Merrimack to add women's hockey

[Hux]

According to the Boston Globe: "Merrimack College has agreed to form six new teams in a settlement reached after a federal review found that the school's number of male athletes was unfairly higher than its number of female athletes, the US Department of Education announced."

"One new team, a women's hockey team, ultimately will compete at the Division 1 level, the Education Department said."

No time was given for when these teams will be added, but you'd have to figure they aren't too far off in the future.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Here's a link to another article:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/me...omplaint/49910

Well that certainly shakes things up.

[futurestar]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Have they hired a coach? maybe elevating a men's assistant?

[Hux]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Have they hired a coach? maybe elevating a men's assistant?

I have a feeling this will be a phased in project that will probably take the rest of the decade, if not a decade, to complete. Given the cost of D1 hockey, I would think that team would be one of the last added. Hopefully I am wrong.

[UCONN FAN]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Hux I am hearing that Merrimack is adding women's hockey as result of a Title IX settlement. This will happen sooner rather than later.

[Hux]

Hux I am hearing that Merrimack is adding women's hockey as result of a Title IX settlement. This will happen sooner rather than later.

Yes, but I doubt they will add teams all at once. As such I would expect them to push off the big ticket item for as long as possible.

[UCONN FAN]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Had a conversation yesterday with someone involved and he said Merrimack is reluctantly adding women's hockey. The timetable for the rollout was also negotiated as part of the settlement. It will be in the next couple of seasons.

[Hockey it's only a Game]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

I have a feeling this will be a phased in project that will probably take the rest of the decade, if not a decade, to complete. Given the cost of D1 hockey, I would think that team would be one of the last added. Hopefully I am wrong.

Hey Hux ,What do you think A True D1 Women's program cost for College to fund $1,500,000 PLUS .? Scholarships ,Coaches salary, Travel, Ice time, Gear

[futurestar]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Besides a boat load of money, what do you think it take to get the program off the ground?

[OneTimer]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

A league affiliation

[IceIsNice]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

A league affiliation

No Brainer - Hockey East, the men are already there. There are seven teams that are the same for both Men and Women, with Merrimack, UMass and UMass Lowell being only on the men's side, and UConn being only on the women's side.

My guess is that this conversation consumes roughly 12 seconds of Mr. Bertagna's time.

[OnMAA]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

Hey Hux ,What do you think A True D1 Women's program cost for College to fund $1,500,000 PLUS .? Scholarships ,Coaches salary, Travel, Ice time, Gear

Did Penn State not infuse something like 89 Mil to start?. Now that includes the building of a Rink.

More seriously, 1M to 2.5M is probably the range....

No clue on real numbers, but I'll take a wild stab in the dark on the break down. Most teams have some basic costs:
Salaries - $200K (Coaches/Trainers)
Equipment - $3Kx25=$75K
Travel - $3Kx10=$30K
Hotels - $2Kx10=$20K
Recruiting - $30-50K (Scouts travels and Official visits) (This number probably varies a lot from school to school)

So excluding schollies and ice cost budget runs at around $400K a year. Ice and Schollies are the big variables. How they get expensed/built into the program, probably varies greatly from school to school. Not sure how far out to lunch my WAG (wild A guess) numbers are, but consider this note from a few years ago:

"Wisconsin spends roughly $2.5 million on the women and gets $0.6 million of it back. Minnesota spends about half of that and gets $0.4 million back. Wisconsin (in 2009 anyway) lost just under $2 million while Minnesota lost a little over $0.8 million. The point: spending money doesn't reduce the amount of money you lose, it increases it."

[UCONN FAN]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

It is the Hockey East bylaws that any current member who adds a women's team will automatically be accepted into the league.

[OnMAA]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

No Brainer - Hockey East, the men are already there.
My guess is that this conversation consumes roughly 12 seconds of Mr. Bertagna's time.

It is the Hockey East bylaws that any current member who adds a women's team will automatically be accepted into the league.

The league acceptance conversation has just been reduced to 0 seconds.

[OneTimer]

Re: Merrimack to add women's hockey

The league acceptance conversation has just been reduced to 0 seconds.

All of this portends really good news for people who want women's hockey at Merrimack. However I think Bertagna et al would want to see a viable business or operational plan before they commit to an absolute, definitive yes. They need to do the due diligence even though they want it all to happen.