Re: Bottom Feeders 2017-18
Still taking regional bids. Looking for a West regional especially.
If nominations are still open, may I offer up for considerations:
The Red River Valley Fairground's Schollander Pavillion. Yes, this fine rodeo and livestock arena used to be home to West Fargo, ND, youth hockey (before they moved into a facility with such boisterous and gaudy things like actual concrete with cooling pipes under the ice). Yes, temporary cooling mats on the rodeo dirt served as the chill plant for the ice. I'm sure they could find the old boards and mats to host such a prestigious tournament.
https://redrivervalleyfair.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Schollander-Pavillion.pdf
And mentioning rodeo and livestock arenas that used to host hockey, allow me to please also offer up the North Dakota Winter Show Building in Valley City. This fine facility seats 5000! Again, it no longer hosts hockey for the same reasons as above as they moved into a facility with actual concrete with cooling pipes under the ice AND heat in the locker rooms. Here also were chilling mats on dirt for an ice plant.
Additionally, yes, fine members of the selection committee, the rink/arena is merely the east half of the building. The west portion is permanent corrals for livestock ... except when they pull in trailer houses (without heat) to serve as locker rooms. And yes, or is it no, there are no shower facilities in the trailers. The charm of this arena? Wondering if the smell in the locker room is coming from outside the trailer, or if it's just your defensive partner not having access to showers. Need more to convince you? No. Glass. You read that: No glass, just 8 foot tall chicken wire from dot to dot around each end; 4 foot boards everywhere else.
https://northdakotawintershow.com/wintershow-about.php
Signed,
A guy who played games in both in bygone days
PS and late edit: If these facilities do not meet your strict criteria I believe each in their early operations did not even have chill mats on dirt. No, fair reader, they put poly over the dirt, sprayed water, opened the doors, and let that North Dakota in January feeling in to make ice. I'm sure they'd offer that if given hosting responsibilities. That said, ponder ice quality in early April in an all-steel building when it's mid-70s outside. (It was "raining" in the NDWSB for one game I played there because the steel interior ceiling was still cold enough to condense humid outside air coming in.)