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-