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The NCAA sent out a press release today giving the preliminary schedule for the NCAA ice hockey regionals, and announcing that the tickets that nobody in their right mind would buy will go on sale this Friday.
Here's what the schedule looks like:
The East Regional, held at Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut will host their regional semifinals on March 28th at 2pm and 5pm EST. The regional final will take place the next day at 3pm.
The Midwest Regional in Cincinnati, Ohio will host their semifinals at 4:30pm and 8pm on March 28th. The regional final will take place on the 29th at 6:30pm.
The West Regional, held at the XCel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota will hold their regional semifinals on March 29th at 5:30pm and 9pm CST. The regional final will be held at 7:30pm the next day.
The Northeast Regional will be held at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. Their regional semifinals will be held on March 29th at 4:00pm and 7:30pm EST on March 29th. The regional final will be held on the 30th at 5pm.
The East Regional final, and first semifinal from the West regional will be broadcast on ESPN2. All other regional games will be on some combination of ESPNU and streaming on ESPN3.
Ticket prices for each of the regionals are now up on Ticketmaster's website, and once again, they are extremely prohibitive for all but the most hardcore/affluent college hockey fans.
Prices for a three-game ticket package(including Ticketmaster fees) to each of the regionals are as follows:
East Regional: $78.30
Midwest Regional: $43
West Regional: $102.40
Northeast Regional: $96.50
Tickets are only available in three-game packages right now, though it's extremely likely that, like last year, single-day tickets at half the cost will be made available the week before the tournament.
A year after some embarrassing attendance numbers, the NCAA did little to address the issue of ticket prices being way, way too expensive to draw in local casual fans. Of course, there was little they could do in terms of ticket price flexibility, because they insist on using costly neutral site venues that do little for the fan experience, rather than choosing to use home arena venues that would provide more atmosphere and build more interest in the sport.