Where I heard the comment about Olympic size Div. I ice rinks was at a Coaches
Lucheon. It was made in the context of how/why College Hockey is changing, and
where it is headed -- particularly the WCHA because 7 of the 10 teams will
soon (like next couple of years) have home Olympic Size ice -- Minn., Wisc.,
St. Cloud, and Anch-AK now, CC next year, and I don't remember what the two
"out year" ones were. However, the bottom line was that recruitment is being
focused in a different direction now than what it used to be.
 
Marketing drove Olympic size ice -- it's needed to host International Events.
In our case, the two Winter Olympic bids. It did result in bringing the
International Junior Championships here one year, and likely has something to
do with Arctic Winter Games coming in '96. In any case, this has resulted in
most of our rinks being Olympic size.
 
Lowell King
Go SeaWolves (next year)!