those sure are some cool arena's

http://www.muredhawks.com/fls/26100/old_...M_ID=26100

Well, kind of ECU specific I guess.... we have a Club team but they do a lot of "home" games up in Raleigh. The rink here is smaller than regulation (think converted Roller Skating Rink). I think both the Bladez on Ice and ECU could put together a decent regulation rink for both. I doubt ECU would ever multipurpose Minges. I'd have no idea if the market demographics could support a City/ECU/Bladez on ice partnership for a multipurpose arena.

I think the Club team could draw better given a real arena with real seating capacity. Don't get me wrong as I doubt seating over 2-4K would make good on cost/benefit analysis.

While YES, Title IX would be a concern, I think we could find a Women's sport to fill in. That Sand Volleyball would be EPIC :D

(07-12-2013 11:13 PM)PirateTreasureNC Wrote:  Well, kind of ECU specific I guess.... we have a Club team but they do a lot of "home" games up in Raleigh. The rink here is smaller than regulation (think converted Roller Skating Rink). I think both the Bladez on Ice and ECU could put together a decent regulation rink for both. I doubt ECU would ever multipurpose Minges. I'd have no idea if the market demographics could support a City/ECU/Bladez on ice partnership for a multipurpose arena.

I think the Club team could draw better given a real arena with real seating capacity. Don't get me wrong as I doubt seating over 2-4K would make good on cost/benefit analysis.

While YES, Title IX would be a concern, I think we could find a Women's sport to fill in. That Sand Volleyball would be EPIC :D

If Greenville doesn't have a 3-4000 seat rink, it's difficult imagining a league that would want ECU. It's almost impossible for a new college hockey team to get home games without a league, so starting a hockey team without a league agreement practically guarantees failure.

For ECU, the only league that might consider ECU would be Atlantic Hockey (they will be at 11 members once UConn moves to Hockey East). The two schools considered the likely 12th school are Rhode Island (moving up from club) and St Anselm's (NH) moving up from DII. Both have on campus rinks.

Navy and Liberty have made noises in the past about starting DI hockey (and both have on-campus rinks and Liberty in particular has very good club hockey), but both have limited conference options: namely Atlantic Hockey. Both Air Force (in spite of the travel) and Army are in Atlantic Hockey, so that league would be the natural place for Navy. The ECAC and Hockey East have not added schools outside the NE with exception of Notre Dame to Hockey East, and likely wouldn't unless a higher level academic school like UVa or UNC wanted in.

Alabama-Huntsville will now be in the WCHA, but that league was kind of in a scheduling bind with only nine schools plus the other schools wanted to dilute the number of times to fly to Alaska (two Alaska schools in that league). The WCHA and NCHC play two game series at one location on weekends, so travel partners really don't apply to those situations. UAH actually had support from Minn St-Mankato and Bemidji St, as all three were rivals from DII days.

What really needs to happen is for a southeastern hockey league to form:

Navy, Liberty, UAH, ECU, Kennesaw St (explored it), FGCU (considered it), with maybe Delaware and NJIT as NE anchors (both have some hockey interest).

Fun fact about Penn State's new Pegula Ice Arena: Miami's Goggin Ice Center was used as a rough template for it's construction (even though it was by different architecture firms). Miami fans and visitors will recognize the layout immediately, though Penn State has far more suites and seating overall (3600 vs. 6000).

a southeast hockey league will really open the doors for a lot of teams. and it will be pretty cool

although looking at pro hockey, i wouldnt be too sure if hockey is worth the risk in the south. a failed attempt at starting it could hurt some of these schools pretty badly.

Just have to throw this arena out there:

I think it completely depends on the size of your local fanbase, and how much they care about hockey.

For example, there's not a single ice rink the the Lafayette, IN metro area (despite being only 70 miles south of Lake Michigan). So it would be an uphill battle to develop a following for the sport at Purdue.

Also, it would probably cannibalize existing fan interest for other sports anyways (because Purdue sports is all that goes on). I think that other small college towns like Ames, Bloomington, and Urbana would have the same problem. But urban campuses like Cincinnati or Northwestern face a different problem: land is so expensive that building an arena would probably cost almost twice as much as in a rural or suburban campus.

I've heard that Indiana might be exploring hockey when they build their next arena, similar to what Nebraska has done, but I don't know if it's anything beyond an idea at this point.

(07-13-2013 08:50 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  I think it completely depends on the size of your local fanbase, and how much they care about hockey.

For example, there's not a single ice rink the the Lafayette, IN metro area (despite being only 70 miles south of Lake Michigan). So it would be an uphill battle to develop a following for the sport at Purdue.

Also, it would probably cannibalize existing fan interest for other sports anyways (because Purdue sports is all that goes on). I think that other small college towns like Ames, Bloomington, and Urbana would have the same problem. But urban campuses like Cincinnati or Northwestern face a different problem: land is so expensive that building an arena would probably cost almost twice as much as in a rural or suburban campus.

Think if Iowa St played DI hockey, they would actually play at Wells Fargo Center in Des Moines, where there is a lot more hockey fans plus a lot of Iowa St grads. Northwestern would likely have to play well off campus. Not friendly for students, but available to more alumni and pure hockey fans.

(07-13-2013 10:50 AM)chargeradio Wrote:  I've heard that Indiana might be exploring hockey when they build their next arena, similar to what Nebraska has done, but I don't know if it's anything beyond an idea at this point.

There has been posters from the Indiana club team insisting that Indiana DI hockey is part of the plan for a new IU arena.

Have a hunch that Maryland will convert its old Cole Coliseum to a hockey venue with help from Under Armour and participate in the B1G in that sport. Delaney probably wanted Rutgers hockey in too as a condition of membership, but not sure how venues would work there.

(07-13-2013 08:50 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote:  I think it completely depends on the size of your local fanbase, and how much they care about hockey.

Yes, that's critical. Part of why an ice hockey arena seating 4,000 works is hosting teams to play back to back games, which puts an extra premium on the fans who will go to every game they can get to relative to the fan who goes to an occasional game.

Time lapse of the conversion of UMass's Mullins Center from basketball to hockey configurations in about 2 hours:





The Mullins Center was built in the early 90s for $50 million, including the adjacent practice rink. It seats 9500 for basketball and 8400 for hockey, which is the largest capacity in the Hockey East conference. I don't know what percentage of programs with dual-purpose arenas also build separate practice rinks. I'd think it'd be a logistics headache if they didn't, but it obviously ratchets up the cost. In that configuration, it's the practice rink that gets used by the community and local youth clubs, not the arena.

(07-16-2013 01:39 PM)LastMinuteman Wrote:  I don't know what percentage of programs with dual-purpose arenas also build separate practice rinks. I'd think it'd be a logistics headache if they didn't, but it obviously ratchets up the cost.

It seems like it would be the only way to go for a school that was using dual-purpose arena.

UNL is getting ice making facilities built into its new arena, but it is also getting an Ice Center as part of the complex.

http://journalstar.com/news/local/plans-...cc175.html

Wisconsin very, very recently built an on-campus practice rink (the Kohl Center is a dual purpose arena).

http://www.uwbadgers.com/facilities/LaBahn.html

According to that article, it cost $27.9 million to build, mostly financed by donors. It's also where the women's team plays its games.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlesports/...n-seattle/

Quote:But could NCAA hockey succeed in Seattle where an NHL franchise might not fit? More to the point, might a University of Washington Division I program draw enough interest to justify at least exploring the possibilities?

From the get-go, there would be no arena issues for an NCAA program. Even after tarping over vision-obstructed end-zone seats, a scaled back KeyArena with 8,000 hockey seats would be one of the NCAA’s larger hockey venues among more than 50 member schools. If the Key didn’t work out, both Comcast Arena in Everett and ShoWare Center in Kent are more than adequate alternatives.

Quote:The attendance bar in college hockey is lower than the NHL’s. Although Wisconsin and North Dakota both average over 11,000 fans per home game, a hypothetical average of 4,000 UW hockey fans would rank 20th in the nation. (FYI: While an NHL team plays 40 home games, an NCAA hockey team typically plays 20 — or 10 two-game home series — per season.)

Quote:There is no one answer for the budget of a typical NCAA Division I hockey program. According to the Huntsville Star newspaper, Alabama-Huntsville had a $1.5 million budget for the 2010-11 season, while a proposal to bring a similar program to Minnesota State-Moorhead in 2009 also included a mock $1.5 million budget. On the other hand, traditional NCAA powerhouses like Michigan, Minnesota and North Dakota no doubt cost more to operate.

Quote:Now about those travel costs. There are two logical D1 leagues to consider joining: the 10-team Western Collegiate Hockey Association (with two schools in Alaska) and the new eight-team National Collegiate Hockey Conference (two universities in Colorado).

Neither league is optimal for a travel budget, but they’re the best available options. Regardless of affiliation, a Washington hockey team would spend a significant amount of money on airfare and Connelly thinks it “would likely require more of an investment.”

One of the best rivalries in hockey. Well, it was prior to the coming of B1G hockey. Hope to bring it back one day.

Terry Pegula, the owner of the Buffalo Sabres, donated $75 million to Penn State to start a D1 program. That included a rink.

So that might give you a good idea what it takes.

I just visited the Whittemore Center on the campus of UNH (Hockey East power) this weekend. Great facility, with an Olympic-sized rink at 100 ft x 200 ft. Other rinks are usually 85 ft x 200 ft. The UNH campus and town of Durham are awesome.

Minnesota State - Moorhead failed in its attempt to start DI hockey. It's needed $37 million in endowment funding to get state O.K. to start men's and women's hockey at the DI level. That level of endowment more or less guarantees that the programs would be solvent (salarie, equipment, and coaches, and ice rent paid) even without significant ticket sales. Think the drive was stopped with Moorhead stuck at the $30 million commitment level.

The Dragons would have played in the 5000 seat Scheels Arena in Fargo (ND).



http://www.ncaa.com/news/icehockey-men/2...ckey-funds

With a decent community arena and a decent fan base for ticket sales, starting a program at a northern urban should really be only a $3 or $4 million initial proposition. Title IX is often the killer, as women's hockey rarely brings in sponsorship or ticket sales.

(07-24-2013 01:19 AM)NoDak Wrote:  With a decent community arena and a decent fan base for ticket sales, starting a program at a northern urban should really be only a $3 or $4 million initial proposition. Title IX is often the killer, as women's hockey rarely brings in sponsorship or ticket sales.

That suggests it may be a lower lower hurdle for a Div2 or a non-FB subdivision Div1 school (either of which can compete in Div1 ice hockey, which is reality a joint Div1/Div2 affair), as they are more likely to have female sports that they can start up that are cheaper in training and travel costs than ice hockey.