Arizona State to launch Division I hockey program

No Fun Shogun

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Wow... now, unless I just haven't been paying attention, that came out of left field...

While disappointed that a school like Arizona State's making the jump before Illinois, excellent news to see the collegiate game expand its footprint in such a big way. Hopefully a precursor for more Pac 12 & other western schools making the jump, too.
 

Dirty Old Man

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My first question is "where are they planning on playing?".

- Oceanside, with almost 0 spectator capacity, but who just did a massive amount of reno for them. And only a couple miles from campus
- Scottsdale ice den, with a little capacity
- Gila River Arena, plenty capacity, but 30 miles from ASU main campus
- US Airways arena, closer to campus, but do they still have ice capability?
- Wells Fargo arena, on campus, due for updating anyway, why not put ice in there?
- new on-campus arena?
 

Kritter471

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My tuned in hockey friends in the Valley say games will be at Wells Fargo. If that's the case, I bet Oceanside stays as the primary training/base facility. I can't imagine the ice would be uncovered enough at Wells Fargo during volleyball/basketball season to allow for regular practices there.

ETA: They may have been a bit premature (or ASU may still be playing coy):

"ASU has not decided where the hockey team will play yet, but the options include U.S. Airways Center (the Suns have expressed interest), a renovated Oceanside Arena or a renovated Wells Fargo Arena."

http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/arizona-state-to-launch-division-i-hockey-program-111814
 
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mk80

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I remember a few months ago an article with an interview from the commissioner of the WCHA mentioned Arizona State contacting him about joining. This is a great development for expanding collegiate hockey on the west coast. I expect in the years to come we will see some California schools add D1 programs. I'd also love to see schools in the Pacific Northwest like Oregon and Washington add programs as well. I envision a sort of PAC-10 type league someday.
 

Dirty Old Man

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"ASU has not decided where the hockey team will play yet, but the options include U.S. Airways Center (the Suns have expressed interest), a renovated Oceanside Arena or a renovated Wells Fargo Arena."

http://www.foxsports.com/arizona/story/arizona-state-to-launch-division-i-hockey-program-111814

US Airways temporarily wouldn't preclude a renovated arena (although I can't imagine what they would have to do to Oceanside to make it "big" enough). And it's not like there isn't precedent :laugh: (although they wouldn't sell seats in the upper deck anyway, like the ECHL Roadrunners)
 

Bonk

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Buccigross is saying NCHC, which makes sense. The WCHA makes zero sense from a travel perspective -- several of their teams can't afford current travel costs, so adding another cross-continent flight would be insane.

Congratulations to ASU. This is a good thing for college hockey.
 

3 Minute Minor

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I'm not totally surprised.

ASU has taken their ACHA program a lot more seriously than a lot of other programs would.

I don't know if they'll have as quick a turn around as Penn State because the facilities they added in Penn State are crazy good recruiting tools but I think they'll be persistent enough to become NCAA regulars.
 

aparch

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Buccigross is saying NCHC, which makes sense. The WCHA makes zero sense from a travel perspective -- several of their teams can't afford current travel costs, so adding another cross-continent flight would be insane.

Congratulations to ASU. This is a good thing for college hockey.

The UA schools (UAAnchorage, UAFairbanks, UAHuntsville) subsidize part of the travel by the other member schools. For example, if it costs Mankato $10,000 for travel and expenses to visit Bowling Green for a weekend series, and it costs Mankato $17,000 to go to Alaska Fairbanks, UAFairbanks cuts MSU-Mankato a check for the difference, in this example $7,000.

This, in theory, makes those three outlier schools only as expensive to the other schools as a trip to their farthest "local" trip.

The only way I see ASU joining the WCHA is if they participate in the cost subsidizing, which I don't see them doing.


Expansion is good for the sport, and I'm glad to see schools like ASU and Penn State join. I just wish the smaller schools like Iona, Wayne State, and University of Illinois Chicago could have stuck around to be a part of the re-growth.
 

mk80

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After reading the Fox Sports Arizona article there is definitely interest from the PAC-12 to add their own conference. So hopefully any conference they'd join would be for a temporary arrangement until other PAC-12 schools added hockey.
 

Dirty Old Man

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Wow... now, unless I just haven't been paying attention, that came out of left field...

While disappointed that a school like Arizona State's making the jump before Illinois, ...

This is probably a little OT, but how popular is hockey in that part of IL (Champaign)? I ask because both of my parents grew up in the 50s in Mattoon, 40 miles south, and (despite my mom becoming a roller skating instructor in her 20s-30s) never once mentioned caring about hockey. I'm pretty sure when I took them to Red Wings @ Coyotes in the 1998 playoffs it was the first game they'd seen in person.
 
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No Fun Shogun

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This is probably a little OT, but how popular is hockey in that part of IL (Champaign)? I ask because both of my parents grew up in the 50s in Mattoon, 40 miles south, and (despite my mom becoming a roller skating instructor in her 20s-30s) never once mentioned caring about hockey. I'm pretty sure when I took them to Red Wings @ Coyotes in the 1998 playoffs it was the first game they'd seen in person.

For the longest time, it was really a non-sport. Spent my entire life in Mattoon and Champaign until I headed off to college, and hockey might as well have been cricket. Back in those days, the Hawks weren't on TV and, despite having a good deal of Rams and especially Cardinals fans in the area, the Blues just never had a footprint in East Central Illinois. Illini club hockey was about it, but that was pretty much just a student thing at that point.

Ever since the Hawks got put back on TV though, there's been a major Renaissance of the sport both upstate and downstate. Won't even pretend that the growth of the Hawks brand/popularity of the sport in Central Illinois has been nearly as much as Chicagoland's experienced, but it has happened. Coupled with the introduction of a Big Ten hockey conference, and I think that the general interest is there to potentially become a #3 sport at the university without any difficulty. Only issue is with the cost, and the Illini athletic department is all kinds of incompetent, to say the least, so there really isn't any confidence that they'd be able to undertake a major capital campaign to raise funds for a new venue and variety teams (men's and women's, though the latter potentially in another sport).

A few years back, there was a pretty profound rumor that the founder of Jimmy John's was going to pull a Pegula and write a massive check to do just that, but nothing came from it.

For the foreseeable future, thinking it'll just remain a very popular club sport at Illinois.
 

sbkbghockey

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http://illinihockey.pointstreaksites.com/view/illinihockey/news-1632/news_231254

Speaking of the Illini, they have a two-game series at ASU this weekend.

Very interesting ACHA DI matchup since both are strong programs with a lot of talent. ASU fans will likely be out in force and there should be a lot of extra energy in the building. The ASU boys will likely be extra pumped up but that could also be a bad thing, i.e distracted from the sudden rush of press conferences, media attention, and general student body attention.
 

aparch

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NCAA D1 Facility requirements for Hockey dictate seated capacity for 5,000 (minimum). So, that removes most 'small' rinks from contention. This is not negotiable.

:laugh:

Oh yep, because the NCAA dictates capacity for each member school's rink.

Milford Ice Pavilion - Sacred Heart (AHA) - 1,000
Island Sports Center - Robert Morris (AHA) - 1,200
John A. Ryan Arena - Bentley (AHA) - 1,250
Hart Center - Holy Cross (AHA) - 1,400
Mercyhurst Ice Center - Mercyhurst (AHA) - 1,500
Buffalo State Sports Arena - Canisius (AHA) - 1,800
Hobey Baker Memorial Rink - Princeton (HE) - 2,100
Dwyer Arena - Niagara (AHA) - 2,100
Olympia Ice Center - AIC (AHA) - 2,200
Achilles Rink - Union (ECAC) - 2,225
Ewigleben Arena - Ferris State (WCHA) - 2,500
Cadet Ice Arena - Air Force (AHA) - 2,500
Lawler Arena - Merrimack (HE) - 2,600
Starr Arena - Colgate (ECAC) - 2,600
Tate Rink - Army (AHA) - 2,650
Bright Hockey Center - Harvard (ECAC) - 2,850
Cheel Arena - Clarkson (ECAC) - 3,000
Schneider Arena - Providence (HE) - 3,030
Meehan Auditorium - Brown (ECAC) - 3,100
Appleton Arena - Lawrence (ECAC) - 3,200
Goggin Ice Center - Miami (OH) (NCHC) - 3,200
TD Bank Sports Center - Quinnipiac (ECAC) - 3,400
Ingalls Rink - Yale (ECAC) - 3,500
Thompson Arena - Dartmouth (ECAC) - 3,500
Lawson Arena - Western Michigan (NCHC) - 3,700
Berry Events Center - Northern Michigan (WCHA) - 3,900
Bemidji Regional Events Center - Bemidji State (WCHA) - 4,000
Taffy Abel Arena - Lake Superior State (WCHA) - 4,000
Gutterson Fieldhouse - Vermont (HE) - 4,010
MacInnes Student Ice Arena - Michigan Tech (WCHA) - 4,200
Lynah Rink - Cornell (ECAC) - 4,300
Gene Polisseni Center - RIT (AHA) - 4,300
Carlson Center Fairbanks - Alaska (WCHA) - 4,600
Matthews Arena - Northeastern (HE) - 4,700
BGSU Ice Arena - Bowling Green (WCHA) 5,000

Yep, the NCAA really makes these schools have 5,000 seats minimum.



What you're thinking of is the NCAA Regional Hosting requirement. That has ZERO effect on ASU's arena situation.
 

veganhunter

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http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/the-top-10-schools-that-should-join-arizona-state-in-going-d1/


Not sure if anyone else saw this? But I thought it was interesting in the context of ASU.

I think ASU is going to be a popular program. If one of the big Socal or Norcal schools add a team though, look out. I would imagine a program like that would become dominant quickly, not only because of the amount of good players out of California recently but also from the number of Canadian and even European players who would likely love to play D-1 hockey in sunny California.
 

BigMac1212

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The Sun Devils might have the weirdest rink setup in the entire NCAA. You've seen benches on both side of the rink. Get ready for the benches AND penalty boxes on the SAME SIDE! Your minds will be blown!

2015-16_Sun_Devil_Hockey_Single_Game_Pricing3-ver3.jpg
 

CrazyEddie20

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The Sun Devils might have the weirdest rink setup in the entire NCAA. You've seen benches on both side of the rink. Get ready for the benches AND penalty boxes on the SAME SIDE! Your minds will be blown!

2015-16_Sun_Devil_Hockey_Single_Game_Pricing3-ver3.jpg

That's not uncommon at all in public facilities - which is what Oceanside is. They'd have to sacrifice significant seating capacity to have the penalty benches on the opposite side.
 

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