Re: Bemidji State offseason, WCHA, BREC here we come!
It makes sense for them to have the rink, which is why they agreed to build it before the WCHA thawed on expansion. I just don't see where it makes sense for the rink to be that much bigger than it is.
Even if it should be bigger, it took a lot of attempts to get this rink built through the political system. As a UAH fan, I've followed the Beavs for over a decade, so I've heard their failures and successes. I just don't think that the money was there to be 50% bigger than it is.
GFM
Well, there could have been the money for a 6600 seat rink, since UMD is building theirs for ~ $66 million and the BREC is ~ $55 million (what's $11 million between friends?
). One diference, though, is the BREC has a convention center in addition to the arena, and UMD's new rink already has the rest of the DECC facilities.
Also, don't forget that BSU is comming from a 2415 seat building, and they will need to sell nearly double that number of tickets just to sell out the BREC. If they jumped to 7-8000, then they would need to sell ~ 5000 extra tickets to sell out. Now, while the Frozen Four run from '09 and this past season of being ranked top-10 all year has made BSU hockey more popular than ever, I don't think they can get to 5000 extra tickets.
Also, on that note, you don't build a 7-8000 seat building on the odd chance you
might get the WJC someday (think about it - Grand Forks has had the Ralph for a decade, and that's arguably the nicest non-NHL rink in the country, and they've only gotten one. Plus, they have several options for a "B" rink - the Little Ralph, the UP Center in Fargo (5000) and now the BREC. At best, the BREC has a 33% chance of hosting the WJC - and that's only
if the IIHF comes back to Grand Forks in the first place). Not only that, the BREC is big enough as it is to host something like the U18 World Champinships. That was at the UP Center last year, and the BCA (Bemidji Community Arena next to the high school) could be the "B" rink for that tourney.
Anyway, what you do is build it so that you have demand for the big series (UND, Minnesota, etc.), and so that it's not half empty when a OOC team that isn't as popular, or an exhibition opponent comes in. In fact, when the press box was being designed, I made the comment that it should be designed exactly that way - enough space for the Gopher series (2 TV stations, 2-3 radio stations and all the auxiliary seating for newspaper, etc. So most of that space doesn't get used when UAA comes - so what? At least there's enough space for the big games, and you don't have to turn credentialed folks away (which could reflect poorley on BSU) for the Gopher or Wisconsin series.
The biggest reason to do 4700? Money. Sure, dreaming of the WJC or even the U18 WC is nice, but at the end of the day, you need to fill the building night in, and night out. Just look down the road at Thief River Falls' Little Ralph, and note that the city is having a tough time paying for it to be cleaned. If you build an 8000 seat building on the chance you need that many seats in the future, you still need to maintain it when it's not full. Not a good business model, eh?
