OT: Men's Hockey Possibly to Hockey East | Page 6 | The Boneyard

OT: Men's Hockey Possibly to Hockey East

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Okay, my take on this. When the Hartford Courant runs an article where Hockey East tours UConn's facilities & the XL, cites the fact that UConn's women's team is already a member of the conference, quotes the governor as wanting more events at the XL to bring people downtown, & cites other favorable factors, all signs point to UConn joining HE. It's only a matter of tying up loose ends & UConn won't comment until that's completed. But to quote Steve McGarrett, "Book him Danno!"
 
coachcap said:
Okay, my take on this. When the Hartford Courant runs an article where Hockey East tours UConn's facilities & the XL, cites the fact that UConn's women's team is already a member of the conference, quotes the governor as wanting more events at the XL to bring people downtown, & cites other favorable factors, all signs point to UConn joining HE. It's only a matter of tying up loose ends & UConn won't comment until that's completed. But to quote Steve McGarrett, "Book him Danno!"
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I agree Coach!
 
coachcap said:
Okay, my take on this. When the Hartford Courant runs an article where Hockey East tours UConn's facilities & the XL, cites the fact that UConn's women's team is already a member of the conference, quotes the governor as wanting more events at the XL to bring people downtown, & cites other favorable factors, all signs point to UConn joining HE. It's only a matter of tying up loose ends & UConn won't comment until that's completed. But to quote Steve McGarrett, "Book him Danno!"
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coach, as my grandmother used to say, from your lips to God's ear.
 
Medical marijuana and UConn hockey going to the HE. What a great year already.
 
FDNY99 said:
What does Willimantic being a "dump" as you call it have anything what so ever to do with this topic?
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Sorry...but Willimantic is a dump. I'm not sure, but I've never saw an ABANDONED YMCA anywhere but Downtown Willimantic. When you have a hotel called the HOOKER and it is home to postitutes, you know it is bad.
I was just making a joke...that backfired. Windham is nice.
 
MattMang23 said:
Said in jest, but I wouldn't doubt it just because it isn't UConn.
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Who knows with BC fans... they might think that NC might be the next HOTBED of hockey because of the team that shall be nameless!!
 
HuskeyDogArt said:
Sorry...but Willimantic is a dump. I'm not sure, but I've never saw an ABANDONED YMCA anywhere but Downtown Willimantic. When you have a hotel called the HOOKER and it is home to postitutes, you know it is bad.
I was just making a joke...that backfired. Windham is nice.
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Where are you from?
 
HuskeyDogArt said:
Who knows with BC fans... they might think that NC might be the next HOTBED of hockey because of the team that shall be nameless!!
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Irony of Ironies: My nephew is a Sr. at N.C. State & plays on that club hockey team & my sis moonlights as a Zamboni driver at the rink.
 
UConnSportsGuy said:
Malloy is going to strong arm UConn into playing their home games at the XL Center (in front of about 500 people) instead of building an on-campus arena. WTF!:mad:
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Hartford Courant reports 10.2 million to construct a second rink onto the existing ice arena. Revenue expected to increase ten fold if UConn joins HE.
 
UCONNJACK said:
Hartford Courant reports 10.2 million to construct a second rink onto the existing ice arena. Revenue expected to increase ten fold if UConn joins HE.
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doesn't necessarily say second rink, it's hazy as to whether it'd be a new arena or just new facilities. if it's facilities with no new arena/allow for expansion to current arena, it seems pointless. Off campus sites are unprecedented in college hockey. The only major conference team in the country that plays off campus is Nebraska-Omaha, and they play five miles off campus in a downtown arena. Playing in front of 14,000 empty seats in Hartford is not a viable plan except for a very temporary period of time.
 
brasssbonanzaa said:
doesn't necessarily say second rink, it's hazy as to whether it'd be a new arena or just new facilities. if it's facilities with no new arena/allow for expansion to current arena, it seems pointless.
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Yeah, the 10ish mill seems like a lowball number for the kind of work Frietas needs to be Hockey East compliant. I wish the link to the PDF of the assessment on the Courant's website actually worked.

Although such expansion would not exactly be *pointless* (the two hockey coaches at UConn have identified the need for, amongst other things, more dedicated office/study space for staff and student-athletes near the arena, and separate dressing facilities for coaches and officials (where they currently share), per the athletics master plan in 2004; I could not say what they've addressed in the years since), as even if the XL were to (vomit) become the new home of hockey, the team (plus EO and the Ice Dogs) still needs a place to practice and what-not.

Off campus sites are unprecedented in college hockey. The only major conference team in the country that plays off campus is Nebraska-Omaha, and they play five miles off campus in a downtown arena. Playing in front of 14,000 empty seats in Hartford is not a viable plan except for a very temporary period of time.
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Well, Quinnipiac's rink is only "on-campus" by a very tenuous thread, although it seems that since I've last been there (like the arena, hate the fans), they have added actual student buildings other than the sports arenas.
 
kingdobbs said:
Well, Quinnipiac's rink is only "on-campus" by a very tenuous thread, although it seems that since I've last been there (like the arena, hate the fans), they have added actual student buildings other than the sports arenas.
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It's now one of Quinnipiac's (3) campuses. The campus has dorms, a student center and the aforementioned two sports facilities. All of the upperclassmen live in the upper campus. The arena is beautiful - would love to see that blueprint for an on-campus UConn hockey arena.
 
coachcap said:
Irony of Ironies: My nephew is a Sr. at N.C. State & plays on that club hockey team & my sis moonlights as a Zamboni driver at the rink.
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Ask her if she could run over KarMORONoS (Ponytail Pete) for us!! :) Make it look like an accident!!!:D

Of course, I wouldn't put a hit on him...but I can DREAM about it!!
 
Expanding Freitas would be the ideal situation. Them wanting us to play in Hartford proves the state wants to use the void left by the Whalers to UConn's advantage.
 
Assuming the $10.2 mm is accurate, that would have to be a sunk cost. While some may attempt to spin it as an investment (that will create a return), the reality is that we will be lucky to eventually break even at our peak (not considering the ancillary benefits a top men's ice hockey program could provide) and that would likely take many years.

If the average HE school spends $2.0 mm annually but earns only $500k, I imagine that there would be a required runout on initial (startup) costs beyond this for us while the it also would take a few years to ramp up our revenues to HE average (this is not even considering the additional cost for women's athletics that Title IX requires).

Back to HE average revenue of $0.5mm vs average costs of $2.0 mm; if these numbers are accurate, the bottom few HE schools must be losing quite a bit each year. I imagine that most of these school must receive quite a bit in donations to keep their programs afloat (although those who are successful likely receive far more in donations), something we would absolutely need to pull this off.

One last comment, the Courant article mentioned the possibility of new locker rooms. Weren't state of the art locker rooms one of the things they bragged about when Freitas was opened?
 
FfldCntyFan said:
If the average HE school spends $2.0 mm annually but earns only $500k, I imagine that there would be a required runout on initial (startup) costs beyond this for us while the it also would take a few years to ramp up our revenues to HE average (this is not even considering the additional cost for women's athletics that Title IX requires).

Back to HE average revenue of $0.5mm vs average costs of $2.0 mm; if these numbers are accurate, the bottom few HE schools must be losing quite a bit each year. I imagine that most of these school must receive quite a bit in donations to keep their programs afloat (although those who are successful likely receive far more in donations), something we would absolutely need to pull this off.
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Those figures are only ticket revenue, not counting merchandising, concessions, rink rentals, playoff distributions (both NCAA and league; the league tourney typically sells out the Garden, and the league sends anywhere from 3-5 teams to the profitable national tourney, and usually one or two to the usually sold out Frozen Four), television revenue (however paltry it may seem, the league does have an important contract with NESN), student fees, etc. Hockey is far from a money pit for the schools.

One last comment, the Courant article mentioned the possibility of new locker rooms. Weren't state of the art locker rooms one of the things they bragged about when Freitas was opened?
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Quality is not the problem; it is size. When Frietas was built there was no women's team.
 
Dobbs,

You could well be correct about the size of the locker rooms but I could have sworn that (~13 years ago) when I rad about the new Freitas rink, they went to great lengths to point out that they had enormous liocker rooms for both the men's and women' teams, more elaborate than what you would see at most top program's homes.

This baffled me as I did not understand (still don't) why they would build a rink to basically half of an acceptable capacity yet put such great locker rooms in it. It is somewhat equivalent to putting putting a walk-in closet inside a tool shed.
 
HuskeyDogArt said:
Grew up in Columbia...not far from Windham's town line.
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Check your inbox...you must know Chuck Lester then...had many good times in his bar the Trolley Pub. I grew up in Willimantic.
 
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