Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

[4four4]

UI athletics director Gary Barta: 'It would dilute if we added sports'

Not really a surprise.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

Wait, wait, wait a corn picking minute... the public was just told "The Big Ten has over a half-dozen teams poised to add hockey within the next twenty years..."
http://board.uscho.com/showthread.ph...-other-schools

Clearly this AD has no idea what they are talking about. They ARE going to add hockey even if they have to plow under their corn to make room for the rink.

Ryan J

[Patman]

Wait, wait, wait a corn picking minute... the public was just told "The Big Ten has over a half-dozen teams poised to add hockey within the next twenty years..."
http://board.uscho.com/showthread.ph...-other-schools

Clearly this AD has no idea what they are talking about. They ARE going to add hockey even if they have to plow under their corn to make room for the rink.

Ryan J

Methinks it's time to stage a coup. Get the rabble rousers ready... If the EU can do it to the Greeks then by God the Big10 should do it to Iowa.

FORWAAAAARD!

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

Methinks it's time to stage a coup. Get the rabble rousers ready... If the EU can do it to the Greeks then by God the Big10 should do it to Iowa.

FORWAAAAARD!

And then which member school holds a vote to leave?

[fr. joe]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

UI athletics director Gary Barta: 'It would dilute if we added sports'

Not really a surprise.

Iowa's not flat enough for a hockey rink.

[UncleRay]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

And then which member school holds a vote to leave?

Wisckexit. They screwed it up the first time.

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

What's funny is USCHO's resident "it's time now for Big 10 hockey conference", long before the conference ever existed was a huge Iowa guy. I hope he's enjoying his conference.

[MavHockey14]

Wait, wait, wait a corn picking minute... the public was just told "The Big Ten has over a half-dozen teams poised to add hockey within the next twenty years..."
http://board.uscho.com/showthread.ph...-other-schools

Clearly this AD has no idea what they are talking about. They ARE going to add hockey even if they have to plow under their corn to make room for the rink.

Ryan J

I am a supporter of U of I Athletics..

A 7,000 seat rink is actually going to be built in Coralville, which is adjacent to Iowa City. So the facility is in place. Howeve the thought is adding a Men's program would require the addition of a Women's program, and like most of the sports at Iowa outside of Football and Men's Basketball, it would be a loser financially.

http://www.coralville.org/765/Iowa-Arena

[KaMiGo]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

I am a supporter of U of I Athletics..

A 7,000 seat rink is actually going to be built in Coralville, which is adjacent to Iowa City. So the facility is in place. Howeve the thought is adding a Men's program would require the addition of a Women's program, and like most of the sports at Iowa outside of Football and Men's Basketball, it would be a loser financially.

http://www.coralville.org/765/Iowa-Arena

6,216 isn't quite 7,000...but I'm sure you aren't the only one here to take something that is just over 6 and try to convince people that it is 7

This capacity would put it right in line with half of the Big Ten facilities.

You have the 3 large capacity buildings. Ohio State plays in an arena WAY too big for them at 17,500. Wisconsin plays in an arena that can seat over 15,000; they have had trouble filling it the past few years. Minnesota seats 10,000 and they are usually pretty close to capacity.

On the other end are 3 buildings under 7,000 that are usually pretty full. Michigan, who plays to a near capacity in their 5,800 seat space. Michigan State pulls about 5,000 into their 6,500 capacity space. Penn State has been pretty much at capacity in their new building since day 1, going past their 5,782 capacity.

I think most schools would be wise to go with a stadium in that 5-7,000 sweat spot.

I know that Kohl Center feels horrible when there are entire sections that are empty for early season non-conference games. I hope that the recent developments can get some of those people back, but I don't know that there will be regular sell-outs in the future.

[camilo]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

UI athletics director Gary Barta: 'It would dilute if we added sports'

Not really a surprise.

Wait, wait, wait a corn picking minute... the public was just told "The Big Ten has over a half-dozen teams poised to add hockey within the next twenty years..."
http://board.uscho.com/showthread.ph...-other-schools

Clearly this AD has no idea what they are talking about. They ARE going to add hockey even if they have to plow under their corn to make room for the rink.

Ryan J

I know nothing about Iowa sports, couldn't care less about the Big 10 hockey conference. But 20 years is a long time and these sort of "decisions" tend to be revisited over the years. Is hockey popular in high school and/or juniors in Iowa? Are there any lower division or college club teams?

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

6,216 isn't quite 7,000...but I'm sure you aren't the only one here to take something that is just over 6 and try to convince people that it is 7

This capacity would put it right in line with half of the Big Ten facilities.

You have the 3 large capacity buildings. Ohio State plays in an arena WAY too big for them at 17,500. Wisconsin plays in an arena that can seat over 15,000; they have had trouble filling it the past few years. Minnesota seats 10,000 and they are usually pretty close to capacity.

On the other end are 3 buildings under 7,000 that are usually pretty full. Michigan, who plays to a near capacity in their 5,800 seat space. Michigan State pulls about 5,000 into their 6,500 capacity space. Penn State has been pretty much at capacity in their new building since day 1, going past their 5,782 capacity.

I think most schools would be wise to go with a stadium in that 5-7,000 sweat spot.

I created a spreadsheet with average attendance figures for DI teams and which I posted in the Average Men's Attendance thread I created. All figures are what the schools' reported for attendance, except for Minnesota (past three seasons) and Wisconsin (past ten seasons), which use scanned ticket numbers reported for Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The actual scanned tickets for Minnesota for this past season was 7,139 per game, last season was 7,604, and 2013-14 was 9,062. Reported attendance before that was almost or above 10,000 from 2001-02 through 2009-10, and again in 2012-13, with it around 9,500 for 2010-11 and 2011-12. So it would appears that Mariucci's planned capacity was right for the school. Wisconsin, on the other hand appears to have been built too large for hockey (although I believe it was built with basketball in mind). Official reported average attendance in 2001-02 was 11,123, although it peaked at 13,511 in 2005-06 (the season before I have scanned ticket numbers). The highest average attendance in the past ten seasons was 12,136 in 2009-10 and it has not reached 10,000 in the past six seasons.

Ohio State, which plays in an arena built for basketball, had a very good average attendance of 8,130 in 2001-02, but since then attendance has dropped over 36% since then (although its up over 28% from it's low of 4,004 in 2012-13). A 6,000 seat arena would probably be a good size for them, but its not happening. Penn State's arena appears to be somewhat smaller than optimal, but it is better than making capacity too large. Michigan and Michigan State have seen attendance drops, but they are still reporting good attendance.

Looking at average attendance over the decades I agree that 5,000-7,000 should be the upper limit for a college hockey arena.

Sean

[Sean Pickett]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

I know nothing about Iowa sports, couldn't care less about the Big 10 hockey conference. But 20 years is a long time and these sort of "decisions" tend to be revisited over the years. Is hockey popular in high school and/or juniors in Iowa? Are there any lower division or college club teams?

In late 1957/early 1958 Minnesota head coach John Mariucci proposed a new western college hockey league and suggested that Marquette, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Creighton and Drake could all start hockey programs, as each city where the schools are located had state of the art facilitates. Only Wisconsin actually added a hockey program.

Sean

[UMICH]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

I am a supporter of U of I Athletics..

A 7,000 seat rink is actually going to be built in Coralville, which is adjacent to Iowa City. So the facility is in place. Howeve the thought is adding a Men's program would require the addition of a Women's program, and like most of the sports at Iowa outside of Football and Men's Basketball, it would be a loser financially.

http://www.coralville.org/765/Iowa-Arena

Minnesota people aren't that bright. The University of Iowa is in Des Moines, Iowa State is in Iowa City. The two are 113 miles apart. What good does it do for a hockey facility to be built next to Iowa City? Stop drinking the bong water....

[UMICH]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

Michigan and Michigan State have seen attendance drops, but they are still reporting good attendance.

sparty hockey sucks now. Michigan just renovated their rink and thus lost some seating. Plus former AD DB Brandon raised ticket prices, brought in piped-music, ads, and nickle-and-dime'd us to death and that turned a lot of people off from Michigan hockey. Of course Michigan missing the NCAA Tournament for 3 consecutive years didn't help much either. But yes 6,000 seat arenas seem about right (as long as the area supports hockey).

[SunDevilBob]

Re: Hockey isn't happening for the Hawkeyes

Minnesota people aren't that bright. The University of Iowa is in Des Moines, Iowa State is in Iowa City. The two are 113 miles apart. What good does it do for a hockey facility to be built next to Iowa City? Stop drinking the bong water....

The University of Iowa is in Iowa City and Iowa State University is in Ames.