SiouxVolley

The AHL does not do good in Canada compared to major juniors. St John and Thunder Bay don't have major juniors teams. Correction: St John has a major juniors team. The only other AHL teams in Canada are located near the parent NHL team for interest: the Toronto Marlies and the Laval Rocket for Montreal. That's 3 out of 31 AHL teams. Bizarrely, Canada just doesn't consider the AHL to be Canadian enough.

Championships build fan bases. It's rather simple. Mankato isn't that popular now but if it won, it's economic viability vastly increases. Another stupid comment by a self professed expert. Michigan Tech renovated their arena and has won three championships, but Upper Michigan simply doesn't have enough people. Tech's graduates mostly live in Lower Michigan and rarely congregate except in Detroit for hockey Tech has a proven hockey commitment which you deny, so throw your opinions out as they are garbage.

There is a prime arena opening in Utica, NY, but it doesn’t have a college team. SUNY Polytech or Utica would have to move at least to DII. https://romesentinel.com/stories/officials-hail-groundbreaking-of-44m-nexus-center,92626

The Jets have been trying for years to pawn the AHL team to Thunder Bay, but their have been roadblocks: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/thunder-bay-event-centre-plan-scrapped-1.3015219 Getting rid of the AHL team would make Winnipeg less saturated. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/ahl-team-still-destined-for-thunder-bay-mayor-says-1.2993982

Cirrus Aircraft saw another record year. But the new plant in McKinney, Texas, May impact the Grand Forks plant output. https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/business/technology/4960555-‘Record-year-of-growth’-at-Duluth’s-Cirrus-Aircraft

Appears Winnipeg has too many hockey teams with the Jets, Moose and the WHL: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-jets-tickets-demand-business-true-north-1.5462921

My point was that the NCHC didn’t form on basic hockey principles and history, but on economic and academic viability. If hockey history and passion were so important,, where is Michigan Tech? Michigan Tech has rigorous academics, and a major endowment, but doesn’t have a viable media base. Notre Dame even gets a special deal from the P5, and they are not going to be equal to a bunch of hockey schools.

N Dame refused to be an actual partner and the NCHC was not high faluting enough for them, as they took their own deal with bigger name name schools like BC, UConn, Providence and the Hockey East with a separate NBC Sports deal. The NCHC was just too low of a conference in name to be associated with and besmirch their precious name just for hockey. But then walked away for similar deal the Big Ten and NBC Sports, which most had never assumed they would do as ND and the BIG are mortal enemies.

Notre Dame walked away from the NCHC's formation, saying another else is beyond naive, but what can we bring expect from southpaw. Notre Dame hadnt done anything in hockey before that time, but yet received the royal treatment. Miami is almost royalty in academics, and WMU isn't bad, but WMU was left waiting for ND's decision. SCSU was scoffed at by DU and CC but it won because it was the closest school to MSP, not because of its performance to date. UST is almost looked at as DU's twin, so it will get Colorado's votes, when an arena is built. UST knows this isn't DIII anymore, and performance is required to get MSP attention. ASU would be in now based on media and academics, if they had an arena. ASU now will have two consecutive NCAA berths, and they only had enormous potential but had never demonstrated anything like southpaw said. Same with UST. The Big Ten and Ivy didnt form because of media and academics but because athletic events need opponents. The Presidents reached out for similar schools to start a conference. The same thing has been happening for 150 years.

Austin Peay U outside Nashville and High Point U are constructing new arenas for hockey. Liberty and Lindenwood have wanted DI hockey for years. Wouldn't at all be surprised if it happens in few years.

I would bet CC and DU would block MSU_M and Bemidji. They are totally on board with ASU and St Thomas because of academics and media market.

The Avs- Kings outdoor game at AFA academy drew fan: 44,000. But their experience was not great due to improper planning. https://thednvr.com/nhl-forgets-fans-are-the-point-with-disastrous-stadium-series/

The Alaska schools would take them right away to rebuild the WCHA. Also, suspect Simon Fraser would join them as well as a couple of western schools that were named on this board. Ariz St needs an arena finished before any other conference would accept them. In the NCHC, Imagine that Western and Miami are opposed because of travel and time zone difference. The new CCHA doesn’t want teams outside it’s footprint.

St Thomas and St John’s are playing their last conference rivalry game in US Bank stadium. http://www.startribune.com/st-john-s-and-st-thomas-move-rivalry-finale-to-u-s-bank-stadium/567802362/

So the WCHA7 officially became the CCHA. https://d2o2figo6ddd0g.cloudfront.net/l/f/aqbzrepbnzc9yb/CCHA_Press_Release.pdf Mankato has a chance for the NCHC, but they probably need a championship. iMHO, St Thomas has passed them if they get a new arena. But in the meantime, St Thomas will be WCHA team #8. https://www.inforum.com/sports/hockey/4958027-CCHA-name-revived-for-new-college-hockey-conference https://www.mankatofreepress.com/sports/local_sports/what-s-old-is-new-hockey-conference-to-be-called/article_585c0c54-527f-11ea-bfa1-a3698335e005.html BGSU owns the CCHA name, and there has been rumors for several years that it would restore the name, with new members.

Possible American Centers for the hockey universe: https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/28726431/usa-hockey-hotbed-heat-check-center-american-hockey-universe ESPN awards the center to Edina.

Here’s most of the options that the MEAC has after losing Hampton and NC A&T. https://hbcugameday.com/2020/02/07/ncat-move-meac-future-expansion/ SC State, Bethune-Cookman, and many of the MD based schools have questionable futures.

Here’s an article on why internet retailers now want physical stores. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/26/764548415/why-more-online-retailers-are-opening-brick-and-mortar-locations Another related reason is that Amazon keeps track of their internet shops and tries to knockoff their biggest stores. Shopify, a competitor to Amazon, has gained many of those business clients.

New Haven's board has approved DI and FCS and a new athletic center: https://mobile.twitter.com/robthompsonlive/status/1226827580453593088

The rules of retailing expansion have reversed. Now, one needs a internet presence first and later maybe a physical presence in large metros. The losers in this retailing world did not respond physically to the internet threat. Bigger retailers like Walmart and Target are now much more formidable because they invested early to the threat. But smaller companies that started via the internet have actual physical stores, like Un-tuck-et and others. But Grand Forks probably isn’t large enough for those smaller internet outfits to have a physical store.

In the one game I saw at the Betty, G was so fundamentally solid so knew we had a contributed on our hands. More for next year. Now we need that Chicago recruit to step up for n ext year replacing Marlon.

EWU has had declining enrollment and the faculty is mad that they don’t replace retiring faculty. FCS hasn’t helped even though they have won a championship and many playoff games. EWU need’s to expand their attractiveness to students, and FBS can be a way. CWU has vastly expanded enrollment over that last ten years at the D2 level, there are precious few D2 western fb schools, and CWU wants FCS soon,

This article says Colorado is the most underrated hockey hotbed in the country. https://theathletic.com/1602942/2020/02/14/could-the-state-of-colorado-be-the-most-underrated-hockey-hotbed-in-america/ I would rate North Dakota higher, specifically Greater Grand Forks.

UT Chattanooga is to build a grand athletic facility https://blog.utc.edu/news/2020/01/starting-date-set-for-construction-on-wolford-family-athletic-center/ The football stadium already seats enough for FBS. Expect UTC to get an ASun bid. A $22 million remodel of their stadium has already been announced.

This editorial says Hockey East should follow the lead of the strongest hockey conference, the NCHC, rather than going to a multi sport conference. https://www.collegehockeynews.com/news/2020/02/11_Commentary-Hockey-East-Can.php BU and Northeastern used to be members of America East too, so any changes could have been easily accomplished ten years ago.