UNLV To DI?

[omahasioux1]

Re: UNLV To DI?

To be fair, I'm sure half the people that stumbled into an ECHL hockey game there were drunk out of their minds and or just wanted some real nice air conditioning.

Strong hockey base of 4500 for ECHL. Thomas and Mack is to big.

 

[aparch]

Re: UNLV To DI?

To be fair, I'm sure half the people that stumbled into an ECHL hockey game there were drunk out of their minds and or just wanted some real nice air conditioning.

Well, kudos to the Wranglers staff to marketing themselves to drunken/heat stroked visitors to Vegas: The Orleans Arena is a mile and a half west of the strip. That's one hell of a stumble for those folks.


Wanna try again?

 

[omahasioux1]

Re: UNLV To DI?

Well, kudos to the Wranglers staff to marketing themselves to drunken/heat stroked visitors to Vegas: The Orleans Arena is a mile and a half west of the strip. That's one hell of a stumble for those folks.


Wanna try again?

Thank you.

 

[sbkbghockey]

Re: UNLV To DI?

Zee Kahn lost every ounce of credibility the second he uttered this sentence after this paragraph:



That statement is utter nonsense and he has no real basis for making it. You are talking about a minimum of 5 other schools starting programs. What, exactly, would be the impetus for this to happen and where is/are the money and facilities coming from? To say nothing of the Title IX issues this will cause at any and every school, no matter where it is, that is even thinking about this.

Then he goes on to new levels of asinine:



Smaller school? What the hell does that mean? ASU has the largest enrollment of any public university in the United States. They are ALL smaller schools. There are no small schools in the Pac-12, anyway, if that's what he meant. Stanford has the smallest enrollment of any PAC-12 school and it is nearly 17,000 students. No other school in the entire conference has less than 21,000 students. 6 schools have enrollments north of 35,000.

Further, the notion that what any one hockey program's athletic department did would put some sort of "stranglehold" on what any other school might do is laughable when you look at the facilities wars that are going on in almost every sport at schools all over the nation. If a hockey program is somehow seen as financially possible, or, desirable, financially or otherwise, at any school, anywhere, they are sure not going to care about what their competitors down the street are doing.

Then, he goes on to imply that whether this might or might not happen will be influenced by TV monies from televising Pac-12 hockey games. Ask the Big 10 how that one is going, a conference that contains 4 of the most storied programs in the history of college hockey.

I'm sorry, but this guy is talking out his a**.

I'd be willing to make a bet with this guy and put up anything I own that a Pac-12 hockey conference does not surface in the foreseeable future. Certainly not one composed entirely of Pac-12 schools, anyway and I don't think they'd allow affiliate programs in hockey just like I don't think the Big 10 will ever do it in hockey, either.

As far as UNLV is concerned, if they do go D-1, I don't think Vegas can or is going to support that and an NHL team. Whichever surfaces first (if either) is probably all Vegas is going to see.

I agree with you, Red Cows, that the Kahn kid is a bit too enthusiastic about UNLV and making major assuptions/opinions of the Pac-12 Hockey Conference. Also it's unlikely that either will be up and running in "2-3 years" but I do think we will see it eventually. ASU is trying to court other Pac-12 schools and the conference has been supportive of ASU and hockey so far.

Also the explosion of California hockey is something the NCAA is very interested in, there's more and more high quality players coming out of the West Coast, with the closest programs East of the Rockies until ASU, the NCAA is losing a lot of top West Coast talent to the WHL.

It's conceivable that ASU/Pac-12 only needs two more schools to sponsor the sport: ASU + 3 more Pac12 Schools then add CC and Denver as affiliate members to create the 6-team conference. It could also take the two Alaska's but I'm not sure any conference is going to want that hassle...

ASU was initially going to play a hybrid ACHA D1-NCAA schedule (50-50). ASU is now way ahead of the first plans and playing a majority NCAA schedule. Staying independent until enough Pac12 schools add hockey is an option for ASU because there's no shortage of NCAA teams willing to travel to sunny AZ from their cold/snowy homes in Nov-Feb and gives the new program scheduling flexibility.

 

[omahasioux1]

Re: UNLV To DI?

Las Vegas will get a NHL team. At the all star game it will be confirmed. Just my 2 cents.

 

[altazo]

not friggin rocket science.

Cool. Thanks, Mookie... er, I mean Zee.

Those club days at ASU were glorious weren't they? Remember that barn burner up at Central Oklahoma back in '09? Hot stuff...

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: UNLV To DI?

Well, kudos to the Wranglers staff to marketing themselves to drunken/heat stroked visitors to Vegas: The Orleans Arena is a mile and a half west of the strip. That's one hell of a stumble for those folks.


Wanna try again?

It's pretty close to a number of off-strip locations, so AKSWF could still be speaking the truth.

 

[alslammerz]

Re: UNLV To DI?

It's conceivable that ASU/Pac-12 only needs two more schools to sponsor the sport: ASU + 3 more Pac12 Schools then add CC and Denver as affiliate members to create the 6-team conference. It could also take the two Alaska's but I'm not sure any conference is going to want that hassle...

FWIW, the Pac-12 helped create a conference for non-revenue Olympic sports, the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, that sponsors 5 men's and 5 women's sports (gymnastics, indoor track, water polo, swimming & diving, men's volleyball, and women's lacrosse), plus, formerly, men's soccer.

The MPSF members with hockey? Air Force, Alaska Anchorage, Arizona State, Denver. Former MPSF member? UNLV. Add them and say, Colorado College and/or Fairbanks as an affiliate and voila.

So your scenario that the Pac-12 really doesn't need to add that many schools to form a conference is correct - although they may not call it the Pac-12.

 

[aparch]

Re: UNLV To DI?

It's pretty close to a number of off-strip locations, so AKSWF could still be speaking the truth.

Off-strip locations like Home Depot and Harbor Freight. The Palms is a mile north of The Orleans and the Rio, kitty corner to the Palms, is a mile and a half from The Orleans. Both the Palms and Rio are located more East (closer to the strip) than The Orleans is.

 

[davyd83]

How many of the two million Clark County residents that are able to work, work second shift? Third shift? There is a SIGNIFICANT portion of the Las Vegas population that don't work traditional 8a-to-5p jobs.

XM NHL Network Radio interviewed the former owner of the Las Vegas Wranglers during their final season (when they were still looking for a new venue). When asked why he was successful with the ECHL club, the owner said it was because of his outside the box thinking: Midnight start games, later starts/early day games, theme jersey nights, other "Minor League" themes to draw crowds. When asked if NHL hockey "in the desert" can survive, he openly laughed and said "Not in it's current form. You never want to promote your team to the away team's fans. Never be a team that people only go to, to root for the opponent."

IF the NHL is to succeed in Vegas, they're going to have to find someone with a little outside the box thinking, and the ability to hemorrhage money to get the team established.


As for the topic on hand: UNLV likely would do just fine. I really think we're seeing the end of the "traditional" Division 1, and will soon see Division 2 return.

There aren't enough teams for a Division 2 championship, nor does there seem to be any D-2 schools exploring D-1 hockey. But as long as we all play up, the Michigan States and Michigan's of the college hockey world will work to make sure the smaller schools become the Missouri Valley or Sun Belt teams of college hockey.