I hope that it happens, and glad it wont be in 2012-13 as my nephew Pat is the captain at BC next year. He has 2 NCAA rings so far, hope he gets another, then I can root for UConn after that.
If this happends, which I think it will, have another relationship with ND helps our cause to get into another conference along with ND if the ACC comes calling.
i somewhat wonder if this move by uconn is to make themselves more pretty for the b10 one day. and on the other side of it, if we never get a fball call to a good conf, were in a greta puck league with all local teams to boot. win win type thing. if uconn promotes this right and pumps it to ct, i think the xl could see 5k + on a friday night of local fans. this area is itching for some puck that means something. the whle and sound tigers are fun to watch and they draw. but minor league isn't something peopl for the most part attach themselves to. uconn puck brings the states brand name, people will atatch to that. throw in our rising fball and bball games in the same place and now you have a bigger following of just casual todo ' ers. as in people who will goto games for the night out type stuff. hit the bar or grab a bite, goto a game etc...
No way. If it were ever a choice between puck and lacrosse you go with hockey. Much more cache and perfect fit for Uconn being in the northeast with all the other local schools. we would even had a great chance to have kids play in the NHL and further enhance the programs stature. As limited as hockey can be as far as viewership/TV etc, lacrosse is way down that totem pole. I am not a huge hockey or lacrosse fan but given the choice, I will watch hockey 100 times to every 1 lacrosse match. This is not even close.
Gotta do it right, or don't do it at all. Fully fund it for top coaches and facilities. Winter break games at XL, the rest on campus.
puck first imho. but lax should be next, work out those sship issues for it. ct lax is pretty good. its about 10-15 in the list of hotbeds/best lax in the country i would say, maybe higher. this past week fp and darien both beat 2 top teams in the country rankings wise. ct has good depth in the ciac and the prep schools (aof/cho/bru etc...) are also really good. throw in scc/fciac among other leagues and its good. mass has some good lax also. ny is a top3 hot bed, li is nasty at lax. nj is good also with pa being in the discussion. schools like fu/bryant get the regional left overs of kids who are d1 worthy but duke/uva/jhop/cuse didn't go after. the top of d3 lax is just as good as the middle to bottom of d1. the north east is loaded with nasty d3 lax. basically what i'm saying is when one day uconn puts lax up, its going to be a fing cake walk to piss cuse/bacco road off. go get one of the prep schools, fp or dariens coaches to come in and take over and build it from the ground up quick. focus on ct/ny/ma then nj/pa/md and goto to town on recruits. play at the new soccer stadium. that field, the indoor turf and uconns brand name will on the spot make it above half the countrys d1 lax teams. its not hard at that point to get in the top 25. breaking the top 12 will be hard. but in time that will happen. and just to throw it out there. if they wanted to do something soon, susan im sure will call up the bryant coach and i'm sure that deal can get done within hours considering everything. i would be all for him instead of a local hs coach. playing games on campus at the soccer field, the team would get 1k ish to most games and big crowds to others. play some games at the rent also and it will explode. its another small sport that makes no money at most schools but here it has the potential to run in the green which would be impressive. with that said, what other schools runs a ad like this would be? having 2 mens sports for each season that are nationally competitive? imagine that. baseball-lax, bball-puck, fball-soccer. thats insane. we are that fing good at ! and to boot uconn girls have soccer-bball-fh and they are legit in those also. unreal! how does my taste bc?
imagine friday night games at xl. kids get bussed down there like fball/bball. post game the kids go out for the night. uconn can have busses running till 1am or something to get kids home. that would be a big drwa for students as it would be a great friday night. uconn sports, drinking bar/clubs w/e. kids would do that.
No students are going to be at XL after the third game. Its so ridiculous it doesn't even warrant consideration.
I think you're right. The state supports a number of pro hockey teams well, but at this level you need to build your foundation on campus with students. The XL will seem dead and that's not the image you want, or the home team advantage.
Nope, it's exactly what we don't want. There's three places like that right now where the team's fan base is still outweighed by the very large size of their arena, despite sizeable crowds to home games: UMass-Amherst, Ohio State, and Nebraska-Omaha. All three of them really only ever need a 5-6k arena to hold their fanbase, yet they play in the 8K+ Mullins Center, the 17K+ Value City Arena and the 17K+ CenturyLink Center, respectively. The best hockey crowds generally arise in the smaller barns that are packed to their fill every night. Michigan could probably fill 15K a night, but they play in 6K+ Yost because it gives a tremendous home ice advantage, especially when the students are there in force. It also has the added advantage of driving ticket demand, which in turn aids the brand (c.f. Fenway and the Sox).
Normally I would agree with the idea of not doing this until we have an acceptable on campus rink but the window of opportunity for this may be so narrow (if HE goes elsewhere for team twelve will there ever be a spot for us in the future?) that getting in however we can takes priority. If it takes us three or four years after we join before we have our on campus home it wouldn't be the end of the world.
UNO does have a good following, albeit in a building too large for them, but they do average almost 8K a game. OSU is the prime example of what would happen to UConn in XL. OSU is lucky to get more than 3-4K a game in an 18K arena ON CAMPUS. Don't use this year's numbers, they're artificially inflated by their game vs. Michigan outdoors in Cleveland, as is UMass' number inflated by their Fenway game. UMass, fwiw, does generally get close to sellout crowds for BU, BC, and sometimes Maine, but that's also with 40-50% of the crowd being extremely drunk students (zombies) who get in for free by showing their ID. UConn playing in Hartford is a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE idea. The students will NOT go, whoever thinks they're going to flock to Hartford on a Friday night to see UConn-Merrimack has their head square up their ass. Plus, it's Hartford, I'd rather spend a Friday night in Storrs. Dobbs is 100% right, hockey crowds are built on campus, there is absolutely NO teams around the country who play in a true off-campus venue - UNO plays in downtown Omaha, technically off campus, and a few minuscule AHA programs play in technically off-campus rinks. No HEA, CCHA, WCHA, new BTHC, or new NCHC (nacho) program plays in a true off campus venue - it doesn't work. As a fan of another HEA school (read sentence below and guess which one!), I'd rather have RPI than UConn playing in XL. And to the guy who's Mullane's uncle, I now hate you and your nephew's ridiculously good program.
Sure if the plan is an on campus arena then its fine. If its a long term plan.... Good grief. College hockey is only interesting or enjoyable because of the atmosphere. Otherwise it's just plain boring.
