New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

[aparch]

To play devil's advocate if I'm the nCCHA commish - that tells me that you have a small group of passionate fans, but you lack long-term institutional support.

How much was local? How much is continuous? I can't see a GoFundMe every year to balance the books as a viable finance stream... (glares in the direction the Women's side of the WCHA)

That being said, there is no way I'm raining on this parade. Southern hockey works as seen by the longevity of this program, the Gwinnett Gladiators, Nashville Predators, and their predecessors who paved the way. (Glares at the former ownership group of the Atlanta Thrashers.)

This is either going to be the best going away party college hockey has ever seen... or it's one hell of a "Year One" new beginnings party for UAH.

[lakersparty]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

If UAH hockey is indeed able to play, could the new CCHA accept UAH as an affiliate member like they did with Alaska back in the day? It would be a good method to test their commitment without totally shutting the door on them.

[Sean Pickett]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

I agree. I counter with a question about how many nCCHA schools have a broad donor base above the $250 yearly mark. I honestly don't know!

Luckily, all of the nCCHA schools are public (and honored my FOIA requests), so I have their NCAA Financials from 2010 through 2018. The average annual donations to their hockey programs have been:
Bemidji State, $360,953
Minnesota State, $220,074 (10 years)
Michigan Tech, $180,904
Bowling Green, $138,500 (10 years)
Ferris State, $78,570
Northern Michigan, $51,339
Lake Superior State, $37,242

For 2018 the donations for each program were:
Minnesota State, $286,161
Bemidji State, $277,233
Michigan Tech, $102,822
Ferris State, $89,450
Northern Michigan, $24,085
Bowling Green, $19,428
Lake Superior State, $600

Each programs' highest and lowest reported annual donations to their programs:
Bemidji State
2011, $709,898 (first year in the WCHA)
2010, $108,689
Bowling Green
2010, $724,982 (I believe this was the the year BGSU's team was on the chopping block)
2016, $8,315
Ferris State
2014, $118,987 (first year in the WCHA)
2010, $44,444
Lake Superior State
2015, $116,814
2018, $600
Michigan Tech
2013, $466,456
2012, $66,154
Minnesota State
2017, $353,060
2012, $87,178
Northern Michigan
2012, $111,867
2018, $24,085

By the way, Bowling Green was unable to maintain their high donation rate for hockey and in fact 2016-18 are the worst of the 10 years I have the information for:
2010, $724,982
2011, $63,906
2012, $85,428
2013, $101,924
2014, $135,158
2015, $101,164
2016, $8,315
2017, $33,369
2018, $19,428
2019, $111,326

So, UAH has already exceeded the amount BGSU raised when their program was on the chopping block.

While these numbers don't give the number of donors who gave $250+ every year, they do give an overview of how well (or poorly) the programs are supported through direct donations.

Sean

[pdt1081]

By the way, Bowling Green was unable to maintain their high donation rate for hockey and in fact 2016-18 are the worst of the 10 years I have the information for:
2010, $724,982
2011, $63,906
2012, $85,428
2013, $101,924
2014, $135,158
2015, $101,164
2016, $8,315
2017, $33,369
2018, $19,428
2019, $111,326

So, UAH has already exceeded the amount BGSU raised when their program was on the chopping block.

While these numbers don't give the number of donors who gave $250+ every year, they do give an overview of how well (or poorly) the programs are supported through direct donations.

Sean

2016 is an interesting year. BGSU received a "transformational gift" of $2 million that resulted in the name change to the Slater Family Ice Arena.

As for their fundraiser when the program was saved, May of 2010, BGSU topped $2 million. I don't know the details of those funds, whether they had received $2 million in cash by that point, or that was the amount pledged over so many years.
https://www.bgsu.edu/news/2010/05/bring-back-the-glory-campaign-tops-2million.html

[moose97]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

How much was local? How much is continuous? I can't see a GoFundMe every year to balance the books as a viable finance stream...

This. Looking through the GoFundMe donations list is a laundry list of college team fans who have nothing else to spend money on currently. How, exactly, is this sustainable?

[Shirtless Guy]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

This. Looking through the GoFundMe donations list is a laundry list of college team fans who have nothing else to spend money on currently. How, exactly, is this sustainable?

Its not

[moose97]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

This. Looking through the GoFundMe donations list is a laundry list of college team fans who have nothing else to spend money on currently. How, exactly, is this sustainable?

And, as an aside, shame on each one of you who donated to UAH at the expense of *your* school. Brown cut 11 sports. BGSU cut baseball. Nearly 100 college sports have been cut already. Whenever *your* school decides to drop a sport, do you expect UAH fans to bail your school out?

https://triblive.com/sports/number-o...s-nearing-100/

[Charger #2]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

Just to bring some more context to the fundraising...over $500,000 of the funds raised were from UAH hockey alum (former players) and over 65% of alum donated. I also participated in a zoom meeting that had over 90 alum on it. Noting this was all done in 4 days, I would suggest that there is a much better chance of sustainability than some may think!! Now that there is an advisory group, there is now the opportunity to stay in touch with the alumni base....something that rarely happened up to this point. Go Chargers!

[Sean Pickett]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

2016 is an interesting year. BGSU received a "transformational gift" of $2 million that resulted in the name change to the Slater Family Ice Arena.

As for their fundraiser when the program was saved, May of 2010, BGSU topped $2 million. I don't know the details of those funds, whether they had received $2 million in cash by that point, or that was the amount pledged over so many years.
https://www.bgsu.edu/news/2010/05/br...-2million.html

The 2010-14 NCAA reports state "Do not report pledges until funds are allocated." From 2015 on the NCAA modified it to
"Do not report:
Pledges until funds are provided to athletics for use
Contributions to be used in other reporting years"

So, for the 2010 campaign it would appear that only the $743 thousand was actually received by the end of the fiscal year. Furthermore, contributions for 2010-19 totaled just $1.385 million, well short of the $2 million the article mentioned. The article also states the goal was $5 million, some of which would be used to endow hockey scholarships. I don't know how that money is reported, but the NCAA also has a category for money received from endowment scholarships each year and BGSU has reported $0 for hockey on every report (2010-19) I have. So, even if they did receive some money for endowed scholarships they have yet to draw upon it. So, all-in-all, while the campaign may have saved hockey, in the end it appears to have fallen well short of its stated and reported goals.

It's possible that the school directed some of the donated money into the general athletic fund, as a look at BGSU's non-sports specific donations for 2010 and 2011 were very high, but that is not supposed to happen if the donor states the sport their donation is for. Here are the annual non-sports specific donations:
2010 $1,689,341
2011 $1,627,101
2012 $218,686
2013 $255,807
2014 $344,731
2015 $794,706
2016 $728,001
2017 $809,233
2018 $903,475
2019 $944,966

As for the $2 million "transformative" gift made in 2017-18 to advance the future of the hockey rink, the school did not report any of that as going to hockey in their annual NCAA reports. Maybe, it was also included in the non-sports specific donations: is the hockey rink used for any other sports?

Sean

[Sean Pickett]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

And, as an aside, shame on each one of you who donated to UAH at the expense of *your* school. Brown cut 11 sports. BGSU cut baseball. Nearly 100 college sports have been cut already. Whenever *your* school decides to drop a sport, do you expect UAH fans to bail your school out?

https://triblive.com/sports/number-o...s-nearing-100/

I'm not sure why you are so against UAH keeping hockey, but shame on YOU for trying to shame fans of other teams who donated to keep the UAH program alive.

As for Brown, mentioning them here is pure misdirection, as their dropping 11 varsity sports has nothing to do with the coronavirus, but is a planned reorganization of sports, the review of which began in 2018. Furthermore, Brown is not cutting the athletic budget, but is reallocating the $500,000 or so spent on the cut sports to other sports, with women's soccer and men's basketball being mentioned. And finally, Brown is adding two varsity sports, women's sailing and coed sailing, giving Brown 29 varsity sports. You can read the Providence Journal article yourself, if you are interested.

Sean

[gfmorris]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

Its not

No, but you play differently to pull the goalie to tie the game than you do when you're back to even.

Look, this was a plan fomented between Friday afternoon and Monday. It was dropped on Monday night. Four days later, they had more than $500k. That's impressive.

I don't think that folks knew that the numbers were this bad. Hell, I look at the numbers that Sean posted and truly worry about some of those schools!

Let's be very, very clear: UAH is going to go from shouldering the burden of the program to effectively subsidizing it, to the tune of $500k/yr or so. Anything above and beyond that will come from donors. Lake Superior can get by on $37k of yearly donations because the school will fund it. UAH just won't, for lots of reasons. Is that really a problem? If the money is there, I don't know that it matters whose pockets it comes from. Big-time college football is funded by millions (and in the SEC, likely tens of millions) of dollars every year. Is it unreasonable to think that this model would work in Huntsville? We have a high-tech town with lots of folks with disposable income, many of whom went to UAH.

Academic studies show time and again that people are more likely to give money when asked, with a full fundraising goal in mind, and in knowing where it's going. We saw that this week.

That said, it has to scale. The program needs 2.5-3x what was raised this week at a minimum, in my estimation. You're not going to get that in another month of fundraising. You're going to get it in sustained solicitation of funds led by a strong voice or voices that are ready to make it work.

Please know that I think we have those people and that we stand a half-decent shot at it. But it's just not done. It's barely started.

GFM

[pdt1081]

As for the $2 million "transformative" gift made in 2017-18 to advance the future of the hockey rink, the school did not report any of that as going to hockey in their annual NCAA reports. Maybe, it was also included in the non-sports specific donations: is the hockey rink used for any other sports?

Sean

Up until the May Board of Trustees meeting, the Ice Arena was part of the Department of Recreation and Wellness. That changed earlier this month when it was moved back to athletics along with some other reorganization.

[MavHockey14]

I have the same question. Why would UAH be considered for the new CCHA when they weren't in the original group? I am assuming that the other 7 schools don't want them in the conference. Surely UAH would have wanted to be included if that was an option, right? Seems even less likely the new CCHA schools would be interested now. What am I missing here?

Not saying ASU would be interested, or that I’d want them as the 8th team (which I think will be St Thomas anyway) but I’m taking a Power 5 school with an incredibly high undergrad enrollment over UAH side by side at this point, not even a question. Virtually the same travel concerns but AZ > AL, etc.

[Alaska Hockey]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

Not saying ASU would be interested, or that I’d want them as the 8th team (which I think will be St Thomas anyway) but I’m taking a Power 5 school with an incredibly high undergrad enrollment over UAH side by side at this point, not even a question. Virtually the same travel concerns but AZ > AL, etc.

I wonder how much each ccha team would have to pay for ASU to lower their standards and come play with the hicks? Every body has a number. askin for a friend....... 17K probaly starting pt.

[JohnsonsJerseys]

Re: New CCHA Back From The Ashes.

I wonder how much each ccha team would have to pay for ASU to lower their standards and come play with the hicks? Every body has a number. askin for a friend....... 17K probaly starting pt.

If the CCHA had wanted ASU, they would have been in by now. They blew it by not getting a rink done in a timely fashion or at the very least having something underway by now. The CCHA would likely rather have St Thomas from a geography standpoint, but they are still waiting on D-I approval. So much like ASU until that key detail changes, they won't get much serious attention from the CCHA. UAH has the inside track to get the 8th spot because they are already an active program with a suitable rink. They just need to stabilize their organization and line up a long term funding solution. I don't think the CCHA team would object to ONE long road trip per season. They did it for years in the old WCHA and CCHA. Doing 2 or 3 per season was where it got out of hand.