Feel free to rip/support Heitkamp's stance on this particular issue. Other political discussion, including comments about Heitkamp's political motivations here, should be avoided.
- Moderators.
In addition to its cut of ticket sales, I believe UND has had to pay REA around $2 million per year. With more open weekends, REA will be able to reduce costs and/or be free to book actual revenue generating events.
Cutting women's hockey may have been about reducing REA's $2 million per year deficit nearly as much as it was about removing the WIH $2 million per year deficit....
And those schools are required to sponsor a D1 women's sport to match men's hockey (and the sport needs to be funded equitably compared to men's hockey). UND got rid of that requirement in a sense with the full D1 move.