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Arizona State Moving To D1

Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

SunDevilBob said:
Some more rumblings from the Big10 in terms of ASU joining as an associate member, possibly with Nebraska-Lincoln doing D1 for balance.
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I was skeptical. But when I saw some quotes from Heppel, it seems that the B1G is in fact interested. To my big surprise. Either would be big news. But UNL? Wow.

Just hoping that the conference as a whole remains at the top of the game.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

Rumor has it ASU is wanted by the WCHA, NCHA and even the Big Ten. It all comes down to the BTN if they OK it you can start planning your winter vacations around your club visiting Arizona. I don't know if this was the thread but Iowa is closer to starting up a team than Lincoln.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

bcmsu9196 said:
Has ASU announced where it's going to play its home games starting next season?
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Staying at Oceanside but it's renovating to hold around 2,000. Some games might be played in Gila River Arena (Coyotes Arena) but nothing concrete on that and so far Yale is the only NCAA opponent confirmed to be playing in AZ.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

SunDevilBob said:
Staying at Oceanside but it's renovating to hold around 2,000. Some games might be played in Gila River Arena (Coyotes Arena) but nothing concrete on that and so far Yale is the only NCAA opponent confirmed to be playing in AZ.
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I was at Oceanside in February and was told by one of the refs (so take that for what its worth) that ASU would only be playing the Club portion of their schedule at Oceanside. Just passing along that unsubstantiated information.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

Rightnut said:
I was at Oceanside in February and was told by one of the refs (so take that for what its worth) that ASU would only be playing the Club portion of their schedule at Oceanside. Just passing along that unsubstantiated information.
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I believe the plan originally was to only play NCAA games on the road and play club games at home. That has changed with Yale deciding to come out so they might play in Oceanside. Attendance would probably be better at Oceanside too.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

SunDevilBob said:
I believe the plan originally was to only play NCAA games on the road and play club games at home. That has changed with Yale deciding to come out so they might play in Oceanside. Attendance would probably be better at Oceanside too.
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Hopefully, for my sake anyway, the games will be in Glendale since that is much closer to my house and a more comfortable venue.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

Long-term (at least in the next 5-10 years), is the "push" to stay at Oceanside, play at Gila River, or possibly retrofit Wells Fargo Arena?
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

bcmsu9196 said:
Long-term (at least in the next 5-10 years), is the "push" to stay at Oceanside, play at Gila River, or possibly retrofit Wells Fargo Arena?
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What seems likely right now is that it will be a completely new on-campus rink by the 2017-18 season when the team joins a conference. It doesn't seem like Wells Fargo will be renovated for hockey, if at all, and people had said that if anything basketball might move into the hockey arena as a secondary tenant.

LTsatch said:
Yeah, Thanks for ruining our non conference schedule, hope the boys have a great vacation down there.
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We're probably ruining plenty of non-conference schedules. You guys are just the only ones coming here for it.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

SunDevilBob said:
What seems likely right now is that it will be a completely new on-campus rink by the 2017-18 season when the team joins a conference. It doesn't seem like Wells Fargo will be renovated for hockey, if at all, and people had said that if anything basketball might move into the hockey arena as a secondary tenant.

We're probably ruining plenty of non-conference schedules. You guys are just the only ones coming here for it.
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It is going to be nearly impossible to have an arena built by then.

It might be tough, even, if construction started today and they still need Board of Regents approval for the building of such a facility, the funding for it, the land on which to build it, an architectural design of this structure, the necessary legal bidding process to take place for all aspects of the construction of such a public building that is presumably going to utilize at least some level of public funding, and for the actual construction, itself, to occur.

There is NO way all that is happening in time for them to be in a new area in time for the '17-'18 season. And, the process hasn't even really begun there. All there has been is "talk" about it.

Just the construction phase, itself, of UNO's nearing-completion-new-arena, started in February of 2014 and will not be complete until early October of 2015. That's 21 months or so. For just construction. 21 months from now is basically January 1 of 2017. Think all the other things leading up to actual construction are all going to occur in the 10 month window that would then exist in which to do them? It sure didn't here. The process took 11 months from the time it was approved by the Regents (March of '13) until actual ground was broken. Is this matter on the Arizona Board of Regents (the governing body of ASU, U of A, and NAU) upcoming agenda(s), even? It would sure be in the news if it is was. It better be, if there is any real intent to be in business in time for the '17-'18 season.

Don't see this happening this quickly at all. I'd be impressed if they had an arena in place for the '18-'19 season, at this point.
 
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Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

chickod said:
I think we have a geography problem here... :D Are you talking about the ocean that will impinge when the ice caps melt?
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Not sure if this is a coincidence, but Oceanside is right next to Tempe's Big Surf Water park. I know Big Surf and Oceanside have teamed up in the past to offer summer programs that include hockey lessons followed water park admission.
 
Re: Arizona State Moving To D1

MaizeRage said:
I'd be impressed if it ever happened at all.
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Yeah, there's that, too.

To reiterate, Penn State got this done with the largest single contribution of any kind to the school.

UNO got it financed this way:

http://www.omaha.com/uno/price-tag-...cle_790e3b96-7845-56ee-8813-a763969adb04.html

(and, by the way, the actual arena capacity ended up being 7,800)

So, 39 million dollars of the 87.9 million dollar UNO arena price tag here was also donated along with the City of Omaha kicking in another 6 million.

I've stated earlier in the thread that the going rate, based on construction costs of our building and that of Penn State's, means an expenditure of a minimum of 90 million dollars for a dual rink facility, which is what they will most certainly need. And that is only going to get them into the 6,500 - 7,500 seat range.

Is that enough seats at the school with the largest student body in the entire country? Anyone that has seen my UNO arena thread knows than I am on the record as saying that 7,800 isn't even enough at UNO (note: Dean Blais has now publicly said the same thing here in the past 2 weeks--pre-NCAA tourney, by the way). However, I do understand that an ASU hockey program is going to be competing for far fewer available sports dollars in Phoenix than UNO is. To say nothing of their having to compete directly with an NHL team. Maybe a building this small IS the ticket.

We'll see just how serious everybody is down there about college hockey when it comes time to decide how and who is footing the bill for what is likely to be an upwards of a 100 million dollar expenditure that is almost certainly going to involve public funds.

Here's how serious UNO was about it when push came to shove. They punted the football program entirely, as well as their two-time defending National Champion wrestling team (on the very day they won the 2nd in a row) to make all this happen, financially.

What hockey fans here at the USCHO Forum hope for and want to see and what the people of the State of Arizona want to see, as far as the expenditure of state tax dollars to build a hockey arena, may very well be two entirely different things. I guarantee you when serious discussion about this starts down there, there is going to be an element of people that are against spending money for this purpose unless assurances can be made/proven that this would become a revenue sport at the school, something I'd have serious, serious doubts about.

I, too, will believe all this when I see it actually start happening.
 
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