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https://uahchargers.com/news/2021/5/5/ge...rship.aspx

If UAH loses men's hockey permanently, what (revenue) sports do they have left in their athletic department? Does anyone think some level of college football may gain interest in metro Huntsville to fill the gap? With all the digital, manufacturing and other industrial growth being touted for that metro area, it is hard to imagine that UAH will just "go quietly into that good night".

UAH will not start football. And they have done their best to make hockey work. The BOT is not the issue. They don’t have a decent conference option to cut costs.

(05-05-2021 07:26 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  UAH will not start football. And they have done their best to make hockey work. The BOT is not the issue. They don’t have a decent conference option to cut costs.

COVID did them no favors. With the recent popularity of the ATL and NSV pro teams I would have thought there might be some momentum to establish college hockey in the south.

(05-05-2021 07:31 PM)WesternBlazer Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 07:26 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  UAH will not start football. And they have done their best to make hockey work. The BOT is not the issue. They don’t have a decent conference option to cut costs.

COVID did them no favors. With the recent popularity of the ATL and NSV pro teams I would have thought there might be some momentum to establish college hockey in the south.

Most college hockey teams down south are club based and the Thrashers left Atlanta. At least the Bulls and Havoc are doing okay.

(05-05-2021 07:26 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  UAH will not start football. And they have done their best to make hockey work. The BOT is not the issue. They don’t have a decent conference option to cut costs.

If "the BOT is not the issue" and "UAH has done its best to make hockey work", what can be done that has not already BEEN DONE?

UAH exists because Werner von Braun threatened the state legislature that he would pull NASA and the Army Missile Command out of Redstone and move it all to Texas if Alabama did not provide a top quality engineering school in Huntsville, AL. There already was an engineering school in Normal, AL next door to Huntsville called Alabama A&M, but in the 1960s no state politician would suggest putting that kind of money into an HBCU so a new (White?) school had to be built from scratch. UAB was thrown into the mix as an after thought in 1969 since the Alabama Medical School was there.

Just as Vanderbilt and Peabody work together and Clark Tech and Worcester Tech work together, maybe UAH and Alabama A&M can find a way to cooperate to mutual benefit too. Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

(05-05-2021 08:37 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 07:26 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  UAH will not start football. And they have done their best to make hockey work. The BOT is not the issue. They don’t have a decent conference option to cut costs.

If "the BOT is not the issue" and "UAH has done its best to make hockey work", what can be done that has not already BEEN DONE?

UAH exists because Werner von Braun threatened the state legislature that he would pull NASA and the Army Missile Command out of Redstone and move it all to Texas if Alabama did not provide a top quality engineering school in Huntsville, AL. There already was an engineering school in Normal, AL next door to Huntsville called Alabama A&M, but in the 1960s no state politician would suggest putting that kind of money into an HBCU so a new (White?) school had to be built from scratch. UAB was thrown into the mix as an after thought in 1969 since the Alabama Medical School was there.

Just as Vanderbilt and Peabody work together and Clark Tech and Worcester Tech work together, maybe UAH and Alabama A&M can find a way to cooperate to mutual benefit too. Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

Maybe a engineering alliance between the two schools or a hockey team at a HBCU?

Didn't know that was how UAH got started

Unfortunately the only way I see UAH hockey coming back is if a few of the SEC teams decide they want to promote their club teams and join NCAA hockey. Even if Men's Hockey breaks even $, the Title IX requirements will sink more money. Unless supplementation from the NHL trying to make hockey bigger in the south happens, it ain't happening.

The hockey program just isn’t sustainable. There aren’t any d1 programs in the same region basically, and nobody wants to come down to Huntsville to play a two or three game series when they have closer options. It sucks, because it was once a great program, but with the changing landscape in college hockey, UAH just got screwed.

Also, I know it’s hard to believe, but UAH does have other sports that aren’t football and are still successful.

(05-05-2021 10:44 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  The hockey program just isn’t sustainable. There aren’t any d1 programs in the same region basically, and nobody wants to come down to Huntsville to play a two or three game series when they have closer options. It sucks, because it was once a great program, but with the changing landscape in college hockey, UAH just got screwed.

Also, I know it’s hard to believe, but UAH does have other sports that aren’t football and are still successful.

AU, UA, UAB, Troy, USA, Jax State, UNA, UWA, AL A&M and AL State all have other successful sports that are not football, but football is the sport that carries the financial freight. If UAH cannot have a hockey team - for whatever reason - it must find some sport that meets the financial demands of the whole AD. What might that sport be?
BTW, Huntsville's airport has several 747-8 freighters fly in and out daily, so it can handle team planes easily.

A colleague who moved here from New England told me years ago it was stunned that there was no lacrosse played here at all. Men or women and at any level.

(05-05-2021 11:59 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 10:44 PM)blazers9911 Wrote:  The hockey program just isn’t sustainable. There aren’t any d1 programs in the same region basically, and nobody wants to come down to Huntsville to play a two or three game series when they have closer options. It sucks, because it was once a great program, but with the changing landscape in college hockey, UAH just got screwed.

Also, I know it’s hard to believe, but UAH does have other sports that aren’t football and are still successful.

AU, UA, UAB, Troy, USA, Jax State, UNA, UWA, AL A&M and AL State all have other successful sports that are not football, but football is the sport that carries the financial freight. If UAH cannot have a hockey team - for whatever reason - it must find some sport that meets the financial demands of the whole AD. What might that sport be?
BTW, Huntsville's airport has several 747-8 freighters fly in and out daily, so it can handle team planes easily.

Direct flights in and out of Huntsville are not likely from most locations. It requires a layover in Atlanta or Charlotte or Detroit or Dallas. I highly doubt the hockey teams at most schools have their own airplanes.

Some college athletics are just that. They are college athletics. They are not big business, or running huge surpluses. They are there to attract some students and create some pride in the school. The hockey team was a complete drain on the entire athletics department at this point.

UAH has a great men’s basketball program. They offer a few other sports like soccer and baseball/softball, track, etc. The conference is largely located in the same region, and bussing to most locations is quite easy. Outside of maybe basketball, there isn’t a program in the department that is making any sort of money.

(05-05-2021 08:37 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

(05-06-2021 08:15 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:37 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

I’m usually sad when people quote the one person on my ignore list...but this one was worth it

(05-06-2021 03:23 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 08:15 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:37 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

I’m usually sad when people quote the one person on my ignore list...but this one was worth it

Every so often I remove everyone from my ignore list just to see how long it takes to regret doing so.

(05-06-2021 03:32 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 03:23 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 08:15 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:37 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

I’m usually sad when people quote the one person on my ignore list...but this one was worth it

Every so often I remove everyone from my ignore list just to see how long it takes to regret doing so.

Maybe I give God too much credit if you think He liked/approved of Alabama's 1960s tactics of police dogs, fire hoses, bombing a Baptist Church, burning buses on the interstate, B'ham Police covering for the KKK to beat up Freedom Riders in B'ham and Montgomery and then there were those Alabama State Troopers with barbed wire wrapped batons at the Edmund Pettus Bridge to stop the Selma to Montgomery March on Bloody Sunday followed by the KKK murder of Viola Liuzo on the highway back to Selma.

To think Alabama may find a better new way to handle its politics in the 2020s may be asking too much?

(05-08-2021 12:28 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 03:32 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 03:23 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 08:15 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:37 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  Maybe this hockey crisis is God's way of making Alabamians think differently in the 2020s than they did in the 1960s?

I’m usually sad when people quote the one person on my ignore list...but this one was worth it

Every so often I remove everyone from my ignore list just to see how long it takes to regret doing so.

Maybe I give God too much credit if you think He liked/approved of Alabama's 1960s tactics of police dogs, fire hoses, bombing a Baptist Church, burning buses on the interstate, B'ham Police covering for the KKK to beat up Freedom Riders in B'ham and Montgomery and then there were those Alabama State Troopers with barbed wire wrapped batons at the Edmund Pettus Bridge to stop the Selma to Montgomery March on Bloody Sunday followed by the KKK murder of Viola Liuzo on the highway back to Selma.

To think Alabama may find a better new way to handle its politics in the 2020s may be asking too much?

I don’t think connecting the terrible events of the 60’s with UAH’ loss of there hockey program is appropriate. It is my understanding that the decision was due to not being able to get into a conference.

Not much culture and infrastructure on hockey down here compared to football, basketball and baseball.

(05-08-2021 06:50 AM)MAN4UAB Wrote:  

(05-08-2021 12:28 AM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 03:32 PM)UAB Schnauzer Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 03:23 PM)LairDweller Wrote:  

(05-06-2021 08:15 AM)demiveeman Wrote:  

I’m usually sad when people quote the one person on my ignore list...but this one was worth it

Every so often I remove everyone from my ignore list just to see how long it takes to regret doing so.

Maybe I give God too much credit if you think He liked/approved of Alabama's 1960s tactics of police dogs, fire hoses, bombing a Baptist Church, burning buses on the interstate, B'ham Police covering for the KKK to beat up Freedom Riders in B'ham and Montgomery and then there were those Alabama State Troopers with barbed wire wrapped batons at the Edmund Pettus Bridge to stop the Selma to Montgomery March on Bloody Sunday followed by the KKK murder of Viola Liuzo on the highway back to Selma.

To think Alabama may find a better new way to handle its politics in the 2020s may be asking too much?

I don’t think connecting the terrible events of the 60’s with UAH’ loss of there hockey program is appropriate. It is my understanding that the decision was due to not being able to get into a conference.

That post was a direct response to posts #13, #14 and #15 which specified that part of my reply -- which, BTW, was said "tongue in cheek"..

UAH, like UAB, was not started by th UA System with the idea they would ever have athletic programs. As an early BOT member said when asked about sports at UAB, "They already have sports programs to follow in Tuscaloosa" (Yes, I know that isn't an exact quote, but it is what he meant.)

HBCU Tennessee State may start a hockey team, a good rival team if UAH gets back playing again
https://hbcubuzz.com/2021/06/tennessee-s...y-program/

Another article about adding more conferences for college hockey.
https://seamoresports.com/2021/06/22/opi...ssion=true