I believe Western Mich hosting West Regionals is for 1997.  The 1996 West
Regnl is at MSU, East Lansing.  I don't know anything about the Grand Rapids
Arena, but they have had pro hockey teams in Grand Rapids.  Western Michigan
is located in Kalamazoo, so the Grand Rapids arena is not their home rink.
However, their home rink has relatively small capacity (don't remember
exactly but in the 3000-4000 range.
 
My understanding is that anyone can bid for the West Regional and the reason
MSU has gotten it is that no one else (or if some rotation is used, at least
no one in the east of the west bid for it.  In the west of the west, both
St.Paul and Milwaukee as well as Madison are probably bidders.  In any case
I don't know what hotbeds Brian had in mind. Grand Rapids is 'fairly'
central to Ferris, Notre Dame, UIC, Wisconsin, Mich, MSU, BGSU, NMU, LSSU,
Mich Tech and WMUand probably not that bad for Minn Minn-Dul, St.Cloud -
given the possible sites.  And I think Grand Rapids has pretty decent
Air Service for those teams farther away.  My guess is that more fans will like
Grand Rapids than MSU because of ticket availability.
-glen-