After reading all the questions about the Kalamzoo/Grand Rapids 1997 West
Regional, just thought I'd throw this onto the fire..
As a current GR and former ELansing resident here's some info about the
areas. WMU(Kalamazoo) is 1 hour directly South of GR. The new GR (as yet
untitled) arena will open in fall of 96' for an expansion IHL franchise. It
will seat around 12,000. Grand Rapids gets its backing from the Amway Corp,
owners of the NBA-Orlando Magic and IHL-Orlando Solar Bears(1995). Amway's
HQ's are in GR and they had to lobby hard to get the IHL to waive the normal
requirements for 1 mil. fan base. The rink is located right Downtown with
plenty of hotel and freeway access from all directions. Kalamazoo's two rinks
combined don't have the room that the new GR rink will have: Lawson (approx
4,000) and Wings Stadium(IHL) (approx 5,000). I agree with Glen Keeney from
MSU that GR will be favored over MSU in the future because of available seat
difference from MSU's Munn Arena (about double it's 6,000 seats) and still
not as cavernous as JLA in Detroit (19,375).I must admit though, I loved the
1994 West's at MSU because of the arena size, location, and the great hockey.
GR air service is quite decent enough for hosting the regionals, usually you
go via Detroit or Chicago. IMHO, Western probably got the bid by showing the
NC$$ that the regional would be in a downtown $$ area, with hotels, food, and
player housing within walking distance, unlike MSU, and in a brand new,
bigger, Arena. Plus having help from the Amway guys that threw money at the
IHL and dared them NOT to give them a team didn't hurt:-)  If anybody has any
specific questions about GR, I can try to answer them. Otherwise - GO
STATE!!!!!
 
Russ Stonehouse