Filling seats

At a hockey game, deafening silence is not what the players want to hear. To combat a repeat of last year, when hundreds of tickets went unsold for the Cavendish University Cup, the Lakehead Thunderwolves have set out to put student bums in seats.

On Thursday the team announced a partnership with student unions at both Lakehead University and Confederation College, a plan that will provide vastly reduced tickets to 300 students for LU’s two round-robin games at the national university hockey championships being staged next month at Fort William Gardens.

It’s about creating a frenzied hockey atmosphere, said Lakehead University Student Union president Dave Grad.

"It would be great to build that community here at Lakehead University," Grad said. "You already get the people who come out all the time. But with the first-year (students), a lot of them don’t know much about the hockey team. They haven’t been given much chance to go. So this year we’re providing them busing, we’re giving them reduced tickets, we’re giving them all the reason to go."

Each school gets an allotment of 150 tickets, which will be part of a $5 package that includes a pre-party at the Outpost, a ride to the game and entrance to the Wolf Den.

Ryan West, president of the Student Union of Confederation College Inc., said not only is it something that can benefit money-challenged students at the end of the school year, it’s a great way to support the team and the community.

"It’s wonderful to have students from both campuses passionate out there. I truly believe it is going to be very entertaining hockey, as well as a lot of enthusiasm," West said.

The team’s executive director said one of his challenges when he took the job was creating more student involvement in the team.

Jason Mallon, who played four seasons at the University of Miami (Ohio), where his teammates included current Canadian Olympian Dan Boyle, said the student atmosphere at that level of play is what he’d like to recreate in Thunder Bay.

And not just for the Cavendish University Cup, he added.

"We’ve done a couple of games this year with 150 students and the atmosphere has been fantastic, from doing the wave to body painting to dancing. It’s just fantastic. We are Thunder Bay’s team and that’s why it’s really important that we have the college and LUSU involved," Mallon said.
There’s one goal in mind, he said.

"It’s going to be a lot louder … and I really think it’s going to help our team out there."

If successful, he’d like to extend the program to the regular season next year, picking select games to bring their hoped-for seventh man out of the woodwork at the Gardens.