There sure seem to be a lot of things that ASU officials today glossed over at their press conference announcing this, and as it relates to speculation by them, and in this thread, about about other schools adding D-1 hockey.
The donation that made this possible is also enough to fund the start or either a women's rowing or a women's lacrosse team at ASU, something that is absolutely necessary for them to not run afoul of the feds and Title IX. How often, or, how many schools are going to be able to just cough up the monies that might make either possible, either on their own, or, through a private donation? ASU officials acknowledge that this took the largest single donation in the history of ASU Athletics (32 million dollars) to pull off, as the same thing did at Penn State and that donation by Terry Pegula, at 102 million dollars, was the single biggest in the history of that school on any level, let alone just to the Athletic Department. Further, it also assisted Penn State around that same pesky Title IX issue and allowed them to add women's D-1 hockey at the same time. And, this is going to happen ("tip the dominoes", to quote them, verbatim), soon, at 5 more Pac-12 schools and we are going to have the Pac-12 Hockey Conference in the foreseeable future? Yeah, right.
Oceanside Ice Center, where ASU's ACHA team currently plays, seats 500 people for hockey. It is obviously completely and totally unsuited for a D-1 team at a school this size, both logistically and financially. The arena is owned by the Desert Youth Hockey Association (a 501c non-profit) and is a couple miles from the ASU campus. It was built in 1974 and, to give you an idea, there are two community rinks in Omaha, alone, for example, that are more opulent, newer, and larger than this place is.
The school says they don't know where they are going to play, yet (starting NEXT season!), but it is unfathomable that it would be in this facility. Their new coach says that they "expect to have a facility on campus, as soon as possible" Really? When? The going rate for that is going to be about 90 million bucks (at least), about what Penn State spent (88 million) and what UNO is currently spending (87 million). That amount of money got them both dual rink facilities and seating for 6,014 at Penn State and 7,500 at UNO. Is that big enough for a school the size of ASU? Who knows? Where is that money coming from, however much it ends up being, and, how soon? 39 million dollars of the the 87 million to build UNO's arena was also donated, by the way.
They talk of playing, perhaps, in US Airways Center in downtown Phoenix but, this is a city owned facility that has 3 major tenants in it already, the NBA Phoenix Suns, the WNBA Phoenix Mercury, and the Arena Football League Arizona Rattlers. The Suns schedule completely overlaps the college hockey season and the AFL season starts before the end of the college hockey regular season. They would be a secondary tenant (in a building that seats 16,210 for hockey) and would presumably have many, if not all the same sorts of revenue issues that UNO has had ever since it moved into the what was the Qwest and is now the CenturyLink Center here in Omaha, that is also city owned. Plus, the US Airways Center was not built with hockey in mind at all and, because of this, and the fact that they had a very unfavorable lease with the City of Phoenix, the building was such a disaster for the Arizona Coyotes that they had to abandon the place for their current digs in Glendale. At best, ASU is years from playing in a building they own. Probably 5+. And, all that time they are playing in somebody else's multi-use, multipurpose building, just as at UNO, the program may be scrambling for a place to practice on a regular basis and this is something that will be used against them in recruiting unless they can maybe use the team's current home as their practice facility. Either way, none of these near-future options, playing or practicing, are on campus and players are going to be schlepping all over the place for some time to come. Maybe the school can add ice making capability to Wells Fargo Arena (on campus) or even to the old Sun Devil Gym?
Their coach goes on to cite recruiting advantages they have without being specific about what they are other than to say that "we truly are the most unique college hockey experience in the country, and we are going to exploit that”. The only one that I can see is the weather there. And, they are going to compete directly with an NHL team for hockey dollars there and against the NBA, MLB, the NFL, the WNBA, and the AFL there (the Rattlers average about 10,000 fans per game!) for sports dollars, in general, to say nothing of all the other major sports at their own school!
I think it is going to be quite a challenge for them to become competitive anytime soon on the ice and to be any sort of financial success anytime soon, as well (if they ever do). To say nothing of the immediate financial challenges associated with their new facilities needs there, now.
I am glad to see it but, good luck to them. I think they will need some luck as well as needing to be very resourceful, besides. If they get into a conference, my bet is that it is the NCHC along with a defector from the WCHA (Bowling Green? MSM? FSU?). It's the only conference that really makes any sort of logistical sense. I'd be utterly shocked to see the Big 10 add them as an affiliate, despite conjecture earlier in the thread about this.
