While it was known a couple of weeks ago that these were the dates, they have only recently been added to Michigan's schedule (as far as I know).
This year the GLI will be played on the 1st and 2nd of January. Michigan's first game will be New Years Day against Bowling Green at 6:00 PM. The Tuesday game (January 2) will be played against either Michigan State or Michigan Tech, depending on the outcome of both games on New Years Day. Time will be determined by whether they are playing for a championship or in the consolation game.
I don't know about others, but I generally don't want to go anywhere on New Years Day. The next day is usually the day you go back to work after some time off, if is of course the day after New Years Eve and while that doesn't impact me as much as it might have in my younger days, I'm sure it will impact some, and then of course it's New Years Day; one of the biggest days in college football out there.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a thinly populated LCA for the games on the 1st. It may not be too bad on the 2nd, depending on what teams are playing and when, but a lot of people will be back at work making the afternoon game difficult and if the wrong teams are in the finals that could be a stretch as well. By the wrong teams I mean teams that are more than an hour or two away from Detroit. Nothing against Bowling Green or Michigan Tech, but their fan bases will have to travel quite a distance (especially Tech's) for games during the week.
This just seems like a really strange time to play these games. Maybe I'm all wrong and the Arena will be packed both days, but that just seems unlikely to me. I know it's a new Arena and all and both Basketball and Hockey use it, along with all sorts of non-sport events (I've looked at the LCA schedule and it is packed), but the GLI shouldn't have been a mystery. It's the 53rd one of these and it's been played in the Arena managed by Olympia Entertainment for quite a while now.
Michigan could be short-handed, I think a couple of guys are under consideration for the WJC roster. So Michigan plays these games on the 1st and 2nd, then open the 2nd half of Big Ten play against Notre Dame on the 5th. I haven't seen the WJC schedule for this year, but I imagine they could also be short handed for the Notre Dame series (the last couple of years Michigan had kept that first weekend in January open to let guys get back from the WJC). The first week of 2018 is going to be a hectic one for the hockey team.
This year the GLI will be played on the 1st and 2nd of January. Michigan's first game will be New Years Day against Bowling Green at 6:00 PM. The Tuesday game (January 2) will be played against either Michigan State or Michigan Tech, depending on the outcome of both games on New Years Day. Time will be determined by whether they are playing for a championship or in the consolation game.
I don't know about others, but I generally don't want to go anywhere on New Years Day. The next day is usually the day you go back to work after some time off, if is of course the day after New Years Eve and while that doesn't impact me as much as it might have in my younger days, I'm sure it will impact some, and then of course it's New Years Day; one of the biggest days in college football out there.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a thinly populated LCA for the games on the 1st. It may not be too bad on the 2nd, depending on what teams are playing and when, but a lot of people will be back at work making the afternoon game difficult and if the wrong teams are in the finals that could be a stretch as well. By the wrong teams I mean teams that are more than an hour or two away from Detroit. Nothing against Bowling Green or Michigan Tech, but their fan bases will have to travel quite a distance (especially Tech's) for games during the week.
This just seems like a really strange time to play these games. Maybe I'm all wrong and the Arena will be packed both days, but that just seems unlikely to me. I know it's a new Arena and all and both Basketball and Hockey use it, along with all sorts of non-sport events (I've looked at the LCA schedule and it is packed), but the GLI shouldn't have been a mystery. It's the 53rd one of these and it's been played in the Arena managed by Olympia Entertainment for quite a while now.
Michigan could be short-handed, I think a couple of guys are under consideration for the WJC roster. So Michigan plays these games on the 1st and 2nd, then open the 2nd half of Big Ten play against Notre Dame on the 5th. I haven't seen the WJC schedule for this year, but I imagine they could also be short handed for the Notre Dame series (the last couple of years Michigan had kept that first weekend in January open to let guys get back from the WJC). The first week of 2018 is going to be a hectic one for the hockey team.
