10 Game Losing Streak...By The Numbers.

Averaging 3638 in a facility that seats 16,000 does not provide an intense hockey atmosphere. Better to build to 4,000 on campus facility and pack the place for every game.

Certainly can’t be financially viable regarding rental cost for UConn.

Time for Hockey East to realize their requirements and expectations for new members may no longer be feasible in the current economy and projected future college population.

How many scholarships do the women have per your sources?

A big reason Pearl left was getting word that the rink wouldn’t be getting a major upgrade.

I don't think Hockey East would allow the women to join without getting to the max within 5 years....

I share your opinion of fiscal reality but note the $42 million escalation in the price of the PPAC could have purchased a new rink and many pucks and sticks. I wonder if that is where upgrades to the Hart Ice Rink melted?

Back in 2012/2013, there were basically two options: one included a major rink upgrade and the other didn't. Pearl was lobbying for the major upgrade for obvious reasons and when it was rejected he sought other pastures. What I don't know is whether the overall cost was the same for both options.

Crucis#1...good perspectives. Thanks for sharing.

Further thoughts:

- At no time since all of these major capital projects have been tackled at HC in the last 10 years has it been made public that a new rink is desired by the institution. Never. If it was truly and honestly a big desire by the institution and its leaders to have a new rink on campus (now, 10 years ago, 20 years ago) they would have prioritized that with their solicitation of donors. New athletic buildings on campus don't always get funded through back-door secret meetings with the world's elite. Especially at HC where Hockey is far from a top priority, a new rink and the fundraising required would have needed a tremendous public announcement to garner up 100's and 100's of potentially interested parties...ex: an actual Campaign with a new hockey rink as the goal. Think many donors, not one big fish.
Bottom line: the school didn't prioritize it, and wasn't going to prioritize it. Regardless of what Paul Pearl thought, or could do on his own.

- This thread has turned in the last day to a focus on Hockey East and a new rink. Fine I guess, but in my opinion both of those topics need to be locked in a box until the current state of this men's hockey program is formally addressed and new leadership brought in to raise it from the awfully poor state it is currently in.

My guess a brand new Rink was not a priority for two reasons.

The DCU is a 2.8 miles away,

With the building of the Luth Complex, several deficiencies including locker rooms, coach offices and training facilities with the Hart Rink seemingly were addressed. The one glaring deficiency was the current number of seats at the Hart Rink being approx 1,500. In comparison, Hobey Baker Rink at Princeton only seats 2,092. Schneider Arena at Providence seats 3,030, Bright-Landy at Harvard seats 3,095, the Messa Rink at Union College seats 2,225. The John Glas Fieldhouse at Bemidji State seats 2,399. I listed the previous schools as a sample to really understand the current size of other D1 hockey schools near and far. Unfortunately Hart Rink footprint does not allow for expansion.

The Hockey East requirement for 4,000 on campus seats is unrealistic and not currently economically feasible.

In the meantime, the Hart Rink more than adequately serves as an on campus facility for one of the NCAA 61 D1 programs.

Easy to make that statement with the retrospective from 2021. I will share a bit of history regarding the facility. When the Hart was conceived, a swimming pool was supposed to have been built in phase 1 instead of the rink. It was changed after much lobbying by several hockey team members, students and alumni in 1973.  One of the team members after college became a US Representative from Maine.

At the time the Hart was design in 1973, it was state of the art and ahead of our peers regarding the facility. Most indoor rinks built at the time were single use building, with portable bleacher seating that sat on a concrete base on one side of the rink. The buildings generally were simply constructed with an aluminum siding shell surrounding a rink, At the time both MIT and UConn played in outdoor rinks. The MIT rink was notoriously cold as it was a block from the Charles River and night games reached temperatures in the single digits. The only schools that had permanent seating were the Ivy’s, BC and UNH and Vermont in New England.

NCAA hockey was still fairly new as the first championship game was held in 1948. Schools that were powers then, have fallen aside. Hockey was only played in New England and the Upper Mid West, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota.

If you want to see an old style enclosed rink, whose amenities are very spartan, visit the Amherst College Rink. It is still in use and also serves as the locker room facility for the visiting football teams in the NESCAC. The teams have to hike from the Amherst rink to Pratt Field about two block away and across Rt. 116. Talk about a school that could well afford a new rink, with a 2.5 billion dollar endowment. I was surprised when I was on campus for a football game three years ago as I watched the visiting team leave Pratt Field, walk through a residential street, across a busy intersection at Rt. 116 and down the hill to the hockey rink.

Before HC moved to the Hart in 1975, the team played in the old Worcester Arena, in Webster Square in the South Main section of Worcester. It was a place that had some memorable features. notability the dashboards that instead of plexiglass, had chicken wire. Whenever the puck hit, there would be a ping sound instead of a thud. Games against St.Anselm’s were always fun, as there crazies would attempt to scale the chicken wire in order to intimidate our players.

The other school that had a state of the art new arena in the early 1970’s was Wesleyan. They too have an rink, still in use in the Freeman Athletic Complex built around the original rink, that is single sided regarding seating. That was the standard design for new rinks in the early 1970’s for ECAC Division 2 and 3 schools. 

simple

CODE RED

You are correct regarding the plan for the pool in the original design. Fortunately the Hart was being constructed by Perini Corporation. Dave Perini was an Alum, Class of 1959, who played football. So he was amendable to a late design change. Can’t say that would have been true if the construction company was not Perini.  Dave provided a real last minute gift to HC by allowing the change.

  Also vigorously spearheading the effort was Jim Langley’74, who was elected to the US House of Representative from Maine. His dad was elected governor of Maine in 1974 as an Independent.

Recently, Colby College constructed a new 200 million dollar athletic facility.  Their previous basketball court with a hockey rink was part of the same building footprint. The Colby facility provided the high level conceptional design for the Hart Center. I distinctly remember standing in the lobby of the Colby College facility in the February of 1972, and  a conversation with Mr. Longley, who stayed that the Colby facility is what HC should have for basketball and hockey.

While seats were not added to the Hockey rink in 2016, there are a new locker room for the women’s program, new offices for the coaches as well as changes to the men’s locker room. Take a look at some of the facilities pictures of the Luth to see the changes. You can scroll to see the Hockey Locker room for the HC Men. I will look for the new locker room picture for the women. The women’s locker room site was previously the Men’s basketball offices before the renovation.

goholycross.com/news/2020/5/12/athletics-hart-center-at-the-luth-athletic-complex.aspx