nodak651

ooops this is long. sorry... I think there is general confusion on REA funds vs. Engelstad Foundation funds. This is partly caused by Kris Engelstad taking credit for the Betty when it was really just financed by them and the REA had to pay off the loan with money generated by UND athletics. Scoreboard was 4 million Engelstad Foundation funds and 2 million REA funds. The 3 million dollar locker room reno and this 5 million dollar reno are reportedly all from the Engelstad Foundation, and if that is the case, I'm very thankful. I just think a lot of people don't really understand the dynamics between how UND and the REA operate, and that there is a difference between the Engelstad Foundation money and REA money and UND money. Some people think Engelstad Foundation funds are really the REA's funds, and some people think the REA's funds are some type of donation from the Engelstad foundation. My biggest issue is that there is a lack of transparency in regard to how and why the REA's funds get spent and allocated, especially in light of the very public fiasco about how the basketball floor was redone. The REA puts a minimum of 500k into that fund annually, with no cap. The REA is also supposed to give the remaining net income (after whatever is allocated) to UND. It's not clear how the 2-3 million annual depreciation expense is considered. In addition, there is no minimum allocation due to UND each year, and the REA allocated 0$ to UND each of the past two years - the two years prior to that combined to about 1.65 million. UND is also supposed to sign off and agree to the purpose of any of the improvement/maintenance funds before they can be used. I think the lack of transparency and the negative publicity between UND and the REA raises some fair questions about how and why money at the Ralph is spent, and it's unfair to lambast people for doing so if the questions concern the REA's funds, rather than funds donated by the Engelstad foundation. I think most of the complaining about this stuff was after the scoreboard announcement, because a portion (2m) of the funding came from the REA improvement fund. It's fair and appropriate to ask questions about this, because the REA's non-profit status is based on their mission, which is to benefit UND Athletics (as a whole), and also because they collect 52% of football ticket revenue, which they fought to keep during the usage agreement negotiations, despite those games being held at a different venue. UND has also had a basketball practice facility on their master plan for years now, and being attached to the Engelstad complex, it would make sense that at least a portion of REA improvement funds could be used there. So, how much say does UND get in strategizing the use of REA improvement/maintenance funds? Did UND want the funds to be spent on the scoreboard rather than elsewhere, or did UND know that the money wouldn't be spent anywhere, if not on the scoreboard? Was the 4 million dollar donation for the scoreboard dependent on UND approving the 2 million in REA improvement funds? Were they deciding between no scoreboard, a 4 million dollar scoreboard, or a 6 million dollar scoreboard when they granted approval for the use of those funds? When asking that question, it would also be interesting to know how the video board improvements that were done to the Betty, at that time, were factored into the equation. Again, if this 5 million dollar weight room improvement is entirely a donation, more power to the Engelstad Foundation, great, thank you! But given the history, and a lack of more in-depth reporting, I think it is fair to ask if any of the REA's funds are included in that number. It would also be nice if Brad specifically cited his source about the 5 million dollars coming from the Engelstad Foundation. Brad also mentions that the equipment may be used elsewhere on campus, as if they don't know for certain, so I would be really curious to know the follow up question, which would be about where it could potentially be used, and if it is in the pollard center, will it be donated or paid for? Also, in regard to the usage agreement stuff, I believe the Grand Forks Herald incorrectly reported that the REA aims to allocating a minimum of 500k to UND each year, as the usage agreement states that the REA aims to allocate a minimum of 500k to the improvement fund, annually. I believe the Herald misinterpreted the language when that part about the usage agreement was initially reported, and I've contacted Brad about it - he said that he will look into it to see if a correction is needed, as the sentence about this in the usage agreement is a little ambiguous. It's just odd that our AD doesn't express to fans a clear plan and strategy for the improvement of the athletic department, and given that UND has struggled so much to raise money for the HPC, it's odd that there just seems to randomly be a 5 million dollar investment in the REA weight room, which I don't think UND even thanked the Engelstad foundation for publicly?? Did UND announce anything about this whatsoever? Why not? The whole UND/REA/Engelstad Foundation situation is just bizarre. Like did Chaves even know about this? There are plenty of questions worth asking, because there is both a lack of in-depth and accurate reporting, and because UND Athletics do a terrible job of communicating vision to fans. Also, I always am going to have a lot of questions, and it doesn't always mean that I'm upset about the particular issue I'm asking questions about, such as this weight room improvement, but if I can't read a press release or read the newspaper or listen about it on the radio, to find the answers, I don't see how it is bad to ask about it and discuss it on a message board, and it doesn't mean I'm telling people how to spend their money.

It's annoying how so many schools are perfectly fine with operating at a large loss or going into debt for literally every other sport, but when it comes to hockey everything needs to be funded up front, including operating costs and endowment, despite it being one of the only sports that can actually generate legit revenue. It's also annoying that schools are only willing to build Taj Mahall arenas now days instead of classic designs like Cornell's rink, for like 1/4th the cost. Illinois Athletics is over 300 million in debt! Where were the penny pinchers when it came to literally everything up until the hockey plan was shut down?

Can't disagree with that. What about radio?

Looks like UND officially posted the RFP's - 1 for radio and 1 for tv. Very thorough and well thought out requests, imo. I'd be surprised if WDAY/Inforum put in a bid, because all sports seem to be grouped together. However, is it true that they just bought a new TV station in the area (which could help with conflicting games)?

It will help to determine the motive if we can find plans for what the facilities will actually look like for the Georgia club team, in comparison to the ECHL team. If Georgia has legit D1 locker rooms, medical areas, player lounges, coaching offices, etc, the Georgia will eventually look to go D1, right? If Georgia doesn't have much more than a dedicated locker room, that might mean there aren't any plans for a D1 program. Follow the money they say.

That's literally what every auto bid does though. Don't you want to grow the game? Schools in the South and West aren't going to add hockey if the don't have a viable path to the NCAA tourney, and with the NCHC and CCHA being unwilling to invite new schools, there is no viable path for new programs to join a conference. This would encourage the growth of the game which could eventually lead to new conferences in the South/West. It would also help schools like UAA and Fairbanks, who are SOL due to no fault of their own. When enough schools add hockey, the tournament will eventually expand anyway.

Or it could help to increase interest in college hockey among casual fans in South Dakota. Those who become interested in College Hockey as a result of Augi adding hockey will now be more likely to tune into UND as well. More college hockey exposure in SD could increase total viewership for UND games, and Augi hockey will probably never be popular enough to match the viewership/demand of UND hockey. Midco will still needs UND Hockey to help build and maintain market share in ND, as they will still need to compete with other cable providers in ND, AND they no longer have NDSU basketball to fall back on. UND is now their only exposure to D1 athletics in North Dakota, so UND may have a little bit more leverage with the rights to NDSU locked up for 10 years.

UAH Update.... One of the guys funding UAH hockey was on the radio yesterday and it's an interesting listen. He says UAH currently has $17 million lined up and the program would have an annual budget of 1.8 million, and they still plan to restart hockey if they can get into or create a conference. Sounds like the coaches of all of the independent schools got together on a conference call to discuss the potential of a new D1 conference, and UAH was included as well. He doesn't say that anything is imminent, but it is proof of actual discussions in regard to the creation of a new conference. https://977espn.com/assets/podcaster/176...mp3#t=1765

Looks like UND is also playing at Iowa State on Nov 30th.

I'm really hoping that if the Summit gets a streaming deal put together they do it through midco though, similar to espn+. Kind of a hunch, but I feel like there is a good chance of that happening, eventually.

Und sports are on midco streaming all except for hockey. Can't see that changing though because the nchc has streaming rights which allows the nchc conf games to all be on the same platform. And I'm pretty sure und made more money from that last year than the actual TV deal with midco.

Just to clarify, I didn't really intend to imply anything other than that. The combined square footage of the two current plans do not equal 100% of the square footage that was originally planned for in HPC2. I mentioned this because it is a relevant fact, as that 35 million number was based on the the initial plan for hpc2 (more sq ft). At the end of the day it won't really be a meaningful difference, but that context helps to account for why the 35 million number was so high.

I could have swore they were originally looking at another 20-25 mil, but I may be wrong, and most importantly, that number would have included everything that is now going into memorial village, such as coaches offices, general AD offices, meeting rooms, etc. Edit: I was wrong. Original price tag for phase two was much higher. The combined square footage of the current phase two and UND's portion of memorial village is much less that what was originally planned for phase two, however. https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/und-athletics-focus-shifts-to-second-phase-of-high-performance-center

Article says we are close lol. Perhaps the public phase will be kicked off at the champions ball?

Yeah I was just saying it was a possibility given that UND is small-time, in comparison. Fun fact, I believe Tony interned at the ralph about ten years ago. He did the pa during intermission games and such.

I didn't see anything about that either, which is why I mentioned that also. I'd guess that would be highly unlikely, but I made the post because I believe it's still in the planning phase, so there is still theoretically time for UCO to get involved in the process. The whole thing is a long shot, but this is a college hockey expansion thread and most of the discussions about this are lol. Given that LIU added hockey, who knows how the next program will come about. I'm 100% not saying that this is something that will happen with UCO. Intent was to just say there is potential there. We're on the same page.

A simple solution or something that could help, is that UND could hire the guy who managed UND's account for Learfield. I don't think a whole ton will change though, and it isn't really like Learfield knocked it out of the park when it comes to athletics merchandising deals or sponsorships which we couldn't otherwise get without their help. Pretty sure Learfield only had control of licensing fees for merchandise/apparel, third tier television sales (FSN/bally), and radio sales, and I think it must have made it difficult to work out sponsorship deals if both the ralph and learfield had to be involved with combined radio/arena/game sponsorship packages, with both wanting a % of revenue. If I had to guess, this may have been mutual if UND is happy with where they are at when it comes to their new TV rights deal - learfield may not have wanted to be involved unless they got essentially half of that money, or were in control of the new agreement. Learfield also had zero rights to streaming revenue in any sport. My biggest worry is that UND will not be included in an EA Sports college football game, if/when FCS teams are added, because EA works out an exclusive deal with Learfield or something like that.

Looks like a new arena will be built at the Oklahama Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. About 20 minutes from the University of Central Oklahoma, which is a ACHA D1 power. Location isn't idea, but the fairgrounds are right next to downtown Oklahoma City, which could help with drawing casual fans. Nothing related to Central Oklahoma or hockey was mentioned in the article I read. Just throwing it out there because it's a new arena that is a good size for a D1 hockey program, and Central Oklahoma could conceivably be interested in NCAA hockey.

They just posted updated info for this season fyi - https://gopherpucklive.com/covid-cools-crowds-until-gophers-heat-up/

Fenton isn't doing anything until the new NCAA rules are released. Some think that the new rules will potentially make single sport conferences less desirable. No reason to upset the apple cart if we don't know what rules we will be playing by not even a year from now.

Did I miss an announcement somewhere? https://twitter.com/S_Aldridge91/status/1514815230127214605/photo/3

Wow. Props to UND for being creative here... looks like they are investigating the potential for a project that could pretty much account for the ideas, thoughts, and concerns that were posted by everyone in this thread. Hopefully UND gets some worthwhile proposals - the idea of a Top Golf-like facility on the driving range is exciting to think about (although probably unlikely). UND’s Ray Richards Golf Course Development RFIUND seeks to enter into a Public Private Partnership (“P3”) with a developer to design, finance, construct, own, and manage a development on University land under a long-term ground lease on RRGC. Some relevant excerpts below:

It makes sense that they would want all sports to align, but ya gotta think that they would have moved to the MVC as long as they found a conference home for football somewhere. They had been wanting to move the MVC for years, and the vibe I got from Murray fans was that they probably would have revolted if they finally got an MVC offer, only to turn it down because of football. Would love to know if Murray had any conversations with the OVC about keeping football there. Either way, Murray does seem to have a fan base that actually cares, which is somewhat hard to come by in the FCS, and I think they have potential. My biggest gripe is that the conference is just so large. Also, given our geography, it's pretty unlikely adding Murray increases our travel budget by much, as we fly to every school that isn't in the Dakotas anyway (UNI too maybe?). UND also doesn't owe the MVC schools anything, as they screwed us over when we were set to join the Big Sky with USD, which likely set the program back a few years. Also, screw Dom Izzo and how he put's words in UND's mouth, as he guesses how UND voted and makes up bs "reasons" for why we voted the way he thinks we did (based on literally zero facts, saying UND wanted easier competition, etc). It will be interesting to see how the NCAA reformats the overall D1 structure in the coming months - this whole thing could potentially become moot if the new rules make sport conferences less desirable, or if they cause further conference realignment for a variety of potential reasons.

Have we been talking to him at all? Curious that he has a Depaul offer but no UND offer (that I'm aware of). Makes me wonder if Bentau is interested in coaching.