(06-01-2020 05:50 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(05-31-2020 06:24 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  By no means am I advocating much less predicting that High Point will have NCAA hockey for a good long while if ever, but if for whatever reason they decided to give it a go, they could play games a half-hour up the road at the Winston-Salem Fairgrounds Annex, a 4,000-seat arena that already hosts the minor-league Carolina Thunderbirds. They wouldn't have to wait to build a dedicated arena before starting a program.

That arena is firmly within the footprint of Wake Forest’s athletic complex. It shares a parking lot with Wake’s basketball arena and is within sight of Wake’s football and baseball stadiums. It is also within an entirely different city that has two universities of its own and no constituency of High Point fans. Not happening.

The city of Winston-Salem owns the facility. Wake Forest would have no ability to keep the city from allowing a High Point hockey team to rent the facility any more than they can the Thunderbirds or any minor-league team. It's not ideal but let's not act like universities can't play home games outside of their home city. If High Point wanted to start hockey, they wouldn't have to wait until a purpose-built on-campus hockey arena was available. Playing at the Annex isn't a long-term solution, but it's viable as a stopgap (especially since it's already set up for hockey in the winter with the Thunderbirds).

I sincerely doubt that we'll see HP hockey any time in the foreseeable future but there's ways to make it happen if for whatever reason that's their plan.