In Texas, high school football games draw crowds of over 10,000 fans on a weekly basis. In Indiana, basketball is king from youth levels all the way to professional ranks. In Canada, our neighbor to the north, children seem to be born with skates on their feet and sticks in hand, ready to hit the ice at the local rink.
New England has a rich tradition of sending a multitude of players to the National Hockey League. The University of Maine Black Bears hockey program had eight players, including Scott Pellerin and Paul Kariya, move from Orono to the pros.
From attendance figures at the Costello Sports Complex, it is apparent that fans have little interest in ice hockey. There have been 13 USM men’s and women’s hockey games at the Gorham campus rink this season. In those 13 games, there have only been two games in which there have been more than 200 fans in attendance. Together, both programs averaged 158 fans per game.
Next door at the Hill Gym, USM’s basketball program draws considerably larger crowds. The men’s and women’s hoop teams averaged nearly double the hockey program with an average attendance of 300 fans per game. Even the AHL all-star game has 300 tickets remaining to fill the 6,733 seats in the Cumberland County Civic Center. This leads to the question: why is there so much of a difference in fan support between basketball and hockey?
“Maine has been mostly a basketball state,” said Norm Karkos of WMTW-TV. “The fans will fill a gym to watch a high school basketball game, and yet a top playoff hockey game will have a sparse attendance.”
“Basketball is number one in Southern Maine and throughout the state,” Frank Fixaris, a longtime fixture in Southern Maine sports, said. Fixaris concurs with Karkos. “Hockey is on the rise especially with the start of women’s hockey in the Portland, Deering, Falmouth, and Cheverus winter sports programs in recent years.”
However, the recent success of the annual Maine High School Hockey Invitational in Portland suggests that a stronger fan base is emerging. These tournaments attracted quality ice school hockey teams from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York. The tournament also attracted more fans through the gates to watch these top high school athletes perform.
It has been the strong base of local basketball talent that Coach Gary Fifield has drawn from in the building and maintaining of a championship program in women’s basketball. Perhaps it is that recognition of the local player that has drawn fans to the Hill Gym.
Both USM basketball teams have only five players from out of state. The hockey teams in contrast have only eight of 49 players that are homegrown, with a strong presence of talent from Massachusetts.
“The pool of hockey players from Massachusetts is quite stronger due mainly in fact to the longevity and strength of their programs,” Athletics Director Al Bean said. “As more and more hockey programs develop and mature, there will be more of a homegrown pool of players.”
This could be a statement of how far behind the development of hockey players is here in Maine compared to the rest of New England. Another explanation may be that the state’s high school athletic programs need to take a long hard look at revamping the regular season and playoff scenarios.
The development of an elite eight tournament, pitting the best of the best against each other in a double-elimination tournament, is a strong option. For many years, Massachusetts went through the same problem. As soon as the state’s Super 8 tournament was initiated, the level of interest in ice hockey dramatically increased.
The start of an elite eight tournament would also open the door for a second-tier tournament for those teams that eliminated annually by the Portland, Lewiston-Auburn, and Waterville squads.
Just like the USM women’s hockey program has come a long way in five years, so must hockey programs in the state of Maine. Reforming and developing a stronger playoff system statewide in all sports will only strengthen player development for the collegiate level of play.