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Starting D1 Hockey Program

Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

4four4 said:
I don't believe this has been posted before today. It looks like nice D1 college hockey arena.
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It was. The old Ralph even hosted the Frozen Four in 1983.

The idea of buying it, dismantling it, shipping it four states over, and rebuilding & retrofitting it is interesting. Of course they still have to create the infrastructure, and I have no idea what kind of shape the ice plant is in.

The original Palestra in Marquette was moved in a similar fashion when it came from Laurium (next to Calumet, MI) where it was built as the world's first indoor ice arena. They did it in 1921 and it took 55 days. It stood very close to where the Berry Events Center is now at the corner of 3rd Street and Fair Avenue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestra_(Michigan)
 
davyd83 said:
The men do practice at Ridder from time to time, and your also not very likely to have St Thomas playing at Ridder while the Gophers are playing across the hallway at Mariucci.
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Besides, why would the Gophers rent their ice to a competitor in their market?
 
Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

I've never even heard of such a process of basically moving the guts of an arena across the country so it can be repurposed. Very cool.
 
Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

That concept isn’t nothing, that’s for sure. Any school that’s hired a consulting firm, looked into an arena with ice or otherwise done anything public would be on the list of possibilities.

Indiana would, I suppose, join the list.
 
The JLGice page about the Indiana Sports Pavilion was published on January 10, 2014. Modified on September 16, 2019.

A quick skim of articles about old Englestad says last week they razed the lobby first. The JLGice site shows a brand new lobby.

In a Grand Forks Herald article, there is an ambiguous quote towards the end. They are removing and salvaging parts of the main arena. Why they are it doesn’t say.

The mystery deepens.

Moving to a personal note. I lived in Indiana recently. I knew only two people who liked hockey. One was a former member of Miami’s hockey pep band. The other one owned the Indy Fuel hockey team (my girlfriend was an exec at his company).

My experience was what it was. It doesn’t mean Indiana is undeserving of a hockey team. Adding hockey is more than welcomed. If I still lived there, I would have certainly embraced Hoosier hockey.
 
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Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

There are some dominos that could fall that would give LIU some inroads at AHA, but what I find most interesting is that the East is about to face a similar issue to what the West was facing in the brief period post-CHA, pre-Penn State: conferences full to the brim, with no room for new programs to go.

After 2010, we had a 12-team WCHA and an 11-team CCHA, with Huntsville in the lurch. Even if the CCHA wanted to take on another team, they were going to be very selective about it.

I think we could say the same thing about the 11-team Hockey East, 12-team ECAC and 11-team AHA. The ECAC can’t take on anyone (and it’s probably a narrow list of who they would even be bothered to consider), and I imagine the AHA is waiting on Navy then will close its doors to newcomers.

I don’t recall Joe Bertagna being too concerned with adding a twelfth when he was on the USCHO podcasts, but maybe that changes soon? Even if they did, I wonder how selective they’d be about who they consider.

Point being: Short of some realignment magic (a few scenarios are out there, some more plausible than others), I don’t think LIU is going to have a home anytime soon. Not without an ice arena and/or plenty of fan support.
 
Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
There are some dominos that could fall that would give LIU some inroads at AHA, but what I find most interesting is that the East is about to face a similar issue to what the West was facing in the brief period post-CHA, pre-Penn State: conferences full to the brim, with no room for new programs to go.

After 2010, we had a 12-team WCHA and an 11-team CCHA, with Huntsville in the lurch. Even if the CCHA wanted to take on another team, they were going to be very selective about it.

I think we could say the same thing about the 11-team Hockey East, 12-team ECAC and 11-team AHA. The ECAC can’t take on anyone (and it’s probably a narrow list of who they would even be bothered to consider), and I imagine the AHA is waiting on Navy then will close its doors to newcomers.

I don’t recall Joe Bertagna being too concerned with adding a twelfth when he was on the USCHO podcasts, but maybe that changes soon? Even if they did, I wonder how selective they’d be about who they consider.

Point being: Short of some realignment magic (a few scenarios are out there, some more plausible than others), I don’t think LIU is going to have a home anytime soon. Not without an ice arena and/or plenty of fan support.
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You and your dang realism, kind of bums me out! What are your thoughts on St. Thomas mixing up the conferences, and I suppose ASU also?
 
Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

I know no more than the average idiot about such things.

If I make any assumptions, I’ll use the following rules:
- Does the existing conference have requirements that [potential new member] may or may not meet?
- Does [potential new member] have any relationship to schools in the existing conference?

St Thomas probably isn’t meeting anyone’s conference requirements overnight. They play in a high school rink.

That said, if they are successful in joining the Summit League, that gives them a relationship to Denver, NoDak and Omaha. That’s not an ironclad guarantee of anything (especially without the arena or proven fan base), just look at how the Northeast Conference, Northern Sun, MAC, Patriot League, etc schools are split up in the college hockey conferences.

But one must imagine that it’s at least a foot in the door, right? It’s not nothing… maybe a helpful way to get non-conference matchups in the worst case.

But, for as many reasons as I could theorize that they could end up in the NCHC or the CCHA, we could probably surmise an equal number of plausible reasons that neither could happen. Who knows?
 
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Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

Bertagna might not have mentioned it but I have heard it talked about before. Coaches want a 12th team. Makes a big difference in scheduling. Now, they're not going to add just anybody. There really are two choices. If everything goes well with Sacred Heart's rink and they get an uptick in recruiting etc...they are the program to watch. Or, with Holy Cross women already in Hockey East...if they make a Sacred Heart like commitment it could be them. That's the list as I see it.
 
Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

J.D. said:
Bertagna might not have mentioned it but I have heard it talked about before. Coaches want a 12th team. Makes a big difference in scheduling. Now, they're not going to add just anybody. There really are two choices. If everything goes well with Sacred Heart's rink and they get an uptick in recruiting etc...they are the program to watch. Or, with Holy Cross women already in Hockey East...if they make a Sacred Heart like commitment it could be them. That's the list as I see it.
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If HEA had a magic wand, it would make a Rhode Island or maybe a Syracuse magically appear. But either of those is as much a fantasy as a magic wand, so its back to Holy Cross, which has an existing relationship with the league and easy travel (except from Maine and Vermont) but no acceptable rink, or Sacred Heart, which is lesser known and not as convenient, but will have an attractive on-campus venue and potential to grow a fan base. I just don't see QPac giving up its position as a perennial ECAC power to become part of the HEA pack.
 
Re: Starting D1 Hockey Program

ExileOnDaytonStreet said:
I know no more than the average idiot about such things.

If I make any assumptions, I’ll use the following rules:
- Does the existing conference have requirements that [potential new member] may or may not meet?
- Does [potential new member] have any relationship to schools in the existing conference?

St Thomas probably isn’t meeting anyone’s conference requirements overnight. They play in a high school rink.

That said, if they are successful in joining the Summit League, that gives them a relationship to Denver, NoDak and Omaha. That’s not an ironclad guarantee of anything (especially without the arena or proven fan base), just look at how the Northeast Conference, Northern Sun, MAC, Patriot League, etc schools are split up in the college hockey conferences.

But one must imagine that it’s at least a foot in the door, right? It’s not nothing… maybe a helpful way to get non-conference matchups in the worst case.

But, for as many reasons as I could theorize that they could end up in the NCHC or the CCHA, we could probably surmise an equal number of plausible reasons that neither could happen. Who knows?
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I didn't want to say anything about being an average or above average ............ but it did remind me of a staff meeting I was once in as a freshly minted engineer and the boss told another young engineer that as a result of a safety incident a design change was needed, and to emphasize he said "don't take this wrong but we can't do a half azz job on this". So I spoke us and said "I'll help him and we'll make it a full azz job........."
 
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