UNH Wildcats 2021/2022 - Return of the Champions of October?

[HockeyRef]

Uhh, I thought Billy Preston, aka "The Fifth Beatle" was a keyboard player?? Didn't know he played drums too? :-O

Ding ding ding you are correct!!!

[HockeyRef]

Given the fact that BU had to be gassed ? from last night (I mean, most teams play a 2 game weekend series) and played their second string (Able) 'tender I thought Muszelik held his own quite nicely. Lots of penalties including a 5 min major. Kind of interesting when you look at the roster (Ntl team) and see mostly BU, BC players so they are essentially playing against future teammates/opponents. Announcer wondered how long MR has been with UNH '5 or 6 years' when talking about Muszelik would join the 'Cats. Believe this is his 5th, correct? I feel we will be strong at goal tending next season!

Today Merrimack beat this team 8-2? Didn't see the game. Still feel good about Muszelik. More worried about Merrimack. Carry on.

[Chuck Murray]

Ps as per post cream Clapton (and I agree) we saw him awhile ago at Tanglewood (or whatever its called) was a cool show. Billy Preston was guest drummer which was awesome (RIP). But I'll always be a fan of this kind of music . And of course this guy. Had 2 old brothers who played this and other great music like Blind Faith, The Who (I knew every word to Tommy by age 10) And with Michael Nesmith passing I'm mourning my 'Monkee Days'. Interesting history on that band and those who actually wrote (and played, save Nesmith) the music. And nothing personal Chuck never could / did like Led Zeppelin even though 'Stairway' was our prom theme ha!

None other than John Lennon was apparently a big fan of the Monkees, HR. I guess he "got" it.

Led Zep always sparked strong "love" and "hate" opinions. The big debate in the HS hallways growing up was "Led Zep or Aerosmith?" I was never a big fan of the latter, thought they enjoyed a little too much of the local hype, probably not at all unlike Grand Funk and Styx (Midwest), Lynyrd Skynyrd (sp?; South), or KISS or Blue Oyster Cult (NYC/Long Island).

Zep were probably never my fave band at a given moment of time - the '70's was all about ELP for me, and Rush and their Canadian colleagues Triumph were faves of mine through a good chunk of the '80's. But not everything ELP did was Brain Salad Surgery or Trilogyi, nor was everything Rush did Moving Pictures or 2112. On the whole, Led Zep's stuff aged better than some of the experimental stuff Rush and ELP fiddled around with, even when Zep was venturing away from their early core classic backlog in their later albums. In some ways, Bonham's passing proved to preserve Zep's legacy, allowing them to call it a day, and in retrospect save them from some of the reunion issues that Purple, ELP and Aerosmith faced later in their careers. And for the small handful of times Zep has "reunited" since - usually with Bonham's kid taking his spot - the demand and attention paid have been off the charts favorable.

Moral of the story? If your drummer kicks off in his prime, and gives you the opportunity to sober up while remaining flush with cash in the meantime ... always leave the people wanting. Not an easy trick to pull off, mind you, but it saved Led Zep from debasing their mystique from their early days, a la the Stones and Aerosmith. And most of that credit has to go to Robert Plant, who for the most part has resisted the urging of his surviving bandmates to cash in on a farewell megatour, which (like the Stones and Eagles) would then be repeated every few years thereafter.

So ... when do we get college hockey back?!?

[HockeyRef]

Carolina Hurricanes call up Andrew Poturalski as some of their forwards are on covid protocol...think he's playing tonight! Let's go Andrew!!

[Chuck Murray]

Carolina Hurricanes call up Andrew Poturalski as some of their forwards are on covid protocol...think he's playing tonight! Let's go Andrew!!

Gotta take advantage of opportunities like this, you never know if you'll get another ...

[After the Whistle]

How did he do Ref?
The music discussion appears to have sucked the air out of the room. Or is it just the lack of games to attract our attention. Whatever, I will use this opportunity to bring up an often brought up idea - let’s have a NH college hockey tournament with 4 of our schools. With full respect to Ref and perhaps Snivley, what is in it for UNH? It s akin to a 6”4’ 240 pound guy walking into a bar and some little dude challenges him. If he wins, big deal, but of course! If he gets beat, he better find a new watering hole.
This coming from one of the only fans who is glad that we will get to play in the HE tournament. For me it represents 1 more game I get to watch. Same is true for exhibition games. If we lose to SNHU, St. As or Franklyn Pierce. Would that just put an explanation point on “off year”. Win sand everyone’s says, big deal, I would hope so.
Not starting a fight here just want some who like the idea to chime in and tell me what I’m missing.

[Chuck Murray]

How did he do Ref?
The music discussion appears to have sucked the air out of the room. Or is it just the lack of games to attract our attention. Whatever, I will use this opportunity to bring up an often brought up idea - let's have a NH college hockey tournament with 4 of our schools. With full respect to Ref and perhaps Snivley, what is in it for UNH? It s akin to a 6'4" 240 pound guy walking into a bar and some little dude challenges him. If he wins, big deal, but of course! If he gets beat, he better find a new watering hole.
This coming from one of the only fans who is glad that we will get to play in the HE tournament. For me it represents 1 more game I get to watch. Same is true for exhibition games. If we lose to SNHU, St. As or Franklyn Pierce. Would that just put an explanation point on “off year”. Win and everyone says, big deal, I would hope so.
Not starting a fight here just want some who like the idea to chime in and tell me what I'm missing.

I'm probably the chief advocate in favor of the NH statewide tourney (and FWIW I think the music discussion was just in lieu of hockey for a few weeks). I note you've left Dartmouth out of the discussion, and I'm assuming that's because they host their own event in late December, so I'm guessing your operating assumption is that the timing would have to come around the same time and thus exclude Dartmouth. That may indeed be the reality, but for our discussion here, I prefer to think otherwise. Let's start by calling the concept "New Riverstone", and assume it's held at SNHU Arena.

First, looking at the Dartmouth tourney, it's clear they've avoided the whole in-state approach, and that's fine. They are not located anywhere near 90% of the state, they've always been in their own little universe in the Upper Valley, so dragging up a bunch of (in their eyes) low profile local-yokels doesn't register on the snob appeal they probably expect in their Ivy world. So leave them and their tourney alone, but invite them to the New Riverstone anyway. They used to participate in both their own tourney and the original single-game Riverstone back in the day. So, if they commit to a New Riverstone, they end up spunking one additional non-conference game. If that's an issue for them, then c'est la vie, and we move on.

The original plan for dates for a New Riverstone could be for the first date to be just before or after Thanksgiving, and the final to be on the last weekend before winter break. SNHU could be the permanent host, UNH would be on board, Dartmouth is a possibility, and then Plymouth State/St. Anselm would either be the final addition OR both could enter if Dartmouth refuses.

My guess is if the tourney survives the first few seasons - and that's admittedly a big IF - then Dartmouth would probably get some pressure to join in, and assuming that UNH and SNHU are still on board, the 4th participant could either be determined by attrition if one of the smaller schools loses interest OR they could handle that on a rotational basis? Or maybe the loser of a consolation game one year would be subject to "relegation" out of the next year's tourney?

What's in it for UNH? More exposure for the school, and especially for their moribund Men's Hockey program (and I guess you can't rule out a future Women's Riverstone)? The smaller schools get to play with the big boy(s) in a big arena, and it's maybe a travel event/rolling party, kind of like that other winter tourney down in Boston has become? And speaking of that, it's probably a 90% chance that either BU or BC is gonna win that one every year, and it doesn't stop NU or Harvard from coming every year, now does it?

That's the bare bones from Commissioner Spitball here, but if someone with clout and money wants someone to do all the ground work for their glory, I'm happy to jump on and do this as a permanent retirement job that could keep me busy and happy well into my golden years. If HEA HQ can be based in Amesbury, no reason the Riverstone HQ can't be located in Effingwoods ... :-)

[After the Whistle]

First off thank you for responding Chuck. However I am disappointed in your argument or lack there of. The question was “what is in it for UNH?” While your response for lengthy, other than it would increase the school's exposure their was no real substance or substantiation. Now before you rip my head off, please reread it and be a honest with yourself. If you where a lawyer you would have lost the case, a salesmen - no sale. A D1 tournament would be wonderful but a tournament as suggested would only add to our current questionable standing in the HE world.

[Chuck Murray]

First off thank you for responding Chuck. However I am disappointed in your argument or lack there of. The question was “what is in it for UNH?” While your response for lengthy, other than it would increase the school's exposure their was no real substance or substantiation. Now before you rip my head off, please reread it and be a honest with yourself. If you where a lawyer you would have lost the case, a salesmen - no sale. A D1 tournament would be wonderful but a tournament as suggested would only add to our current questionable standing in the HE world.

No one is going to "rip your head off", ATW. I'll revisit and review, and get back on this later.

THEN I'll rip your head off. ;-)

Actually I was just checking in with the "good news/bad news" on Poturalski's latest nibble at The Show with the 'Canes, and the good news is he's scored two assists in two games, including a PP assist in a 5-3 win over my Red Wings the other night. Less "good news" is that he still posted a -1 on the plus/minus, which I suspect highlights an area that both Carolina and Anaheim have targeted in the past as a weak spot in AP's overall game. But it's still only 2 games, so we'll see if/how things might turn out in further follow-up action.

The "bad news" is that fellow call-up Jack Drury (last name sound familiar?) has scored 2 goals in those same 2 games, has posted a +3 plus/minus in his cameo to date ... plus he is six (6) years younger than Poturalski. Once the 'Canes return to full health, my guess is they're both going back to Chicago, but it's also likely that the younger player will be adjudged to have confirmed his status as a true "prospect", whilst the older player may still be seen as a "suspect".

I'm sure the jury is still out, but something like this just demonstrates how tricky it can be for borderline prospects like AP to nail an audition to carve out a longer-term opportunity at the highest level. Carolina is a strong, deep and fairly young team already, and could probably use some veteran leadership on the 3rd and 4th lines, but I'm not sure an AHL vet is what they're looking for ...

[Chuck Murray]

First off thank you for responding Chuck. However I am disappointed in your argument or lack there of. The question was “what is in it for UNH?” While your response for lengthy, other than it would increase the school's exposure their was no real substance or substantiation. Now before you rip my head off, please reread it and be a honest with yourself. If you where a lawyer you would have lost the case, a salesmen - no sale. A D1 tournament would be wonderful but a tournament as suggested would only add to our current questionable standing in the HE world.

You've made a fair criticism here ATW, but maybe the best argument(s) in favor of UNH competing in such a tournament are the obvious ones, which I would submit are money and prestige. I think you've been a UNH fan long enough to remember when sellouts at The Whitt were the norm, there were hundreds (if not thousands) on the season ticket waitlist, and games in Manchester against Dartmouth that meant next to nothing (unless you thought the Riverstone trophy was enough) also drew sellout or close to sellout crowds. Unfortunately, over the last 15 or so years, UNH has gradually deserted its fanbase beyond the immediate vicinity of Durham - less statewide media coverage for less and less successful teams, in turn driving less interest in what at one point a generation ago was without question THE most prominent sports team in our state. Lack of interest translated into less ticket sales, so now ticket revenue and other ancillary revenue generated by UNH Hockey is drained by empty seats, non-appearances in tournament play, and the death of the Riverstone event as well.

Let's say UNH has at the very least lost 50% of its ticket revenues for Hockey over a 16 game regular season. 3,000 empty seats at $20 a pop over a 16 game RS schedule equates to $960,000 which can easily be rounded to a figure of $1MM, plus loss of ancillary sales like concessions, gear, etc. Throw in the loss of at least 2 home MBPBEGAM "playoff" games in FULL and that's another $100,000. Split of revenues at Riverstone with Dartmouth for a close to full house? Another $100,000.

Not qualifying for the HEA Tourney trip to Boston, and/or the NCAA's? Don't know those financial details, but even if not a single dollar is lost there, there is the loss of prestige for sure. Does the New Riverstone get all of that back right away? No way, obviously it's a long-term proposition. But putting UNH back in Manchester for a couple of games a year at a time when UNH is arguably back to being the most prominent NH hockey team/program, in the aftermath of the loss of the Monarchs, is an opportunity to fill a vacuum and try to build something entirely new. And perhaps in the process, build up the college hockey landscape in our state. A rising tide lifts all boats, no? Tell me, what's the difference between SNHU and Merrimack? SNHU clearly has ambitions to grow, and it has grown, and it's got its name on the state's biggest arena now.

As things now stand, not even NH-based recruits have a positive impression of UNH, much less "legacy" kids, which Watcher and Dan have regularly lamented. That needs to change. IF UNH ends up with a dynamo of an AD in the aftermath of the Blue Skies Era, there's no limit to what that person could do to impact UNH Hockey's positioning, either within Hockey East, another existing conference (ECAC?) OR an entirely new D-1 conference? But being stuck in neutral as the UNH program is right now, and hoping a good recruiting season is going to do the trick all by itself, is wishful thinking at its worst. This is a long-term project, with many different options to look at to rebuild what's been lost. It will take a visionary, someone who's first reaction to new ideas that challenge the status quo is not "why bother?", but "why not?" Not everything will work, but just hanging around to basically "make up the numbers" in the lower rungs of Hockey East isn't what any of us have in mind now, is it? And if being the "big fish in the little pond" New Riverstone is part of starting an overall turnaround, count me in.

Hope this response put a little more "meat on the bones" from my original post, ATW. Thoughts?

[Chuck Murray]

Something else I've been noticing over the course of the last several months ... take a gander at NESN programming these days when it's not focused on the Sox or B's, and tell me, what do you see? What I'm seeing is a long string of programming that is basically serving as infomercials for Boston area schools, the most noticeable of all being Northeastern. Seems they've realized they had to do something to get their message out, to counter the constant BC/BU drumbeat they've literally faced since they started competing in NCAA sports many decades ago. Being the distant 3rd non-Ivy Beanpot school has put them at a decided disadvantage for a long, long time. So someone gets the bright idea of spunking some of the AD's budget into NESN-friendly NU sports programming, which NU can produce and then hand over to NESN as filler content at less expensive times on their schedule (plus the bonus time over at NESN+). Not so surprisingly, it seems NU has finally begun to close the gap on their more prominent neighbors, certainly in hockey. Coincidence? I think not.

Obvious question it begs is, if NU can do this, why can't UNH??? Answers on a postcard, please ...

[teez]

Something else I've been noticing over the course of the last several months ... take a gander at NESN programming these days when it's not focused on the Sox or B's, and tell me, what do you see? What I'm seeing is a long string of programming that is basically serving as infomercials for Boston area schools, the most noticeable of all being Northeastern. Seems they've realized they had to do something to get their message out, to counter the constant BC/BU drumbeat they've literally faced since they started competing in NCAA sports many decades ago. Being the distant 3rd non-Ivy Beanpot school has put them at a decided disadvantage for a long, long time. So someone gets the bright idea of spunking some of the AD's budget into NESN-friendly NU sports programming, which NU can produce and then hand over to NESN as filler content at less expensive times on their schedule (plus the bonus time over at NESN+). Not so surprisingly, it seems NU has finally begun to close the gap on their more prominent neighbors, certainly in hockey. Coincidence? I think not.

Obvious question it begs is, if NU can do this, why can't UNH??? Answers on a postcard, please ...

Yeah- I've noticed the Northeastern stuff on NESN. Good for them, seems to be working. Everything about that school is on fire from the hockey program to how selective it's become academically. To answer your question, there's no reason why they can't. Like everything else related to UNH hockey, it's an effort thing. UNH Hockey has had the trajectory of a company like Kodak. Had a good product>rode it out>never innovated>slow death>dead in the water. I just think the road back to prominence for UNH is going to be a SLOG. So much rides on what this new AD does. Kevin Sneddon had the UVM job for 17 years. These coaches never get fired.

Chuck, something you've brought up a few times is the ambition/vision/risk/gamble (however you want to phrase it) the University had to build the Whitt. It was a huge risk and it was a massive success for almost 20 years. I'd love to know more about how the Whitt came to be. Who's vision was it? Was it controversial? There had to have been an overwhelming sense of optimism in the program to go for a project like that. I've heard Snively was lively, but I only know UNH Hockey in the Whittemore Center era as I was 7 when it opened and we got our season tickets in 99-00. Now it feels like a white elephant.

I'm putting all my hope in the form of eggs into the new AD basket. It could only take one AD with 'Whittemore Center vision' to turn this program around. I'm hopeful the Soccer program is a perfect example of the enthusiasm that a thriving program creates.

[Chuck Murray]

Yeah- I've noticed the Northeastern stuff on NESN. Good for them, seems to be working. Everything about that school is on fire from the hockey program to how selective it's become academically. To answer your question, there's no reason why they can't. Like everything else related to UNH hockey, it's an effort thing. UNH Hockey has had the trajectory of a company like Kodak. Had a good product>rode it out>never innovated>slow death>dead in the water. I just think the road back to prominence for UNH is going to be a SLOG. So much rides on what this new AD does. Kevin Sneddon had the UVM job for 17 years. These coaches never get fired.

Northeastern's progress over the last generation-plus has been transcendent. My late uncle was a junior HS principal who was basically the guy who ran NU's local night school outreach program in my HS years, and I got to sit in on some college level courses when I was still in HS in the late '70's. I can tell you, the curriculum was hardly challenging back then. I also got a summer job during my college years working on the NU grounds crew, so I know that neighborhood pretty well, and it has very definitely improved over the last 40 or so years. There was a reason why NU was always a distant 3rd against BC and BU for many, many years. The folks running the show over on Huntington Ave. deserve a lot of credit, for sure.

Agree 100% with you on the importance of the new AD hire. The Sneddon example is a cautionary tale that should make any diehard UNH fan's blood run cold ...

Chuck, something you've brought up a few times is the ambition/vision/risk/gamble (however you want to phrase it) the University had to build the Whitt. It was a huge risk and it was a massive success for almost 20 years. I'd love to know more about how the Whitt came to be. Who's vision was it? Was it controversial? There had to have been an overwhelming sense of optimism in the program to go for a project like that. I've heard Snively was lively, but I only know UNH Hockey in the Whittemore Center era as I was 7 when it opened and we got our season tickets in 99-00. Now it feels like a white elephant.

First, I'm going to qualify my response here as limited, only because the events that led up to the Arena's construction are mostly of the pre-Internet time period (or at least before I was on-line, circa 1996?) AND several UNH folks on the USCHO boards from the early days of USCHO (and The Whitt) are either no longer with us, or no longer posting. I tried to refresh my own memory with more specifics before responding here, but there is not a whole lot of easily accessible information from sources like the Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover), Union Leader and/or the Concord Monitor on-line to draw from for historical info. That bastion of endless information known as Wikipedia gives you virtually nothing on The Whitt's process, other than it opened in 1995. For purposes of comparison, I believe the TD Garden f/k/a Fleet Center opened in Boston at around the same time The Whitt did, and its Wiki spends very little time on the process as well.

On top of that, we were in the midst of child-rearing mode ourselves, with our youngest arriving in '95, and our move to the WIS Estate would follow and eat up a lot of otherwise free time in '95 and '96. Throw in the advent of PC's being able to talk to each other on a widespread basis for the first time, and it was really feeling like a brave new world out there. Our eldest daughter is about your age, and she really has no recollection of a world without the Internet. But I digress ...

... so to try to generally answer your question, drawing upon hazy memories of the times (and subject to correction by any folks with definitive info on the topic), my recollection is there was a LOT of optimism about the project at UNH, which had really yet to embark upon the massive course of construction that's taken place across campus since. I wish I could tell you who the visionary(s) was, and whether the project was a joint venture of fundraising and public finance (i.e. Concord), but I don't have that recollection. Timing-wise, it was something that probably started conceptually when Governor Gregg was in charge, and it definitely finished during Governor Merrill's time in office. There was a baseline assumption that with most games in Snively selling out, and the program back on the rise, selling the first 3,500 tickets wouldn't be an issue, but the question was, who was going to buy the other 2,500+ seats? Again, this was mostly pre-Internet, and I vividly recall them trying to sell ticket packages to BU/BC/Harvard (?) games in Durham in package form via print ads in the Globe and Herald. I also very vividly recall the rink's design was an updated version of Thompson Arena at Dartmouth, where the fans would enter the arena at ground level, and go down to their seats in an excavated seating bowl. Someone like Greg Ambrose or several other "back in the day" posters would probably have more historical details. I'm pretty sure I kept some old-style newspaper articles on the project's progress, opening, etc. but I haven't happened upon them recently (in deep storage?).

So I can't be specific about any "controversy", other than the usual stuff that comes up when someone in education goes to the State for funding beyond the basics. And this was definitely well beyond anything "basic" at the time.

Ironically, with the subsequent evolutions of post-Internet reality, there's probably a really good argument to be made that 3,500 is a better more realistic seating capacity these days, so instead of building a brand-new Whittemore, the powers that be could simply have gone whole-hog on renovating Snively into a more modern and comfortable 4,000 seater? But if you think our arena is a "white elephant" ... you gotta wonder what folks down at BU think about Agganis Arena now? Especially considering it's, what, ten or so years newer than The Whitt??

I'm putting all my hope in the form of eggs into the new AD basket. It could only take one AD with 'Whittemore Center vision' to turn this program around. I'm hopeful the Soccer program is a perfect example of the enthusiasm that a thriving program creates.

Sorry about the long-winded answer to the previous part, teez. I'm with you 100%, hopefully with the long-overdue change in the AD's offices, we'll see Hockey turning around, although I have to confess, it feels like a SLOG as well. I also suspect our near enemy up in the Downeast has stolen a march on us with their adventurous new Hockey HC hire, which won't make things easier. But if Soccer can fill a decent chunk of the football stadium in the bitter chill of November, anything's possible.

[After the Whistle]

Well sorry to say but have not come any closer to convincing me on your D3 Tournament. Might work for a year or 2? Hard to tell. How much money is there in it after a 4 way split in a place that would cost a lot to rent. Who gets the concessions. Any tournament would generate more at the Whitt so have a Thanksgiving Tournament there after Thanksgiving with other national teams ( D1) however.
Your no butts in the seats is accurate. It is actually an 18 game package typically and during the “good old days” tickets where more, usually 26-28 for BC,BU and Maine.
They tried Manchester games for a few years but lots of unhappy season ticket folks. Media coverage unfortunately has fallen as out fortunes have.
So let’s hope a new AD will be the answer. Thanks for trying but this topic has no legs so until we go to Dartmouth, some of us anyway, enjoy the holidays Cats fans.

[Chuck Murray]

Well sorry to say but have not come any closer to convincing me on your D3 Tournament. Might work for a year or 2? Hard to tell. How much money is there in it after a 4 way split in a place that would cost a lot to rent. Who gets the concessions. Any tournament would generate more at the Whitt so have a Thanksgiving Tournament there after Thanksgiving with other national teams ( D1) however.
Your no butts in the seats is accurate. It is actually an 18 game package typically and during the “good old days” tickets where more, usually 26-28 for BC,BU and Maine.
They tried Manchester games for a few years but lots of unhappy season ticket folks. Media coverage unfortunately has fallen as out fortunes have.
So let’s hope a new AD will be the answer. Thanks for trying but this topic has no legs so until we go to Dartmouth, some of us anyway, enjoy the holidays Cats fans.

Fair enough. I'll pick at a few of your points, and elaborate (or counter) where I might disagree:

Might work for a year or 2? Short term thinking. Plus, "work" has to be better defined. Does "work" mean turn a profit, draw a target number of fans, not PO the season ticket holders, etc.?

How much money is there in it after a 4 way split in a place that would cost a lot to rent. Who gets the concessions. The goal (in my mind) is to expand the UNH fanbase, while generating exposure for other NH college hockey programs (more on that later). One of your partners in this enterprise already has their name on the Manchester facility, and said facility is already struggling to fill lots of open dates ... maybe a deal could be struck that works for all parties? As far as concesssions go, that can be part of the deal, but once again I'm tempted to classify this as short term thinking.

Any tournament would generate more at the Whitt so have a Thanksgiving Tournament there after Thanksgiving with other national teams ( D1) however. Governor's Cup redux. Assuming you remember the late 90's when UNH, UMaine, UVM & UML did the Governor's Cup for 2-3 seasons, rotating sites (I only recall UNH and UML hosting)? Just another game(s) against familiar HEA foes (at least back then, UVM was an ECAC program). No real excitement, and if you do change the opposition to other OOC foes, then what's the draw? What's different?? You're still selling to a local fan base, and not reaching out to a broader fan base that's been increasingly alienated, and used to be a significant force.

They tried Manchester games for a few years but lots of unhappy season ticket folks. Again, make it different, and again, you're not necessarily targeting your existing fan base - you're trying to expand your fan base (and maybe even the fan bases of other NH programs, plus promote general awareness of college hockey, which a lot don't even know exists). If in the process, UNH might get some early wins in the tourney's history ... how truly unhappy would folks be for traveling to Manchester for a couple of games in the middle of the holiday season?

Media coverage unfortunately has fallen as out fortunes have. Partially true, yet misleading. Someone at UNH has to seek out or cultivate a favorable presence in media, and then work with it. Blue Skies never even tried. Charlie Sherman was once that guy at WMUR, but when he lost his job, UNH really didn't reach out to his successor to make sure they still had that friendly presence at the state's only over-the-air station. It's not that his successor (who still has that job, almost 18 years later) can't be reached, it's just that other folks in other local sports organizations have beaten UNH to the punch. I know specifically of one organization that has basically built its business plan around favorable WMUR coverage, and it's still an effective strategy, believe it or not. Personally, I'm not a big fan of ABC or its affiliates, but lot of folks who are over 35 years old apparently still buy cable and watch "regular" TV. And a lot of those people still have kids in their households.

---------------

There's absolutely no guarantee that this works out. The only guarantee is that it won't work if you don't try. And if UNH gets nothing else out of the "project" other than some favorable goodwill from the other USNH schools, and the folks up in Concord ... those aren't bad things that can't lead to other favorable outcomes in other settings. And if it doesn't work for the various in-state hockey programs ... maybe it's more conducive to Hoops, where UNH is a D-1 program in name only??

We've just gone through 20 years of an AD who perceived being "visionary" as someone who built or added onto facilities. In his defense (gag), that's been the overall focus of the school during that stretch, so he's been a team player that way, but as far as on-field/ice/court/pitch success, it's been limited. Those capital projects were supposed to make the programs more competitive on the field of play - not less. It was never supposed to be an either/or situation. So hopefully the new person will focus on returning UNH's teams to prominence in competition, and revert to maintenance mode on its facilities.

JMHO.