New schedule, same prices for hockey

Heading into the 1999-2000 season, college hockey's most dominant conference will look somewhat different. The addition of a new team and major scheduling changes will affect the way business is done.

But though things may have changed in the grand scheme of the CCHA, Michigan hockey fans will notice one similarity to last season. Season ticket prices for students have remained the same.

When today's 5 p.m. purchasing deadline passes, it'll become clear whether students will return to purchase hockey tickets after last season's sharp decline. The drop in student buyers in 1998 resulted from the University's decision to almost double the season ticket price to $160.

Students who are the essence of the team's fan base comprising the largest and loudest majority won't have to suffer from an increase this season. The student price per game remains just less than nine dollars.

FILE PHOTO/Daily In order to see Josh Blackburn and the rest of the Wolverines in action this season, fans must pay $160 for season tickets - the same price as last year.

"I think people understand that this program needs their support to survive," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "Last year the prices went up because the increase was long overdue, but it's still a bargain to come to a hockey game."

Prior to the start of the 1998-99 season, hockey ticket prices averaged around five dollars per ticket - one of the lowest prices in the country for a major Division I program.

After the Wolverines won the NCAA Championship in March 1998, the Michigan Athletic Department evaluated ticket prices which resulted in a sharp increase over the previous year. Individual game ticket prices jumped from five-dollars to almost nine-dollars.

Added into that price was a $2 surcharge per ticket that was to go toward scheduled renovations of Yost Ice Arena.

But the results were positive for the Athletic Department. For the first time in its history, the Michigan hockey program turned a profit.

"There are several programs in the country that make money including Wisconsin and Michigan State," Berenson said. "And last year, we were unequivocably in the black. (To turn a profit) was one of my goals when I first took over the program fifteen years ago.

"When I played here, we paid our own way."

Though players are no longer paying their own ways, the costs of maintaining a championship contending program like Michigan's has been continuously increasing.

This year the two-dollar surcharge has been left on the ticket prices, but will go toward the program's general fund.

But this season, though ticket prices didn't change, the schedule looks completely different. For several years now, there has been a trend in the conference toward scheduling weekend series against the same team.

In the past, for example, the Wolverines may have taken on Ohio State on Friday and Michigan State on Saturday. Now, the CCHA has instituted a policy which requires teams to play both weekend games against the same opponent.

Though the league is in favor of the new scheduling methods, Berenson isn't thrilled with the idea.

"I haven't been a proponent of the two game series," Berenson said. "You're going to play those teams anyway, and it doesn't make a difference competitively. It would be more interesting for the fans if we played different teams on consecutive nights."

Also new to the league this year will be Nebraska-Omaha which will become the twelfth team in the league. The CCHA will now be divided into three clusters of four teams each.

Michigan's cluster will include Bowling Green, Miami (Ohio) and Ohio State. The Wolverines will play each team in their cluster four times and play the rest of the teams in the CCHA twice during the regular season.

The Wolverines first taste of competition will be the Blue/White exhibition game on October 1st. The CCHA season opens October 7th at Notre Dame.

09-15-99