Better hope asu doesn’t have to buy out anymore coaches in the near future......or beg Kate Spade to become a booster.
The Cats always had a better club hockey team. The only reason ASU got a D-I team is some fool who made a $30MM restricted donation on the caveat it be used to create an NCAA hockey program.
I believe the operative aphorism here comes from Alexander Pope. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." From the sound of the Republish Fishwrap article, this sheet of ice will cost $10MM+. Someone please tell me this is being funded by the sale of the Packard Stadium land. Or maybe from selling off the Karsten golf course. Apparently Ray Anderson's solution to 100 people not getting tickets is to build an arena ith 4,000 more seats. It makes it sound like these people are trapped out in the cold of Sault Ste. Marie, MI. mmm not so much.
Let's review how bad the ASU hockey team is. Our of 60 D-I programs, they are ranked #55 in RPI, ahead of such heavyweights as Alaska-Anchorage, Rennslaer, Lake Superior St. and Sacred Heart. They are far behind such schools as Clarkson, Northeastern, Union, Bemidji St., Canisius, Quinnipiac, Robert Morris, Bentley, and Ferris St.. One of ASU's wins (albeit an exhibition game) was against the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology.
NCAA hockey is fun. I played D-III. But college hockey is largely an Upper Midwest/New England game. Witness the top 3 are Notre Dame, Denver and Cornell.
I assume this means tearing down that parking lot will spell the death bell for frat row, if Mike Crow hadn't done that already.
Hockey does well---at a low level. The Roadrunners drew well. So that United Healthcare guy thought he could ship the Winny-peg Jets down here and people would like it even more. Not when you always lose. And not when you have to drive to Glendale 40 times a year.
