Hi -
 
  Some quick comments re: the new Arena being planned for Minnesota:
 
On Tue, 25 Jun 1996, Pam Sweeney wrote:
> Women's athletics director Chris Voelz said the current plan is to have
> an average rink in terms of size and aesthetic appeal.
 
  Keep this in mind - it's an "average" rink they're planning ....
 
> .... the University was given $7 million.  However, the new facility is
> projected to cost between $12 and $15 million, which means the men's
> and women's athletics departments will have to raise as much as $8
> million to complete the project.
 
  Note that the newest rink in DivI Hockey - 6200 seat Towse Rink at UNH -
cost a tad over $20 million, which also included the complete gutting and
total renovation of Snively Arena into a tri-level Student Recreation
Center.  I'd wager that the cost(s) of Towse Rink alone, built from the
ground up, were in the ballpark of $12-$15 million, so that should give
us some idea of the "average" rink that Minnesota is planning to build.
 
> The Gophers men's hockey team has an Olympic size ice sheet (200 feet
> by 100 feet) at Mariucci and gears its style of play to the open
> qualities of its rink .... In college hockey, the size of the ice sheet
> is not standard, and home rinks of WCHA teams like North Dakota and
> Northern Michigan have smaller (200-by-85) rinks. Minnesota typically
> has a tough time playing well in the smaller rinks.
>
> The new rink, which will be a smaller size, can be used by the men's team
> to practice when it is preparing to play an opponent at a smaller rink.
> Gophers assistant coach Mike Guentzel said that will provide an invaluable
> advantage for Minnesota.
 
  And the rich get richer .... Can there be no doubt that Minnesota-Twin
Cities aspires to nothing less than to be The Pinnacle of college hockey,
facilities-wise ??  Mariucci Arena is already THE finest college hockey
facility I've ever seen (and am likely to see in the near future, not-
withstanding whatever plans bitter rival Wisconsin has for its new Arena
to replace the aging DCC), and now they've upped the ante by proposing
a "practice" facility that will put much of the rest of DivI's "primary"
facilities to shame.  While undoubtedly charming, Hobey Baker Rink at
Princeton was built when God was a boy (sorry Geoff); Merrimack plays in
a building that would better serve as a meat locker (sorry Mike); Achilles
Rink at Union is adequate, but was built to serve the crowds/needs of a
DivII program; etc., etc.  The breadth of facilities, admission require-
ments, recruiting restrictions, off-ice support, etc. within which the 45
(or so :-) DivI hockey programs are expected to "compete" (he said
charitably) is amazingly wide - certainly wider than no other NC$$ DivI
sport I can think of - and shows increasing signs of growing wider all
the time.  Is there any wonder that the same few "top" programs dominate
the National Top 10 year after year ??  UIC, Kent, St. Louis - all tried
to compete as best they could, but ultimately the better-funded programs
wore them down into oblivion; I fear they won't be the last.  CC (and
others) have shown that this doesn't have to be the case, but it will be
interesting to see what becomes of Vermont *next* year after Perrin, St.
Louis, and Thomas have graduated - can they sustain the momentum that
these fine players have brought to the program ??  Mankato State, Niagara,
and UNO believe they've found the answers to make a DivI program viable
and competitive; time will tell.  UMass-Amherst has experienced first-
hand the growing pains of building a new program from scratch, but if
they're to move into the Upper Tier of Hockey East, that means someone
will have to be displaced downward.  Northeastern has boldly stated its
plans/committments for the future, UNH and BC have new rinks, UMass-
Lowell has a new rink on the way, etc.  By standing still you fall
behind, and that's the first step to eventual disintegration of the
program.  Which, in a round-about fashion, brings us back to Minn-Twin
Cities.  No one will ever accuse Woog et al. of standing still (well,
there's the quaint Minnesota notion about recruiting, but let's not get
into that :-) but the actions of a few teams already at the top, in a
never-ending quest to get even better, will cast ripples that reverberate
far away from St. Paul, and seriously threaten - I believe - to in-
creasingly fragment the sport into the "haves" and "have-nots" to the
inevitable detriment of the lesser brethren.  Survival of the fittest
in the world of college hockey is well underway, and will only accelerate
in the years to come ....
 
> Dienhart said the men's athletics department was concerned about Mariucci
> continuing to be as good a facility as it can be. He said the new rink will
> allow Mariucci to keep pace with the top college hockey arenas.
 
  "Keep Pace" !!!!  Who's he kidding !!!!
 
  Hoping to be competitive next season - Jim
 
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