UCONN 2011-12 Men's Hockey Thread

[Jacques Joubert]

Re: UCONN 2011-12 Men's Hockey Thread

Maybe they could play at the Mohegan Sun Arean instead? I might make a habit of attending those games...

UCONN-Notre Dame/BC/BU/UMASS you'd only get about 4-6 thousand fans. It will look/be silly.

An on campus rink is the way to go. Does the governor have so much say b/c UCONN is public?

I bet some donor's could spruce up your current rink to at leas the level of Lawler arena.

I don't know anyone who thinks the XL (nee Hartford civic Center) is really the answer but if that's the price, that's the price, I guess. And it might just be the price. As one Hartford pol explained to me years ago, the one thing about the University of connecticut is they ain't picking up and moving to North Carolina...If I were betting on this, I'd bet that this thing plays oput with 2 "homes" for the Huskies. In a say an 18 game home schedule, Frietas will be home for early season matchups with lesser known non-conference opponents, old AHA opponents, maybe the odd ECAC/WCHA opponent, and probably a couple of lesser known HEA games, Merrimack, Lowell maybe. BC, BU, Notre Dame, PC, UMass get played at the XL. Then you play maybe one or two "name" teams out of conference there, too like a Michigan. In the end you play maybe 8-9 games at Frietas and say 10 in hartford. Not ideal but not awful either. It is essentially the model that the basketball team used in its early Big East days before Gampel Pavillion was built. Big name games in Hartford. Lesser known opponents in the old Field House, and play enough games in Storrs to keep the local fans from rebelling...maybe 1 "name"game there every now and again, too.

As far as the size of the Civic/XL Center, fact is it is just too big...actually its too big for most things that happen there. Even UCONN basketball stuggles to sell it out. In a major overhall, I think they'd be well served to reduce capacity to maybe 10-12,000...doesn't help UCONN Hockey, but it makes way more sense for the market they are in.

[CHFAN222]

Re: UCONN 2011-12 Men's Hockey Thread

If UCONN is smart they could get a packed house for the UMASS game. Schedule the game to be the same day as a UCONN vs UMASS game. Bus people after the game from East Hartford to the XL Center and it could draw a decent amount of UMASS and UCONN fans especially if it is homecoming weekend.

[kingdobbs]

Re: UCONN 2011-12 Men's Hockey Thread

Maybe they could play at the Mohegan Sun Arean instead? I might make a habit of attending those games...

UCONN-Notre Dame/BC/BU/UMASS you'd only get about 4-6 thousand fans. It will look/be silly.

An on campus rink is the way to go. Does the governor have so much say b/c UCONN is public?

I bet some donor's could spruce up your current rink to at leas the level of Lawler arena.

Mohegan Sun has no ice-making at their arena.

Also, the governor is an ex-officio member of the UConn Board of Trustees, so yeah, he's got a LITTLE say.

[RSTuthill]

Re: UCONN 2011-12 Men's Hockey Thread

If UCONN is smart they could get a packed house for the UMASS game. Schedule the game to be the same day as a UCONN vs UMASS game. Bus people after the game from East Hartford to the XL Center and it could draw a decent amount of UMASS and UCONN fans especially if it is homecoming weekend.

Problem is the UMass-UConn football game is the season-opener in late August. I like the concept for future years, however. And I hope that UMass-UConn become a permanent fixture in football. This year won't be much of a game but in future years it has the potential to develop into quite something.

[RSTuthill]

Re: UCONN 2011-12 Men's Hockey Thread

I don't know anyone who thinks the XL (nee Hartford Civic Center) is really the answer but if that's the price, that's the price, I guess. And it might just be the price.

I can't really speak for others, but I am guessing that Jim, Patman, Kingdobbs and I would be willing to pay that particular price. Let's move forward ASAP. Fix it later if need be.