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Although I have been a lifelong Gopher fan,this tournament needs something more to create a real hockey atmosphere. No one attends the games other than close friends and families of the chosen teams. Hard to have fun with 2000 people in the stands in an 18,500 seat arena that is second to none...Lets try to find a way to liven this tournament up!!
I thought the tournament was terrific and I absolutely loved the Rock music before the games!!!!
We had a great time and will definitely be back next year.
Quality event, with a disappointing crowd. Very empty, though the games were considered "Sold Out". Kind of sad that people no longer appreciate good hockey, even if out state teams are playing for the championship.
I ordered these seats for over $40.00 each. There was no notice of an obstructed view so I thought these seats would be fine. When my daughter and I found our seats we were shocked! As you can see from the pictures, we had hockey sticks as our main view. I felt like I had STUPID stamped across my forehead when the people around us saw what seats we had. Needless to say, we did not sit there. We found other seats but got kicked out of these seats as the ticket holders of these seats wanted their spot. This happened one more time before we were able to find a spot we did not get kicked out of. This spot was much farther away than we had hoped to be. The college cup is an awesome event. I love hockey at the Excel, whether it be high school, college, or professional. But this event really sucked for me because of the embarrassment of having to move all the time, having awful seats, and having to pay $85.00 or more dollars for these seats.
I watched this event on TV last year, and liked it so much, I thought I'd treat my brother to the next one for Christmas. We both enjoyed it, but I would have enjoyed it more if the Gophers had bothered to show up and play... very disappointing showing by a purported national powerhouse.
The North Star College cup is a great hockey tournament is 4 great games of hockey. I have been to the tournament the last two years and found a few things annoying: 1. You can't leave between games/there isn't much time between games. As a former WCHA final five attendee part of the fun was going and exploring St. Paul between games, getting some food and drinks. 2. Reviews are show sparingly and very conservatively. It's hockey... Please show us the controversial calls! Get the crowd into it, better yet let us know what's going on. Part of why attendance at hockey games is down is when you're at home you have announcers and DVR's to understand calls etc. Tell us what's going on, this past weekend there was a 5 minute major with no replay, they didn't even tell us what the call was. There was even a goal over the weekend with no replay!! Overall I would go this event again but would like to see some improvements.
After 20 year season ticket holder of High School hockey tickets as well as the WCHA final five. I was disappointed with my location, as it wasn't packed. I was told they were the best available but?? Plus the giveaways seemed to be in section 110 every time, the female announcer was terrible and program seemed to be a menu. The prices for everything was insane! Fortunately my sons are older, but a family with small children, probably wouldn't be able to afford attendance. I paid allot of money and didn't feel I got much bang for my buck! (This is not the tournaments fault ) I am a Gophers fan and I am tired of being constantly let down so I think I will stop following them. I don't know whether I will attend again unless allot of changes are made?
Great event! Really enjoyed it,. Just wish gophers won.
This was our second time attending the North Star College Cup, and we had a great time watching the little MnSCU schools beat up on the Goliath U of M and UMD programs. Go Beavers!
I attended the WCHA Final 5 for 18 years straight! Then, the team where juggled when the Big Ten arrived. I went to the inaugural event for for the Big Ten Playoffs and the North Star Cup! The North Star cup had rivalry, excitement and a well organized event. The Big Ten had crickets. I predict the North Star Cup will be just as big as the Bean Town Tournament out in Boston! These will be the top tournament tickets to have! Now the organizers need to sell package deals to return customers, so that I can own the same 4 seats in the Xcel Energy Center for 18 more years, just like I did with the WCHA!!
As a long time Mavericks fan I expect disrespect from anything the Gophers are involved in. However I was amazed at the PA for the Mav's game on friday night against the Gophers. He referred to us as Mankato State. We were the #1 team in the country at the time and were not even referred to by the right name (Minnesota State). I attribute this to an intentional act of disrespect and I was very disappointed. Also when announcing scores he would state "scoring for Mankato". Do you announce "Scoring for the twin cities" ? No. I am use to the disrespect and it usually gives our team the extra motivation to beat the gophers. So thank you!
We attended the Northstar event during winter carnival 2015 in St Paul. Great event and what made it really special is that you can step outside between games. The hockey was the best!
The Northstar College Cup was a great weekend Event! A great weekend of Hockey at a wonderful Venue!
Lots of empty seats at each game. They should do some kind of ticket deals so that students can came to the games. No souvenirs for the second year. As you would expect, all food and drink was very expensive. I can't speak for people who went to see the other teams, but Gopher games are more fun at Mariucci Arena. Parking was more expensive than usual due to the other Winter Carnival events in the area. It was fun to go and see four games in 2 days.
The Excel Center should turn their music off during the game and let the college bands play on. The bands add to the experience and the speaker system took away from it and was way too loud. Fans were great overall and there was fun respectful banter between them, but nothing disrespectful that I saw. The one exception was 4 Maverick fans in C14 that threw a soda down on the level below and then ejected themselves. Very classless and not a great example for the kids I was with. Still a great event to go to and see the MN teams play each other. I hope it grows in popularity and player intensity in the future.
The hockey, the venue, the fans and even the refs made the College Cup a great experience. However, if you are not going to highlight all participating teams in internal ads it should really he called The MN Gopher Cup.
We loved the event. The hockey was amazing. The timing was a little off as both 7:00 games began well after 7:00. 1 due to overtime, the other not. Xcel is an amazing venue. Areas for improvement next year include: 1) either allow in/out or offer more food options and 2) a minor thing, but we purchased a $8.50 bowl of popcorn on Friday night during the second game because it was "free refills for the next game". When we attempted to bring our buckets in the next night (Saturday night), the gate staff made us discard them. In the few minutes that we spent going through the gate, there were 3 other people that also had to throw theirs away as well. Don't sell a "all you can eat" popcorn bucket for a multiple day event and not allow customers to bring the empty bucket back the next day. We would also suggest open or rush seating for this event. We purchased tickets in the Club section, but sat in the 200 section because the view was better and they were completely empty.
It's hard to find a better weekend of college hockey for Minnesotans, but there's still room for improvement. There were no North Star Cup t-shirts or memorabilia for the inaugural event. Also, I like that there isn't much of a break between games, but it's hard to sell one ticket for both games if you only want to go to one game.
An awesome hockey tournament in a great hockey arena. I am looking forward to next year's North Star College Cup.
