The question -to me- is the attendance vis-a-vis the local interest. The figures are a bit skewed. A whole lot of RS games feature 800+ empty corporate seats. Hard to see those seats being purchased if Utica is getting hammered regularly by the likes of Canisius, never mind being destroyed by the (say) BU's of the world who might go for the payday and the easy W.
Then, one must consider the sure-fire increase in ticket prices. Right now, a UU season pass averages something like $4-5 per game. The average D-1 ticket is what, $27.99 or so, good seats going for 2-3X more? In light of that, all the families who currently consider Utica hockey a cheap night out might well consider going elsewhere.
Not really seeing the upside here. Perhaps UU could turn into a Bentley, but who TF cares about being a Bentley?
A shot at a D-3 NC, however humble, is a lot more fun than just taking up space in D-1.