Poor attendance sealed North Star Cup's fate

News of the North Star College Cup's demise didn't come with a bang, or even much of a whimper. St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko still hadn't seen an official announcement Wednesday, two days before the tournament for Minnesota's five Division I hockey teams would be played for the last time.

"It had been in limbo for a long time,'' Motzko said. "I kept asking, 'Is anybody going to make a [press] release about it?' And nobody had an answer. It was like a bad breakup, where you never get the phone call.''

The University of Minnesota quietly issued a statement Tuesday, saying that the North Star College Cup will end its four-year run this weekend. The Gophers, St. Cloud State, Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State will play in the final edition Friday and Saturday at Xcel Energy Center. Tom McGinnis, a senior associate athletic director at the U who helped create the tournament, said a lack of fan interest — which translated to many empty seats — led to the decision to discontinue the event.

The five coaches expressed mixed feelings. Though they liked the concept, dropping the tournament frees up two dates on their nonconference schedules for home games. The Gophers' Don Lucia, Bemidji State's Tom Serratore, UMD's Scott Sandelin and Motzko added that they remain deeply committed to playing each other regularly, which was the main impetus for starting the tournament after conference realignment divided the teams into three separate leagues.

Still, Serratore said he is disappointed the event did not last long enough to find an audience.

"I can't speak for everyone,'' said Serratore, whose team won the North Star Cup in 2015 and was runner-up last year. "But I know at Bemidji State, we loved the tournament. It's a great weekend, and it's too bad we couldn't keep it going.

"I think we have an obligation to college hockey fans in the state of Minnesota to showcase those teams at one of the best venues in the world. A lot of people enjoy it. A lot of alumni enjoy it. It is what it is, but I don't know if we gave it enough time.''

The North Star College Cup began in 2014, after the state's teams were dispersed from the old WCHA into the Big Ten, the National Collegiate Hockey Conference and the newly reconfigured WCHA. The Gophers served as permanent host and were part of the field every year. St. Cloud State, Bemidji State, UMD and Minnesota State Mankato participated on a rotating basis, with one sitting out each edition.

McGinnis said ticket sales for this weekend's event are similar to last year, when attendance for the four games was announced at 23,584. The tournament drew announced crowds of 28,906 in 2014 and 28,715 in 2015.

The five schools committed to an initial four-year run. They hoped the North Star Cup might grow to be as popular as the old WCHA's postseason tournament, which packed Xcel with crowds of more than 17,000 per game at its peak. Since it began, they have tinkered with the details to try to boost attendance, experimenting with different ticket prices and moving last year's event to Saturday and Sunday.

That only made it worse. Following last year's tournament — when only a few thousand people showed up for the championship and consolation games — McGinnis said the schools discussed more ideas, such as moving the event to campus sites. After deciding there was no surefire way to improve things, they pulled the plug.

"There weren't a lot of people at the championship game last year, even though St. Cloud was No. 3 in the country,'' McGinnis said. "That's when it clicked for us that this isn't the magic event we hoped it would turn into. All the schools certainly were disappointed, because we all had high hopes.

"If we're playing in front of 6,000 or 7,000 people in a half-empty building, that's not the experience we want this to be for our student-athletes or our fans. … It just didn't pan out the way we thought it would.''

Though the tournament didn't catch on, McGinnis said one of its central aims did not die with it. All five Minnesota programs have pledged to continue playing each other as much as possible.

The Gophers will play UMD in next October's Ice Breaker tournament, followed by home-and-home series against the Bulldogs in four of the next five seasons. St. Cloud State and MSU Mankato, whom the Gophers played in nonconference series earlier this season, will remain on the schedule.

"In some form or fashion, we're going to find ways to keep playing each other,'' Motzko said. "It may not be annually, but it's going to be pretty regular. It's just common sense.''

Motzko and Serratore hope the North Star Cup can be revived in the future, perhaps on an every-other-year basis. Playing at Xcel for a trophy and in-state bragging rights, Serratore said, is an experience worth preserving.

"I just think there's a lot of upside,'' he said. "And I think this weekend, we're going to have an outstanding tournament.''