Though the popularity of college hockey at Maine has shown we need
improvements at the Alfond Arena, nothing is ever perfect.
 
First, some facts, as I know them:
 
Harold Alfond of the Dexter Shoe Company just gave $2M to the University
of Maine for improvements to the hockey arena on campus.  An Alfond gift
of $400,000 gift enabled the original construction of the $1.5M arena
about a dozen years ago.  With the exception of a a new locker room and
the "Dexter Lounge" the arena remains essentially unchanged today.
 
With the money "in the bank", the University will earn $500+ per day
giving about $2.3M at the expected start of construction Spring 1991.
The expansion cost is estimated at $2.5-$3M.
 
Detailed plans for the expansion will be hammered out during the next
several months.  Balcony sections will be added to each side for an
increase in seating capacity of about 2500.  Other enhancements are
being considered.
 
Now, for some opinion:
 
Additional and/or relocated concessions and rest rooms are needed.
Additional locker rooms and office space are more important than the
additional seating.
 
OK, OK, everyone claims they can't get into see the hockey games.  The
additional seating should let everyone get in and bring the beleaguered
UM Athletic Dept.  a needed revenue boost.  I don't believe it.  Yea,
80+ games have been played to a full-house (I forget the actual wording
of the press babble), but the truth is that NO ONE has been turned away
who is willing to wait until game time to get in.  Only a handful of
games last season had 4400+.  Though the methods of counting may have
changed now and then, basically this is the number of tickets sold, not
people attending.
 
There is something special about a contest in front of a full-house.
The challenge for the Athletic Dept. is to fill that new seating on an
ongoing basis.  Once tickets become easy to get, Maine attendance
could DROP to levels most other Eastern schools see.
 
The following comments don't pertain much to College_Hockey, but are
important to the expansion project and to me and the rest of the local
community:
 
It is proposed that Men's and Women's Basketball be played at the Alfond
Arena (they now play 15 miles from campus, in Bangor).  It is hoped that
student interest in basketball can be rekindled with this move (fans
outnumber the players and officials at Men's Basketball games now, but
not by much).
 
Well, the original Alfond Arena was proposed as a multi-purpose arena
but has been used exclusively for ice skating from early September thru
mid April each year.  It is most often in use from 5am through 1am
during this period.  Adding basketball games and practice times (as well
as time to put down and take up the basketball floor) will further
overload the facility.
 
In the name of big-time sports,  the community, non-revenue and
recreational sports use of the Alfond will decline dramatically.  Area
youth hockey, for which I have special fondness, owes its origins and
continuing health to (access to) the Alfond Arena.
 
We need to play basketball on our ice surface about as much as we need
to play football under a dome (a wish-list item of the UM Athletic Dept.
the past couple of years).