There was something fishy about Friday night's hockey game. Something other than the officiating, which was questionable at best.
Miami University hosted the Midget Minor Tournament. This tournament featured various U16 teams from America and Canada. According to Athletic Director Brad Bates, 40 percent of the current roster played in the Midget Minor Tournament at the Goggin.
Miami hosted the tournament, and because the RedHawks had a weekend series at home against Ferris State, what better way to recruit future stars and young prodigies than to let them soak in the Goggin game-day experience?
However, instead of giving the players special seating somewhere in the paid sections, the university opted to give players and their families an entire section of student seats.
"We have a very limited number of single-game tickets that are not proximate," Bates said.
But when you take away the band, the Goggin has about three full sections for students to sit in. If you add the few rows in front of the band and Riccoville, there are probably four sections for the students. Miami took 25 percent of our seats and gave them to recruits and their family members.
"Because we have so much respect for our students and the atmosphere they create, it would take an extraordinary group to displace them," Bates said. "These talented Midget-Minor prospects are the one group each year that we hope to make Miami students someday."
This is an understandable position, and we all want our hockey dominance to continue long after we leave. But the student section of the Goggin is already limited as it is. For seniors that remember the old Goggin, the new Goggin was supposed to be a spacious oasis-no more long lines and crammed seats. While there are more student seats at the new Goggin, turnout still exceeds accessibility.
Ferris State doesn't evoke the same emotions of the University of Michigan or the Ohio State University. Even though the Bulldogs are second in the CCHA, there wasn't the weeklong buzz around campus that precedes Michigan week. But our hockey team is a must-see team on this campus. There were more students than student section seats, as per the usual for hockey games.
When Miami plays teams like Ferris State, the seats that are empty are the paid seats. Miami knew when this tournament was going to be held and could have reserved a section for players and their families.
Bates said another reason for putting the players in the student section is to "place these great prospects in the heart of our great atmosphere." As a student who sat directly behind them, they did not seem to be engaged in the atmosphere. One player read a book the entire game. There was no standing until the shootout.
Miami has one of the best home-ice advantages because our students are so loud and so involved. We come an hour or two early just to get one of the limited number of seats available to us. The administration should have planned better and should not have taken away 25 percent of our seats.
