Matt Wickey wrote:
>Yost ice arena.  Yost is an old barn (this may be a literal reference)
>of a place.  Inside and out it virtually drips with history and
>atmosphere and tradition.  If you're a Michigan fan, this place has got
>to seem like hockey heaven and you don't mind the cramped quarters, poor
>parking and long waits both in your car and out.
{snip}
>
>Anyway, to make a long and meaningless post just a little more meaningful,
>when does a university decide to upgrade a hockey arena?  Obviously many
>have either upgraded or built new.  What caused them to make this
>decision?  Yost does hold a lot of people (around 7,000 every game) but
>more would go if they could.  At what point are the benefits of tradition
>and atmosphere overridden by the need for more parking, shorter walks and
>just better access in general?
 
I'll try and speak from sort-of experience here.  Old Mariucci was commonly
called "The Barn" and had numerous shortcomings as a venue (I feel entitled
to say this, having held "obstructed view" -- they even admitted it on the
ticket stub -- season tickets in the place), but heaps of tradition.
Actually, the Gopher hockey broadcasters mentioned once that they often
talked to fans at the game who mentioned that they attended the game for
the atmosphere, then went home and watched the tape to actually see what
had happened.  (Yes, I heard this comment when doing just that!)
 
An under-reported factor when it came to building the new arena, however,
was the condition of the once-proud ice plant.  I remember afternoon games
in the later years of Old Mariucci when the sun streamed in those west-end
windows and made the ice a tad mushy.  In new Mariucci I sat next to a
University of Minnesota Facilities Management employee who told me that
toward the end the Old Mariucci compressor was literally held together with
duct tape.  So the condition of the ice plant may have had a lot to do with
the decision that the time had come to get a new facility.
 
Pam Sweeney
Go Gophers!
 
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