A Tale of Two Cities

Amongst the nation’s top tier of women’s hockey programs, Harvard, receives significantly lower game attendance than No. 1 Minnesota, No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth and No. 3 Dartmouth.

The numbers can be expected to be slightly higher in the Minnesota region, where hockey is traditionally more popular than anywhere else in the nation. Minnesota averaged about 2,000 fans per game last year, while UMD averaged about 1,000. Last year, a regular season game between the two North Star State titans drew over 3,000 fans at Minnesota’s Ridder Arena, incidentally the only collegiate arena used exclusively for women’s hockey.

Dartmouth, meanwhile, has seen the largest rise in fan attendance this season. The Big Green averaged about 550 fans per game at this point last season. This season, nearly 1,100 fans on average pack into Thompson Arena when school in session.

“The men have only played two or three home games this year,” says Dartmouth coach Mark Kudak. “I think we’ve been getting a number of people that generally come to their games.”

That, coupled with the atmosphere in Hanover, N.H., helps the Big Green’s draw.

“Dartmouth is the big show in a small town,” Kudak says.

While their fan base expands, Harvard’s seems to have withered. The Crimson’s season attendance records are not only low relative to the other top teams in the nation this year, but also drastically lower than the support Harvard teams have received in the past.

Game attendance has dropped considerably relative to the past four seasons and is now at its lowest since the team’s 1999 championship season.

“We’ve got a tremendous product,” Stone says. “We’ve just got to get the word out.”

“It’s not something I’m concerned about,” she adds. “It’s just something we want to put as much energy into this building as we can every day we play and particularly for those big ECAC games.”

A comparison of Harvard and Dartmouth attendance records against the same opponent, New Hampshire, reveals the tale of two schools.

On Dec. 9 this season, the largest crowd of the season watched Harvard blank then-No. 7 UNH in what Stone called the team’s best game all season.

Ruggiero summed up the Crimson’s emotions after the game, saying “This is why I play hockey right here—these kind of games where it’s so intense and every little play matters.”

But 234 fans came to Bright Arena and saw the Crimson’s impressive display of smothering defense and well-executed special teams. That was the largest crowd the Crimson has attracted to Bright this season.