Purdue Varsity Hockey???
- January 21st, 2010
- Posted in Purdue General
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Purdue On-Campus Varsity Hockey! – Could This Dream Ever Be a Reality?
Imagine…7-10K rabid boilermakers in attendance for a Friday night of fan frenzy in February, in the renovated Lambert Fieldhouse, your home for Purdue Men’s Hockey.
As a Purdue undergrad, I remember the winter months being a real bore outside of Men’s Basketball. Most Friday nights were spent with a case of natty light or at Harry’s, while my classmates from Indiana decided to go home on Friday nights (never understood this). How great would it have been if I had a hockey game to go to on a Friday night? After hangover hell in your 8 am Lab in Knoy, you head over to Harry’s for a couple afternoon (Hair of the dog) beers. Come 6 pm, you are feeling like a champ again…just in time to take in some up close Big Ten Hockey at Lambert Field House.
What would have to happen to make this Boilermaker’s dream a reality?
- Chicken and the Egg Concept, how do you renovate and create a brand new hockey facility without a varsity team and how do you start a hockey team without a hockey facility within 100 miles of campus?
-Money
-Development Big Ten Conference Hockey that will generate TV cash
-Potential to be the third highest attended Purdue athletic team
-Ability to host national/regional tournaments (not only at the collegiate level) - To add an additional Men’s team, you gotta add a Women’s team
- Potential Women’s teams: Lacrosse, Gymnastics, Field Hockey
- Or we could just dump Men’s Cross Country, because we all know that’s not a sport anyways - If you renovate Lambert to become the Hockey Arena, where do you relocate Indoor Track and Field, the Kinesiology Department, etc.
- Build a new indoor track facility out near the West Athletic Complex: Schwartz Tennis Center, New GrandPrix Track. I know this seems foolish to have indoor track facilities so far from the outdoor Rankin field facility, but hey this is track and field…they need to run so more. And having an on-campus hockey arena is more desirable than an on-campus track facility
Cons:
-Most people in Indiana have never been to a hockey game outside of Fort Wayne Comets, ND Hockey, and Indy Ice
-Huge risks with the tremendous costs to retrofit and build facilities
-Where do you find the right coach to start a big time college hockey team?
Pros:
-Big Ten Hockey Conference could be formed (Illinois might turn their club team into a varsity team, Penn State is going varsity also)
-Additional BTN TV revenue
-Could host junior/youth hockey tournaments and camps $$
-Development of local youth hockey teams that could easily be converted into season ticket holder families
Boiler up!….Will this ever happen? Probably Not….but it would be awesome
…People will come!…They’ll come to West Lafayette for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up at our lambert field house hockey arena not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at the door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won’t mind if you look around, you’ll say. It’s only $20 per person. They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it: for it is money they have and peace they lack. And they’ll walk out to the bleachers; sit in a jacket on a perfect friday night in Feburary. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along the boards, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters (ice). The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come, The one constant through all the years, has been college hockey
1. State tax increase of $0.01 for every dollar spent on covenience food. Use this money as a college facilities tax. where a college would have to pay 25% of the total facility construction cost and the state pays 75%.
2. Coaches: Many younger people in Minnesota that have recently graduated college would love to help a young program. (It is necessary to have a young coach for the first couple of years to have enough energy to go out into thet community and build connecctions for the program) Believe me there are a lot of people in Minnesota who would love to coach hockey again.
3. Have an arena with one bowl seating with the option of having an additional bowl put in at a later time. this gives the aura of a full stadium, when in actuallity it only has about half that. This will increase the stadiums energy incresing fan attendance.
4. Once you have the facility start camps that cater to young families that will have young kids play to build up a hockey base in the surrounding community.
Those are the four steps you need to begin to build a hockey feeling on campus. (An alumni or almnus group’s donations don’t hurt either)