Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

[TovarishchLisa]

http://www.miningjournal.net/sports/...g-more-sports/

There is a presser scheduled for 5pm tomorrow, NHL VP Kevin Westgarth, College Hockey Inc's Mike Snee, and WCHA women's commish Katie Million will be there.

https://twitter.com/RyanStieg/status...70463407800320

[FiveHoleFrenzy]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

http://www.miningjournal.net/sports/...g-more-sports/

There is a presser scheduled for 5pm tomorrow, NHL VP Kevin Westgarth, College Hockey Inc's Mike Snee, and WCHA women's commish Katie Million will be there.

https://twitter.com/RyanStieg/status...70463407800320

Hope there is something to this as it would be great to see a Michigan program added, and that it wouldn't add to the drama of a Little1G conference.

[robertearle]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

[url] and WCHA women's commish Katie Million will be there.

An eighth team for the WCHA? Getting to Marquette would probably no worse for Wisconsin than getting to Duluth or Bemidji. Getting there from the Minn schools would be no picnic (except for Duluth, maybe). One more plane trip for Ohio State, I guess. Adding them to CHA would make no sense for anybody.

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

[Timothy A]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

http://www.miningjournal.net/sports/...g-more-sports/

There is a presser scheduled for 5pm tomorrow, NHL VP Kevin Westgarth, College Hockey Inc's Mike Snee, and WCHA women's commish Katie Million will be there.

https://twitter.com/RyanStieg/status...70463407800320

Wow. The fact that Million is there sends a lot of smoke up into the sky. Getting the wWCHA back to 8 teams would be awesome.

[ARM]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

It would be hard to think of a reason for Katie Million to attend if NMU doesn't figure in the WCHA plans at some point. I suppose it is conceivable that there could be some joint venture like holding a showcase event there in the future, short of adding a team, but I guess we'll find out.

I agree; thanks for letting us know.

[agfire]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

Balancing the WCHA back to 8 would be great.

Thanks for the news, I hope it comes to fruition.

[sbkbghockey]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

An eighth team for the WCHA? Getting to Marquette would probably no worse for Wisconsin than getting to Duluth or Bemidji. Getting there from the Minn schools would be no picnic (except for Duluth, maybe). One more plane trip for Ohio State, I guess. Adding them to CHA would make no sense for anybody.

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

OSU didn't fly to NMU when their men's program was in the CCHA, doubt the women's program would now.

[robertearle]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

OSU didn't fly to NMU when their men's program was in the CCHA, doubt the women's program would now.

That's like a ten hour drive! Maybe longer when you get onto smaller roads in the UP. Ugh! (Not to mention the possibility of bad weather, etc.)

[giwan]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

An eighth team for the WCHA? Getting to Marquette would probably no worse for Wisconsin than getting to Duluth or Bemidji. Getting there from the Minn schools would be no picnic (except for Duluth, maybe). One more plane trip for Ohio State, I guess. Adding them to CHA would make no sense for anybody.

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

Travel issues WAY WAY WAY overblown here. You realize men's teams from WI and MN currently make these trips regularly. You do know there are three men's programs that travel on a regular basis through and out of the UP.

Go back to the CCHA days and OSU played NMU, LSSU, and MTU. In the old WCHA days all those MN, WI, ND teams traveled into and out of the UP.

Another note, a bus typically does NOT stop for what you may consider "bad weather" as the roads are taken care of, regarding snow removal.

[arenalife]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

Well...that was disappointing. A "feasibility" study?! I can do that for you real quick - they have a men's team and rink, so adding a women's is logistically easier. $1M budget and you have a team and plenty of local hockey support to drive attendance. Save the money on a "study", take it, and start the program already!!

BTW, where have the studies at Illinois and Oakland U gone?? Five years down the road, if at all!

[pokechecker]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

Well...that was disappointing. A "feasibility" study?! I can do that for you real quick - they have a men's team and rink, so adding a women's is logistically easier. $1M budget and you have a team and plenty of local hockey support to drive attendance. Save the money on a "study", take it, and start the program already!!

BTW, where have the studies at Illinois and Oakland U gone?? Five years down the road, if at all!

it's more like 2 million, and the "rink" is shared with the hoops team, so you may have to build another facility

Marquette is 6 1/2 hours from TC area. and 8 hours from Mankato, although Grand Forks is closer, the drive to Marquette is a lot more interesting and less likely to be closed.

[TonyTheTiger20]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

the "rink" is shared with the hoops team, so you may have to build another facility

BC currently has men's hoops, women's hoops, men's hockey, women's hockey, AND women's volleyball using the same facility.

[OldDave]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

BC currently has men's hoops, women's hoops, men's hockey, women's hockey, AND women's volleyball using the same facility.

Katie Million was interviewed between periods during the Sunday game (link: https://gophersports.com/watch/?Arch...0&type=Archive with the interview starting at the 1:35:16 mark). Two items that I remember from that interview included a first of the year end date for the feasibility study and that the men's team is renting ice for some of their games. Must not be as advanced a facility as BC has.

[D2D]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

BC currently has men's hoops, women's hoops, men's hockey, women's hockey, AND women's volleyball using the same facility.

Minnesota has separate facilities for:
1. Men's hockey (3M at Mariucci Arena)
2. Women's hockey (Ridder Arena)
3. Men's and women's basketball (Williams Arena)
4. Women's volleyball and men's wrestling (Sports Pavillion)

Works very well except for occasional timing conflicts between the two hockey programs.

[arenalife]

Re: Northern Michigan may be adding women's hockey

I think they could do it for less than $2M. Also, most of the cost of operating the arena that would be allocated to the women's hockey budget, would become a credit to the other programs using the arena.