nodak651

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.

Recent offers according to verbal commits: 4/12/2022 - 2022 PF Victor Ndoukou (6-8, 230, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 C Ryan Erikson (6-10, -, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SG Anthony Doppler (6-4, 200, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SG Darik Dissette (6-4, -, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SF Dallas Bear (6-7, -, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2022 SG Cale Jacobsen (6-3, 180, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota. 4/11/2022 - 2023 SF Marzouq Abdur-Razaaq (6-7, 195, 2★) has received an offer from North Dakota.

Looks like he held 10+ offers according to verbal commits. SUU was the third to offer, after NJIT and NAU.

I posted this announcement in the other thread, in response to your post about the "quiet phase", before I saw that you posted this here. Your post in this thread and your post about the quiet phase in the other thread seem to be contradictory. UND does have an athletics master plan, but it seems to be in a perpetual quiet phase, unlike Boise, which has some of the best athletics marketing in the country.

Compare UND's current strategy and marketing for phase two and other projects in our athletics master plan, like the basketball practice facility, and the softball field, to this: https://www.whatsnextinitiative.com/ https://twitter.com/BroncoSports/media Funding isn't even close to being in place for most of that stuff.

Yet everyone has been saying we are close and we are showing the project to recruits.

Thanks for proving my point.

That is GREAT to hear. It just seems to me that UND is acting like this stuff is a big secret or something. Sorry if I'm off base here.

I interpreted your post to mean that UND wasn't interested in a Sioux Sports fundraiser: "Unfortunately, I received limited feedback on my proposal regarding ss.com involvement. " I apologize for my misinterpretation, and I now understand that there wasn't enough feedback from Sioux Sports members. If UND wasn't interested in a fundraising effort from Sioux Sports, I would stand by my initial post, but I'm glad to hear that wasn't the case. I didn't know what the circumstances were, correct, and that's why 3 of my 4 sentences were questions. With potential recruits that may be interested in such a project, it's odd that UND hasn't really done much to hype the project, so sorry for being cynical. Usually schools have fundraising web pages with renderings and descriptions, or they provide meaningful updates.

With all the smaller schools adding hockey recently. Are there any schools in the Dallas/Texas are that are more particularily suited than others to give D1 hockey a go? Any schools that could play in a hypothetical new southern conference with the likes of Tennessee State, UAH, Georgia, and Lindenwood? Maybe a D2 school even?

So they are literally choosing to not fundraise for this? They have zero interest in the general public buying in to the program? I sure hope the money is locked up if that's the case. But even if it is, why not raise money to make it better?

Summit hockey could essentially be the current NCHC with non Summit schools as affiliates, no?

They have a pretty cool arena and they average 3.5 to 4K fans as a d3 school. seems like a good add.

I feel like I read somewhere, when the game was cancelled, that the WAC was going to work out an agreement to with Dixie and UND to find a replacement team, in exchange for no buyout, and the replacement team would takeover the Dixie contract? ****I may be wrong about that****

On the reaching the Summit pod, he has consistently been complementary to Sather. He was really high on the future of the program between season end and before Bruns transferred.

Is Sather able to recruit D1 guys in the transfer portal? There are 600. Is he strategically targeting JuCo players as a strategy, thinking they may be overlooked due to the huge number of players in the portal? If he has an old school way of thinking, in that he doesn't want to recuit a D1 transfer or something, I think that would be a problem. Does the basketball program have good enough facilities to attract D1 transfers? How do our locker rooms and lounges compare to other mid/low majors in the region? Perhaps investment in this area could help to attract and retain talent.

St. Thomas discussed potential arena plans at the Ford/Bridge site with Ryan Construction and the Highland Park District Council in February. They seem to be pretty serious about this especially now that the golf course fell through. The site would have hockey, softball, and a hockey-only arena. Didn't see capacity mentioned anywhere though. This meeting was in Feb, but I guess they mad their first presentation in January. Nothing official - they are just evaluating the feasibility at this point. Arena seems kinda small, like cc or smaller, just based on that pic. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Nzvgx8_aU16gOOzimZa4gbPPmkJchN3K/edit

Hopefully UNLV doesn't join (not really though) because that would be a perfect regional location every year. Seriously. Super easy and cheap for anyone in the country to fly in to vegas, and with all the flights, getting one on short notice would be easier than other locations. With the new format, people can check out Vegas on the off day, and if their team loses, they still get to be in Vegas. I think it would be well attended every year. Could see the the type of person that goes to Vegas every year make it an annual trip. That rink is sick. I assume UNLV is staying at their current rink for the time being? They haven't announced a move have they?

Bucci said official announcement is tomorrow.