Adrian one-ups the Big Chill
Wanna know who's going to play the first hockey game in the Big House?
No it's not Michigan or Michigan State
Apparently, Adrian will be playing Concorida (Wis.) in the Big House on December 4th. One week before the Big Chill. (Don't expect any attendance records to be broken)
http://www.uscho.com/2010/10/29/adrian-concordia-to-play-at-michigan-stadium/
It will be the first outdoor D-III hockey game and the first hockey game in the Big House. I assume that we are letting them do this to test out the ice for us.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:38 PM ^
For most of the outdoor hockey games, don't they try to involve the community with high school games, youth games, public skate, etc? I remember BU and BC playing at Fenway a week or so after the Winter Classic last year, and Wisconsin having a bunch of high school teams playing at Camp Randall.
November 4th, 2010 at 3:50 AM ^
I really, really hope there isn't a public skate at any point before this game, it'll absolutely trash the ice.
November 4th, 2010 at 7:48 AM ^
a public skate is fine. As long as you don't do it the night before like the Winter Classic at Camp Randall. A combination of the ultra low temps with low humidity and a public skate the night before trashed the ice. I was at the game and the refs were constantly patching holes in the ice. The winter classic should be a model of how NOT to season outdoor ice. The Fenway game is how ice should be seasoned. From all accounts that ice was wonderful.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:39 PM ^
Then the next day a bunch of HS teams (including Saline vs Pioneer)
November 4th, 2010 at 7:54 AM ^
I wonder who are the other three teams. Perhaps a Catholic Central/Trenton game could cool.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:42 PM ^
Doh! I thought some film director named Adrian had improved on Lawrence Kasdan's classic about Michigan alumni.
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:47 PM ^
...these games is to help season the ice. The more skating on the new ice, the better shape it will be in for the Big Chill.
November 3rd, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
Exactly. The Michigan Alumni hockey guys get to skate out there, if you bought a certain # of tickets you had the opportunity to buy ice, etc etc etc. There are a ton of sessions and groups of people that will be on that ice prior to the "main event". I think they were even discussing keeping it open after the game for a few more skates, but I am not sure if that has been decided or not. That ice has sold up fast though.
November 3rd, 2010 at 10:03 PM ^
There are a ton of games going to be played in the week leading up to The Big Chill.
November 3rd, 2010 at 10:24 PM ^
I might be the only Adrian College supporter on here.
Adrian College is going to win this game, and they're going to win it big. Concordia is baaaad, and Adrian should be the class of their conference. What I find interesting is that they play the night before, at Adrian College, at 7 PM, and then they're going to turn around and play at 9:30 the next morning.
Come out and watch. Please. You can get a preview of what the set up is like, and watch a train wreck in the process. Besides, it's not like there's anything else going on at 9:30 AM that day.
November 4th, 2010 at 12:37 AM ^
I spend quite a bit of time in Adrian, and have been to one (only one, I'm afraid) AC hockey game. It was against U of Minn-Crookston (whose team was discontinued last year). Adrian won the game 13-1, with UMC's lone goal coming with about a minute to play in the game. Early in the first period, there was a big brawl that sent 4 UMC and 2 Adrian players to the penalty box at one time. I knew I was in for a fun night!
November 3rd, 2010 at 10:34 PM ^
With regards to the Big Chill, I have a couple of questions that I want to run passed this board.
1. Do you think that they will pull out the "Go Blue" banner for the hockey team to touch? or would they keep that only for the football team?
2. Do you think that Michigan hockey sets the record for attendance at Michigan Stadium, breaking the football teams record?
November 3rd, 2010 at 11:07 PM ^
"no" is the answer to both of those.
The banner is a football tradition and it will probably be kept for football. Also, it would be quite impractical for all the hockey players, on skates, to jump and touch the banner before going onto the ice and even if they did lower it, they'd have to find a good spot where most of the crowd can see the team hitting it, which might be difficult with olympic size ice on the field, especially since lowering the banner would make it harder to see anyways.
For the attendance, they're only selling 105,585 tickets. That's like 4,500 less than they can sell for football. Probably because they're going to keep the first few rows, in at least a few sections, empty, like you could see they did at Camp Randall. Add to that decrease that the attendance numbers count media, players, coaches, support staff types, all of which will be less than it is for football, for each team. Also, I know the MMB (also counted in attendance) will be there, as the full MMB (not just the hockey band), but I don't know if State's marching band (also counted) will be there. I think they will be, but I have no confirmation, so that's a potential decrease over a football game that has two bands as well. It will certainly be well attended and will smash the any-hockey-ever attendance record, but I don't think there is any chance at all that it breaks the NCAA football attendance record.
November 4th, 2010 at 12:56 AM ^
A friend of mine on a community (recreational) team was willing to pay whatever it costs to get his team some time on the ice, but it wasn't available. He said the department was booking local high school teams, and also some open skate times (!!!). He didn't know about the other college teams, i guess. But that's all awesome. If there's open skate times Imma be on that like a duck on a junebug.
November 4th, 2010 at 8:27 AM ^
As previously stated this is meant to help season the ice. The ice is not in its best condition when it is brand new.
Here is an older but interesting article on the logistics of setting up the rink and some non obvious factors that go into consideration.
http://athleticbusiness.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=3534&zoneid=24
November 4th, 2010 at 10:01 AM ^
I'll root for Adrian, but I wanna see if Slippery Rock and Shippensburg State have hockey programs.
November 4th, 2010 at 11:07 AM ^
UM Club hockey vs. sparty on Tuesday 12/7/10 in the Big House
November 4th, 2010 at 11:12 AM ^
That's probably good so they can troubleshoot any problems with the ice before the Big Chill. Is it just me or did the ice at camp randall look like awful?