OT: U of Illinois deciding on adding hockey in April

[razor ray]

Had this on the business board but I thought it would make sense here as well.

The proposed plan is a new $50 million arena with 3 sheets of ice in Champaign, Illinois. The key is Illinois has to go Division 1 in hockey to be the anchor tenant. Here is the update (as of 2/15) on Illinois progress to go D1:



And the details from a previous article on the development plans for the arena:

A new arena in downtown Champaign?

Click to read more...

 

[Kevin Musto]

Hopefully the plans go through. It'd be neat if we drafted the first stud out of this program.

 

[piteus]

It's good to see Illinois finally decided to add a decent men's basketball team this year. Now let's see if they can find a football program.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

I'll be at the opening game of the first varsity Illini hockey team guaranteed. A benefit of settling down in Bloomington-Normal rather than Evanston-Skokie is that it makes treks back to Champaign-Urbana a helluva lot easier.

Accidentally a lot of hyphens in that sentence.

 

[razor ray]

Here is the latest from Illinois Athletic Director Josh Whitman:

“The same thing as the early hurdles. It’s all about cash. We’ve got to find some money. I think we’ve got a good plan in place. We’ve had a lot of strategic partners step up here the last few months. Again, I’ll use the same term I have with you a couple times in the past, feeling increasingly confident. I think we’re continuing to move the ball forward. We’re getting closer to being in a position to officially green-light it, but we’re not quite there yet. We’ve got a few final partners who I think need to fall into place, a couple last pieces to the puzzle. It’s a big, complicated challenging puzzle…”

Whitman Q&A: 'In that window now where we can expect success'

 

[saluki]

I'll be at the opening game of the first varsity Illini hockey team guaranteed. A benefit of settling down in Bloomington-Normal rather than Evanston-Skokie is that it makes treks back to Champaign-Urbana a helluva lot easier.

Accidentally a lot of hyphens in that sentence.

Do you work for State Farm, or what brought you to BN? One of the Universities?

 

[Taze em]

Haven’t given a dime to our putrid athletic department or this university, but if we get hockey Take all my money. I get to pretend to be a D1 NCAA hockey player for the rest of my life! Who cares if it was a decade before the decision.

 

[Illinihockey]

We're definitely having a HF meet up for the first Illinois hockey game if they get a team.

 

[BK]

UofI getting a team is cool but I am more pumped to see the goalie setups with their color scheme. They have the potential to look amazing.

 

[BK]

Haven’t given a dime to our putrid athletic department or this university, but if we get hockey Take all my money. I get to pretend to be a D1 NCAA hockey player for the rest of my life! Who cares if it was a decade before the decision.

Don’t be that guy lol.

 

[AmericanDream]

UofI getting a team is cool but I am more pumped to see the goalie setups with their color scheme. They have the potential to look amazing.

I really loved the UIC Flames jerseys back in the day - they were awesome as a kid seeing them live.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Do you work for State Farm, or what brought you to BN? One of the Universities?

Wife used to work for them. Just decided to live downstate when we got married rather than in North Shore where I was to a) be closer to potential grandparents for our kid, and b) actually afford a good-sized house.