UCONN hockey program won't be complete until on-campus barn/team facility opens | Page 14 | The Boneyard

UCONN hockey program won't be complete until on-campus barn/team facility opens

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So to distill this discussion it comes down to a debate whether or not a new on campus building which will host maybe 6 games a year is necessary to keep pace or move up on the recruiting food chain.

So is UMass Amherst a comparable? They play ALL their home games on campus. They have had several highly regarded coaches of varying pholosophies. Has the Mullins Center enabled UMass to get to the next level? For a very brief period over a time scale of 20 years I suppose. But then we get into a discussion of "because of or in spite of".

Somehow to me the argument of recruiting necessity really doesn't hold water. But that is only my gut feel. Reasonable folks can differ on the question.
If UConn wants to be competing with UMass and UVM on the recruiting trail, you're right they can stay in XL and compete. If they want to recruit against the elite of the league, XL will not suffice. They will not be able to recruit against BC and BU in HE, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Denver, even into the next tier of QU, PC, Lowell, and other upstarts with great facilities on campus where you can practice, workout, and play in one place. I've said this a hundred times here and I'll keep saying it, hockey players want to play where they practice. Knowing the ins and outs of your home rink is an enormous advantage. There is a reason why virtually no hockey schools play in arenas significantly off campus.

I don't want to give up the 5,500 avg. we have which will only rise with a real schedule
I'm not sure what "real schedule" you're talking about. The list of HE teams coming into XL isn't changing save for ND. Better OOC games? Perhaps, but the high-end B1G and NCHC teams aren't showing up to Hartford anytime soon and the rest of the mid-level college hockey teams don't carry the name cache to attract casual sports fans to a UConn hockey game.

Your point about parking is an indictment on the apathetic UConn student in regards to their hockey team, if some of them actually cared to support them they'd be able to carpool together and it would be a non-issue.
This is a ridiculous statement on so many levels. You're now forcing students interested in supporting their own school to carpool 30-45 minutes each way so that a few thousand Hartford residents, who own cars, don't have to drive to Storrs? Selflish, absurd, short-sighted, and arcane are words that come to mind here.

The students do not care about the niche sport of hockey but HFD County has demonstrated they absolutely do.
How do you know they don't care about the niche sport of hockey? Because they all didn't carpool to a game? The kids who have small bank accounts, limited access to cars, class, schoolwork, etc. don't support the niche sport because they didn't spend 60-90 minutes in total driving into Hartford, paying for parking, and paying for city-priced food? This is a great way to gauge support. However, we have seen the students willing to support "niche sports" on campus, as the soccer program and the Goal Patrol can attest.

There's a place in the program for playing at Hartford selectively. But if they want to compete at the highest level of the sport consistently, that will not happen at XL. Don't take my word for it, take Cav's.

"Now in his third season at UConn, Cavanaugh said he stresses to recruits that people, not buildings, are the foundation for a strong program.

"I do say that," Cavanaugh said. "If I get upset about the facility every day, it's like getting upset about a hooking call."

"I can only control what I can control and right now this is the environment and this is the facility I have to practice in," Cavanaugh said. "So I can choose to make this an excuse in the recruiting process or I can say we're doing the best with what we have. If you don't have the best, do the best with that you have, right? So that's what we're doing right now. Would I like a new practice facility here, or par with what our football and basketball programs have? Absolutely. Do I think that would help benefit our recruiting? Absolutely."
 
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Think you missed my point entirely. The Mullins Center is one of the best facilities in the league and it hasn't done UMass much good. Yeah, when Quick played there they got good for a year of two. Not before or since.

Recruiting budget next to the coaches is the biggest influence factor. Practice facilities are probably third. Enhanced practice facilities can be provided at a fraction of the cost of adding seats.
 
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Think you missed my point entirely. The Mullins Center is one of the best facilities in the league and it hasn't done UMass much good. Yeah, when Quick played there they got good for a year of two. Not before or since.

Recruiting budget next to the coaches is the biggest influence factor. Practice facilities are probably third. Enhanced practice facilities can be provided at a fraction of the cost of adding seats.
Then the XL Center renovation project needs to be finalized and a go. At the end of the day can can have a nice practice facility...the location where the games are played is still 2nd rate compared to other places. Packing 5000+ is the only real selling point. And I still have a had time seeing that project ever getting off the ground without a NHL team as the main tenant with the budget issue right now in the state. What ever is built on campus will be done by donation/ticket surcharge which BOT passed to raise funds to upgrade facilities.
 
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Think you missed my point entirely. The Mullins Center is one of the best facilities in the league and it hasn't done UMass much good. Yeah, when Quick played there they got good for a year of two. Not before or since.

Recruiting budget next to the coaches is the biggest influence factor. Practice facilities are probably third. Enhanced practice facilities can be provided at a fraction of the cost of adding seats.
The Mullins Center is FAR from one of the best facilities in the league. BU, UML, UNH, PC, and BC unequivocally have superior facilities in all facets - fan amenities, quality of ice surface, arena sightlines, to name a few. Mullins is showing its wear very, very much. Not to mention those with inferior facilities, Maine and Northeastern namely, blow Mullins out of the water from a game atmosphere perspective.
 
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And I still have a had time seeing that project ever getting off the ground without a NHL team as the main tenant with the budget issue right now in the state.
A new barn would have to be built for an NHL team not a renovation of the XL. The luxury seats need to move between the lower and upper bowls. Parking revenue would have to be surrendered to the NHL team. All sorts of things would have to happen that probably are not going to.
 
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A new barn would have to be built for an NHL team not a renovation of the XL. The luxury seats need to move between the lower and upper bowls. Parking revenue would have to be surrendered to the NHL team. All sorts of things would have to happen that probably are not going to.

Not to mention that as long as Gary Bettman is the NHL Commissioner, Hartford is not getting an NHL team.
 
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A new barn would have to be built for an NHL team not a renovation of the XL. The luxury seats need to move between the lower and upper bowls. Parking revenue would have to be surrendered to the NHL team. All sorts of things would have to happen that probably are not going to.
The renovation plan that the CRDA has put forward I just can't seee happening right now in this financial/political climate. So that leaves the XL as is...with a new ice making system being installed to actually make it a playable ice surface for both HE and the AHL. That's basically putting lipstick on a pig...it in no way makes it a super model! On another note nice to see you here. Now we just need to get the others over to USCHO.
 
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The renovation plan that the CRDA has put forward I just can't seee happening right now in this financial/political climate. So that leaves the XL as is...with a new ice making system being installed to actually make it a playable ice surface for both HE and the AHL. That's basically putting lipstick on a pig...it in no way makes it a super model! On another note nice to see you here. Now we just need to get the others over to USCHO.

And after the fiasco with the baseball stadium, I can't see the public in Hartford or the State getting behind putting more tax payer money in yet another sports project. Especially in the face of high taxes, poor road, economic weakness (outside of Fairfield county) and that new court ruling on education funding hanging over everyone's head.
 
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On another note nice to see you here. Now we just need to get the others over to USCHO.
Thanks, but why? This is a better place for UConn fans. We don't have to put up with some of the HE BS and we are free to offend the woof gods over here without all the HE pushback. Being humble takes its toll after awhile.
 
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Thanks, but why? This is a better place for UConn fans. We don't have to put up with some of the HE BS and we are free to offend the woof gods over here without all the HE pushback. Being humble takes its toll after awhile.
Yeah true...there is no Nick Pappageorgio telling us every waking minute how good his precious BC is or Chuck Murray calling Cav "Luce Canaan" and talking down about the program because UNH is on the way to becoming a non-entity. @brasssbonanzaa is here too. You can thank @temery for setting this up..it used to be under Olympic sports and one day I sent him a pm asking if men's and women's hockey could have their own board.
 

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it came from a reliable inside source - no on-campus arena :(
 

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a person closely related to a recruit. I have no reason to believe that the coaching staff wasn't honest with them regarding that type of information
 
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