Re: Michigan State vs. Ferris State 2/19-2/20
Gee, thanks. Now I have to wipe the hot chocolate off the keyboard.
Hey I think that place has character, the Scott Hamilton banner really ties the room together.
Hey, don't knock Scott, he just pledged $500,000 to our arena renovation fund. I'm sure that when/if either of your buildings can claim connection to an Olympic gold medalist and three time world champion his name will be honored somewhere in your rink. You can hang it right next to your hockey team's national championship banner. Oh, that's right...neither of you has one of those...sorry
I will be the first to admit that my school has done a poor job in keeping our facilities up to date, or even maintained. Sadly, several successive administrations saw fit to treat the ice arena like some weird hybrid of 'cash-cow' and 'red-headed stepchild'. Pulling $$$ from arena revenues to pay for other projects (lights on the football stadium) while raising hourly rates for ice-time to the point where local teams found it more viable to rent ice in Findlay or Toledo (each 25 miles away).
The streaks, stains and cracks visible on the concourse walls are being caused by leaks in the roof. As those roof problems were scheduled to be corrected this past summer, no attempts have been made to patch or paint over the inside damage over the past several years. Last summer's planned mini-renovation got cancelled in the same budget crisis that nearly killed the program last spring.
That 'near death' experience proved to be both painful and necessary, as the outcry from alumni and the community convinced the administration that rebuilding the program was essential...and that renovation of the arena is an integral step in rebuilding the program.
So, to those of you that follow BRIS, let me make this analogy..."I'd rather be fat than ugly, because I can lose weight, but ugly lasts forever."
Lesson to everyone: Support your team, support your school. Demand excellence from all associated with your program, starting with yourselves and your boosters. You have every right to be proud of the fine season's that both of you are presently enjoying, but don't allow that to turn into the complacency that might make you think you're somehow 'entitled' to be successful every year. There's no need to look any further than Ann Arbor or South Bend to see how quickly a program can fall from championship contention to the lower tier.
Good luck in the playoffs, except (of course) if we meet in the quarterfinals.
Side note to Hammer...I'll bet that hot chocolate was not the first fluid or semi-fluid you've spewed on your keyboard. And don't take everything so personally, dick-cheese.
