Lol at bcu. Keep laughing. That's ok. If we go we will not be relevant for at least a little while. You can see the same fear rear it's head just like the football side did. UConn is a sleeping giant in hockey. You guys are so right that some of the best talent in hockey comes from right here in ct and in the new england and eastern Canada that is all an easy drive for parents. As far as the stadium goes I'd love to see it on campus or at least "close". close is good cause they serve beer. I'm sorry to all you teetotalers but selling beer on site equals asses in seats. You can call it whatever you want, but honestly you can turn a hockey game into a party by selling beer at a game. Go ahead and tell me we would be reading rg3 talking about the loudest stadium if you had to drive and fight traffic to get to storrs for a game, try to park and sneak a few beers in the north parking garage like we used to. Our attendance would be abysmal if you ask me. I know you want to see a football stadium at storrs, Dan, but I think it's a non-starter. Bottom line is count me in as a season ticket holder if they go hockey east no matter where they are.!
i can't argue the beer thing at all, i'm with u on that. thats why i always say "on campus or down the street". i think there are several interesting things going on here with the fanbase. i got 2 texts from wneu kids that i havn't talked to in a while, both hartford area guys who played puck in hs. they both wanted to talk uconn puck knowing the fball fan i am and how cool its going to be. i think putting a minor league team in hartford doesn't draw becuase no one gives a shit about a whale.
now take the fact that the nhl "will never come back blah blah" and combine that with a uconn fanbase that enjoys downtown and combine that with a puck fanbase thats starving for something puck wise that means something. i think you can get 5k+ for some HE games next year in XL. what you do is play in xl for a couple years into gampel is all done, then move the team up there. what you just did was grab the fanbase and gave them a preview of the program building. now they are hooked and instead of going to whale games, they make the trip on friday nights to storrs to have a couple drinks(at your fav back in the day place) and watch the game.
if uconn puck in xl those first couple years got good #'s, then why move it. i'm sure thats a tough thing to think about also.
i think you can get waviers to serve beer in arenas correct? for example up at wne there has been a plan in place for a while but it will never go thru. on the edge of campus bud was going to front the $$ for a rink as long as there was a bar in the place. i think as long as you dont advertise beer then u can serve it with ncaa aproval. having Bud rink being the name of the place would work under that rule. maybe i have it wrong?
i'm fine with either of these 2 things:
1-concentrate possible profit sports in hartford for the future. play both bballs, puck and fball in hartford. the whale then have to go. hartford needs to be uconns city and nothing else. if this is going to happen then the school needs to figure out better ways for student to ge there and also more seating for them(i don't care if its $5 tix at events). this is the best possible why to grab and create fanbase outside of campus students, the risk here is making sure that the students are still getting a positive expierenc ein uconn sporting for creating future fans/$$.
2-make hartford for fball and some bball. everything else on campus. i think like the schools puts up good #'s for soccer, that can spill over to puck eventually on campus. all these sports are getting new fields or w/e soon. bball and fball will be the fanbase catchers in hartford.
i think warde and susan will figure out the best possible situation for it and i can't wait to hear about it. this will be one of wardes first tests imo. lets see what happens. i'm still 100% on things being in storrs but i'm not against others if its upgrading etc....
also just to stir something up, doesn't the acc not allow beer at fball stadiums? so then who cares where the stadium is....
