-12 thousand, throw in Schools like Melrose and Red Lake bringing huge followings to the tourney it helps. The 3AAA games were sparsely attended and the private schools bring very few fans. The Hockey tournament will always be the Bell Cow and financial anchor for the MSHSL.

MSHSL doesn't list the attendance in the basketball box scores as they do for hockey.

They do list the attendance for past years in their basketball yearbook. The totals have been 60,000 +/- yearly for the past half dozen years. That is for 32 basketball games (vs 22 games in the hockey tournament).

It is interesting to look back to 1971 (the first year of multi-class tournament in basketball) for the record attendance of 140,000. It has been a long gradual decline since then with a low of 55,000 in 2010.

http://www.mshsl.org/mshsl/publications ... llboys.pdf