GLI to be January 1st & 2nd

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on October 5th, 2017 at 11:53 PM

On this Hockey season eve/Mel Pearson era eve, some news on the GLI that has ominously been TBA for months.

Scheduling was always gonna be an issue with now having the Pistons to work around.

January 1st attendance is gonna be pretty bad.

Great Lakes Invitational is slated to be Jan. 1-2 at @LCA_Detroit
It'll switch back to lte December in future years. @umichhockey @mtuhky
— George Sipple (@GeorgeSipple) October 5, 2017

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SteelBrad

October 5th, 2017 at 11:57 PM ^

You think January 2nd attendance will be any better?

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Wolverine Devotee

October 5th, 2017 at 11:59 PM ^

Yeah. There's no NYD bowl games on 1/2. Plus it's the GLI championship day.

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stephenrjking

October 6th, 2017 at 12:00 AM ^

Should be a decent number of Spartan fans, it's not like they'll be playing football on New Year's.

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Wolverine Devotee

October 6th, 2017 at 12:03 AM ^

LOL that's funny, you suggested they have fans that would show up to a hockey game that's not against us.

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stephenrjking

October 6th, 2017 at 12:16 AM ^

No idea how things will transfer to the new place, but the Joe had a dedicated group of ticketholders for both teams that got the same seats every year and went to all of the games regardless of opponent. The same guy in the same section that started yelling a "Let's go State!" chant during play in every game at the Joe for years, for example. MSU does have a dedicated hockey fanbase. It has shrunk considerably due to AD neglect, but it is there. And they won't have any football to watch.

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stephenrjking

October 6th, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^

BTW they might say it will switch back in future years but if it is delayed in year one it will probably get kicked around again. Not good. I won't be in town this year but I'm looking forward to trying to catch a GLI soon to see the new place.

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Leaders And Best

October 6th, 2017 at 7:14 AM ^

I think this may have more to do with the Pistons making the decision to move to LCA so late. I think the NBA officially approved the move only a couple weeks before the 2017-18 NBA schedule was announced. It is possible the GLI dates were not blocked off when the NBA was making the schedule, or LCA/Olympia had already booked events prior to the Pistons decision that complicated the schedule.

There are other shared NBA/NHL buildings that accommodate events like this. The Beanpot, for example.

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stephenrjking

October 6th, 2017 at 1:23 PM ^

I hope you're right; certainly a plausible explanation for why things are compressed this year.

Your counter-example isn't perfectly analagous, though. The Beanpot takes place on consecutive Monday nights, a much easier arrangement to schedule around than two days in a row later in the week.

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