(04-09-2018 10:59 PM)NoDak Wrote: A private developer was going to build an arena and hotel complex in downtown Champaign. Aa Pegula type donor isn’t needed. If the Illini want hockey endowed, a campaign for $20 mill could happen rather fast.
Heard that in addition to hockey, women’s volleyball and gymnastics would also have competition there.
Why did Illinois and Oakland make their participation in feasibility studies public? They could have chosen to keep quiet about it like two other schools have done, and the public would not have known of their potential interest.
Think both places will field very strong teams with good support.
Yes, there is a private arena development proposal. If that wasn’t on the table, then Illinois would need to raise $100 million instead of $50 million. What Illinois has made clear is that full endowment is an absolute 100% requirement to start a hockey program and no current athletic department funds are going to be used to support hockey: it all has to be net new money coming. As a result, it’s not “just” $20 million (which is still a massive number even for a huge Big Ten school). Illinois also needs to fully endow at least one other women’s sport (such as hockey and/or lacrosse), endow at least the head coaching position, and set up a fund to cover long-term expenses of renting the new private arena. Once again, none of that money can come from current athletic department funding. So, $50 million is the number that I’ve consistently heard for what would be required as a minimum. Other schools might be willing to not fully endow scholarships, cut other men’s sports, or use existing athletic department funds for starting hockey that would all require less upfront fundraising, but that simply won’t be happening at Illinois (which is a stance that I agree with). Believe me - I wish that startup number was lower, but it is what it is.
At least for Illinois, the release of the study served its purpose of furthering the objective above: if the school can get $50 million, then it’s not just throwing that money down the drain for hockey. Instead, it can be a long-term revenue generator and this school has the earmarks of future success in the sport both on and off-the-ice. Josh Whitman (the Illinois AD) can take this study to potential donors and show that he’s not just blowing smoke. I’m just saying that Whitman would be the first to tell you that hockey isn’t happening without the full fundraising that I’ve noted above. All of this money has to be net new - that’s simply the requirement for Illinois.
The school is pushing its alums for donations for a LOT of initiatives right now, so no one can assume that hockey funding is going to be easy to find when there are so many high dollar priorities for the university. Like I’ve said - I’d LOVE for Illinois to have hockey. However, if I actually was in position to make a $50 million donation to the university, do I want to donate it for hockey or, say, provide it for the new medical school that also needs a ton of capital to get off of the ground? $50 million could probably turn the U of I College of Education (where my wife graduated from) into one of the very top education programs in the country and fully endow scholarships for hundreds of future teachers to be able to graduate without debt. There are countless other tangible and worthy academic initiatives all over the place at U of I that our high net worth donors are evaluating right now. I’m just not sure where hockey falls on the priority list for any of them.
Remember that U of I’s competitors in academia are places like Michigan, Berkeley, the Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford, etc. It takes a LOT of money to compete with them for institutes and professors that make trying to compete with Alabama and Ohio State for football look like a drop in the hockey by comparison. Throughout this whole process, I have been hopeful for hockey because I absolutely agree with the study showing that it would be a huge success at Illinois, but I also understand that this is a much larger fundraising hurdle than a lot of people are giving it credit for (as this is a Big Ten school that isn’t going to have a bare bones operation).
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University of Illinois upgrading Club Hockey to D1?
