Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

The hockey itself was good, but the B1G and NCAA just didn't do anything to make this attractive to spectators who are accustomed to coming to the Joe for a packed house and a loud, fun atmosphere. It was like watching a game in a mausoleum. We purchased general admission upper bowl seats for $25, which was a decent deal. I feel bad for anyone who spent more on better seats because eventually the ushers told us all to move down ... you could literally have taken your GA ticket and gone down to sit by the glass because attendance was so light. The old CCHA tourney was better attended but most of the schools involved in the B1G have a bigger drive to get to Detroit. Some of the competing schools also had teams in the basketball tourney going on the same weekend. And to cap it off, in a venue that generally sells beer, the B1G determined that no beer or liquor would be sold because of some Victorian ideals they hold dear. In the CCHA, you could drink beer at the Joe. Now we don't get beer at Yost or Breslin, but the atmosphere is so wild you don't miss it. At the Joe, a beer and a game goes hand in hand. It seems a silly restriction to me.

It became quite clear as the tournament progressed, that the Nittany Lions were willing to outwork their opponents, which they did.

The atmosphere of the event was incredibly bland. The few fans that were there were largely Gopher fans and even that was not much. You could pretty much sit wherever you wanted to because there were so many empty seats. No inner conference rivalries to watch. The food at this event was horrendous. This event is structured to where you have to miss part of the first game if you want to leave and eat somewhere. We paid for Club Level seats to avoid leaving the arena and NONE of the restaurants were open. In fact there were TWO measly concession stands open on the club level and less than half on the main floor. In other words you are stuck eating hot dogs or pretzels for dinner if you stay at the arena. Do yourself a favor and save your money and stay home to watch this event.

The place was a morgue. No excitement, arena was 20% to 35% filled each game. Obviously nobody cares much for the NEW Big 10. I'll go to see the NCHA next year for some legit rivalries.

The B1G tourney had absolutely none of what made the WCHA tournament great. Limited beer sales, quiet atmosphere, and excessive B1G propaganda took away from the raucous fun of previous years.

The event was well run. Low attendance may be bad for you, but it was good for me. I could hear the players on ice and had awesome sight lines. I was really able to enjoy the games. The real letdown was how poorly the Gophers played.

My family had an excellent experience. Kids loved the mascots and the hockey was great! Excellent venue.

The fan's sign on Thursday said it all! Bad tournament - no attendance, no atmosphere, nobody cares! Breaking up the WCHA was a B1G MISTAKE!

I understand switching to the big ten is not your fault. Selling beer in one level only? With no access for everybody else to that level? Stupidest thing I've ever heard of. No wonder attendance was terrible.

The Big 10 really did a poor job with this event. The high school tournament was more organized and interesting. The attendance was pathetic, the alcohol situation was awful, and the energy was dismal. The premiere game could not even draw 7000 fans! The WCHA tournament was a destination even for the Midwest. The Big 10 tournament in its current state felt like a mid season Pee Wee hockey tournament in central Kansas. The organizers should have anticipated the angst over the conference change and made this event a superior fan experience. Instead they treated it like another game. Very disappointing.

Xcel Energy Center is an awesome venue to watch B1G 10 Hockey even if your team loses the first game. Lots of good restaurants and bars around. I recommend eating and drinking before going in, the foods just ok and very high priced; beer too!! The people of St. Paul are very friendly and welcoming; even to a Badger fan.

Great seats! Wish the outcome was different! But I miss the CCHA where they gave you 2 games for half the price.

The event -U of M vs MSU was very poorly attended. I've had bigger attendance at one of my Tuesday beer-league games than this. This event needs and deserves much more and much better promotion/marketing.

We felt bad for the players. The arena should have had another 5-7,000 fans in it. The $25 ticket could have been $10-15 and allowed families to come in and watch some fantastic efforts by these young men. The first two days they could have opened the lower bowl to the fans that were there and it would not have been full.

Someone should have advertised/promoted this better. Disappointing the number of empty seats, especially for the MSU/UM game on Friday night.

Great event for a reasonable price. Took two college boys from out of town and my daughter. They really enjoyed the arena and event.

Great experience overall. Great venue. Sad to see so many open seats cosidering the level of hockey. Consider lowering the price or changing the venue so fans can afford to fill the arena and watch great hockey or add perks such as free child admission with an adult purchase. Something.

GREAT GAME, EXCELLENT FAMILY TICKET AND FOOD PACKAGE.

Really pales compared to the CCHA championship games of the past. For some reason, there were way less people at the B1G Championship. I don't know if it was high ticket prices or lack of beer sales or something else that kept people away. They need to do something because watching a game in a 2/3 empty stadium takes away from the experience. Maybe have a consolation game to draw more out of town fans.

The semi final between MSU and U-M was pretty good, though U-M pulled away halfway through the 2nd with much more offense.

Being able to watch Michigan's top universities play hockey is not something you get to see every day. So nice environment @ very accessible rates. Family or couples or friends...it was fun for all.

good game lots of action I like all Hockey my wife and I had a good time. Always fun at the JOE.

First and foremost "NO BEER SALES" how do think you will get people to attend without beer sales!!! Seating at Joe Louis Arena is Horrible tiny and cramped No in-between periods entertainment. We had to upgrade our tickets at the arena in order to get access to a private club in order to buy Beer which lead to leaving our seats to get beer drinking it in the club and returning to our seats

As for the First BIG TEN Hockey tourney, it was great. Big upsets in early games. Expected to see Wisc and Minn in the final. But with a neutral rink and a 1 and done format any hard playing team can win. Also expected to see more out of town non Minnesota fans as well as more MN fans. I guess with a guaranteed spot in the regional, and over priced tickets, I don't blame some of the MN fans for not going. As the rivalries build, hop to see larger crowds. AND no other tourney in town same weekend. That could have hurt the XCEL also.

great seats, first class venue, the BIG TEN put on a great show. Beer was a bit expensive excellent game to bad someone had to lose. Ohio State played very well and were very deserving of being in that game. Bucky was a little rough on the "Gopha" fans

no alcohol, will not return others voiced the same

Great game, great location, had a great time. great!

Watching the hockey games were fine. The crowds were way down this year, and half of the fun is the crowd participation and that overall feeling when you walk into an arena that is full.

Our seats were super close to the goal our team shot on for two periods. Great game - On Wisconsin!

The event was a fantastic experience and the city of St. Paul is flat out amazing.

Xcel Energy Center is a great place to watch hockey Good food areas, wide concourses, good music during game stops, great announcer.

The game was a blast! Lots of action from both teams. I would have preferred a different outcome as I am a Gophers' fan but it was still fun regardless. I wish there would have been more fans to up the excitement level.

Just being a new hockey fan the last couple yrs I had been to about 4 "Wild" games and had always sat in level 2 seats which I thought was great. So being from Wis and huge "Badger" fan when the opportunity to go see this game I was stoked. I started to look for seats and for the price wanted to treat myself to first level so I did! Wow what an amazing experience that was I had row 8 seat and being down on the ice is whole new rush. You get a first hand look at the speeds and sounds of the game. The stick play and intensity of the players as well as crowd is in your face the whole time it was truly awesome. I would highly recommend this event to any Hockey fan, the seats were very reasonable and the view was great, like high school college events have lots of loud cheering fans who are into there schools. To top it off the "Badgers" ended up winning not only that game but the whole tournament! GO "Bucky"!!

Too bad to Gophers couldn't pull of a Friday night win but since we already had tickets for the Sat game we went to OSU/Wisconsin....it was a great game...into OT!

There was on one at this tournament. There was no energy it felt stiff. you felt like you were trapped. The atmosphere was not fun

I have to say we had a great weekend watching these kids give 100 %. We felt bad for anyone who lost. It was a great tourney while there we bought tixs for the wild/redwing game that was sandwiched in between games for the tourney , I thought the wild game was boring and slow compared to the college games. We will go again for sure GOOD JOB EXCEL CENTER

We attended all the sessions, and found few memorable moments as compared to WCHA events in prior years. Minnesota was the only team with cheerleaders. Penn State had no band. Officials were not consistent in calling penalties. Entrance to women's restroom was congested with men going to the Budweiser bar on the main level. We purchased tickets last summer for this tourney and was assigned seats in the end zone. Tried to change our seats but they said no. There were empty seats everywhere for all sessions.

Big Ten Men's Ice Hockey Tournament was a big mistake. Referees were horrible and venue was at least half empty.

I have attended the WCHA Final Five for many years. Going into this weekend I had high hopes this would be as fun of a tournament. I was very disappointed with the whole tournament. I understand the rivalries of the WCHA isn't in the Big Ten conference yet which takes some of the fun out of it. However, there was no crowd interaction. The WCHA was always doing stuff with the crowd. Whether it be giving stuff away from sponsors, dance mania, interveiwing the crowd or playing different games during intermission. The Big Ten didn't have much of that at all which took the excitment out of the crowd (what little one was there).

This was my first Big Ten Tournament as it was for everyone who attended.I may go back, but will buy the cheapest ticket since the arena was only half full. Why not buy the cheaper ticket and move down.