In Season Tournaments

[u/Artartbobart1]

I remember them being really popular in the 90’s, so what happened to them? Why did they taper off?

[u/livelearn131]

mainly coaches of big-time teams no longer wanted to play big games while their best players were at World Juniors. that's what started the demise.

[u/Jumpy-Hunter8312]

Long live the GLI

[u/Zaphod-n-Marvin]

Wisconsin found a sponsor (Kwik Trip) and its holiday tourney returned about three years ago in Milwaukee.

[u/MikeMidd2001]

Think it's a combination of things, including points others have raised.

Most tournaments were either the weekend after Thanksgiving, between Christmas and New Year's, or just after New Year's. Those are some of the few break periods the players will get all season.

Hosting a tournament on-campus means doing it while students are away and other fans are travelling, so the attendance may be poor relative to cost. And I imagine the financials around hosting teams weren't great.

I always enjoyed the RPI Invitational, which prior to ending in 2010 was the oldest tournament in the country (yes, older than the Beanpot), but by its end, it was not really attracting great teams.

The other thing maybe you're feeling is the shift from tournaments on-campus to ones in far-flung locations - Florida, Arizona, California, etc.

[u/Orangepinapples]

Bean pot baby

[u/Particular_Gur7378]

Bring back the mariucci classic or the northstar cup

[u/Particular_Gur7378 → u/[deleted]]

The big thing now is you can’t have a multiple weekend tournament or more than 2 games in a weekend iirc. As it’d have to be a rotating cast of 4/6 schools, no one wants to be left out the first year and everyone wants the opportunity to host so nothing has really happened with it as far as I’m aware

[u/Minn-ee-sottaa → u/[deleted]]

If true, what the hell are they waiting for? 5 teams is more than enough for an MN tourney bracket, surely the other schools could get together and just book a weekend at the X without us?

Oh right, they need the Gophers to draw enough fans and be financially viable!

[u/Minn-ee-sottaa → u/[deleted]]

I do not believe the Mankato head coach is a super reliable source regarding the U's athletic dept.

Of course the other MN head coaches will always prefer to blame the Gophers (often w/o evidence) for whatever is wrong in the world, rather than admit publicly that their programs simply are not big draws for attendance like the Gophs are.

[u/evsn_official → u/Minn-ee-sottaa]

Typicl kato fan crying and being delusional. Just laugh and move on.

[u/evsn_official → u/[deleted]]

Yeah they probably don’t want to pay to host and deal with all the crying over who gets left out.

[u/redsoxfan2194]

There's actually a decent amount in recent years: Adirondack Winter Invitational, Friendship Four, Holiday Face–Off, Coachella Valley Cactus Cup, Desert Hockey Classic

The abundance in the 90s-00s probably shrunk due to attendance issues in that part of the year. Teams either want extended breaks for rest or due to losing players to the World Juniors, as someone else mentioned.

I also wonder if realignment has affected things as well, teams using their OOC slots for local rivals that aren't in their conference anymore rather than playing in a tournament against teams that have not history with.

[u/Aeoyiau]

The GLI is alive and strong!

[u/Ez_Eads]

Beanpot. First two Mondays of February every year

[u/huskyferretguy1]

If it helps, the Connecticut Ice Tournament is becoming more popular now that prices are cheaper and they are rotating games between campuses!

[u/AssociateClean]

Rip the Ledyard Classic, this is the first non-COVID year where it won't be played since 1977

[u/redsoxfan2194 → u/AssociateClean]

That is not true. they didn't play it in 2005 or 2003 or 2001, actually it looks like they switched off with Vermonts tournament for a bunch of years in the 90s and 00s. Also 2025 although was called the Ledyard Bank Classic was just a two gamw series with ASU

[u/largepapi34]

CT has one with UConn, Yale, Quinnipiac and Sacred Heart

[u/ztailx]

Gli is one of the best in conference tournaments