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What’s Needed To Hang A Green Banner?


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10 minutes ago, Irish said:

Best fanbase in the country - usually lead in attendance and travel unbelievably well.  Best facilities.  Proven track record of producing NHL players. Great player development.  8 National Championships and usually in contention for league championships and almost always make the regionals.  Great national reputation.  A long history of high end talent including Toews, Parise, Oshie, etc.  

best fanbase is subjective to you. Some schools have excellent fanbases themselves. travel unbelievable well? again our fanbase travels well to "destination" games but a lot go missing when it comes time to go see a regular season game. Best facilities? A lot of schools have caught up to the Ralph. Are they big like the REA, probably not but everything else is just as top notch. No one is playing in an outdated arena any longer. 8 national championships is nice but how many have been won in the past 22 years? I'll give you league championships but making it to the national tournament and failing does not bode well. A lot of other schools have a history or producing high end talent too. Minnesota, Denver, St. Cloud, Boston College, Boston University, Wisconsin, Duluth all produce high end talent. Hell, Michigan has darn near 2 lines of 1st round draft picks playing for them. 

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1 hour ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Which schools have anything close to REA?

A lot of programs have the same or even better amenities than the REA. Using the example of the REA has a huge recruiting tool has lost its luster, it's a really nice facility but  no one is playing in a 50's cattle barn any longer.

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10 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

best fanbase is subjective to you. Some schools have excellent fanbases themselves. travel unbelievable well? again our fanbase travels well to "destination" games but a lot go missing when it comes time to go see a regular season game. Best facilities? A lot of schools have caught up to the Ralph. Are they big like the REA, probably not but everything else is just as top notch. No one is playing in an outdated arena any longer. 8 national championships is nice but how many have been won in the past 22 years? I'll give you league championships but making it to the national tournament and failing does not bode well. A lot of other schools have a history or producing high end talent too. Minnesota, Denver, St. Cloud, Boston College, Boston University, Wisconsin, Duluth all produce high end talent. Hell, Michigan has darn near 2 lines of 1st round draft picks playing for them. 

Exactly my point.  Not saying we should get every blue chipper but we should be getting more.  Someone at Michigan must be doing a great job of selling their program.  And they're still playing.  And they haven't won a Natty since 1998.  They have some recruiting advantages we don't have and we have some they don't have.  Time for us to up our game.  

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17 minutes ago, Irish said:

Exactly my point.  Not saying we should get every blue chipper but we should be getting more.  Someone at Michigan must be doing a great job of selling their program.  And they're still playing.  And they haven't won a Natty since 1998.  They have some recruiting advantages we don't have and we have some they don't have.  Time for us to up our game.  

I could think of a few. Possibly a better coach, better exposer, Ann Arbor is much nicer than Grand Forks.

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1 hour ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I wasn't just talking about the arena. We just spent millions to upgrade the locker rooms at REA. We also have training equipment in REA that is top-notch. And every few years, we are upgrading this or that in REA. I would imagine most schools are not upgrading their facilities that often. And our program is talked about favorably by a lot of people in the hockey world (collegiate and professional). So I think we still have all the tools to recruit high-end talent.

You are correct. My point is the facility is no longer the big advantage we had over other schools at one time. Many other schools have wealthy donors who can throw together the resources for a 5 million dollar upgrade over morning coffee. 

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59 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

A lot of programs have the same or even better amenities than the REA. Using the example of the REA has a huge recruiting tool has lost its luster, it's a really nice facility but  no one is playing in a 50's cattle barn any longer.

Better amenities?  Really?

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8 minutes ago, iramurphy said:

You are correct. My point is the facility is no longer the big advantage we had over other schools at one time. Many other schools have wealthy donors who can throw together the resources for a 5 million dollar upgrade over morning coffee. 

I honestly think a better national TV package would benefit us more. Stop with this NCHC package BS, put us on National coverage each week.

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All things considered this was an over achieving rebuilding year. If we’d had Weatherbee this season and a Jake Sanderson for all but a couple missed games (no Covid and no Olympic injury) we’d have been considered a top 1, 2 or 3 team in the top conference/country. Those two players along with the rest of our team would have elevated our play considerably, won us a couple more games This season and would have had us going to Boston! 

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1 hour ago, fightingsioux4life said:

I wasn't just talking about the arena. We just spent millions to upgrade the locker rooms at REA. We also have training equipment in REA that is top-notch. And every few years, we are upgrading this or that in REA. I would imagine most schools are not upgrading their facilities that often. And our program is talked about favorably by a lot of people in the hockey world (collegiate and professional). So I think we still have all the tools to recruit high-end talent.

Yes we just updated a locker room that was 20+ years old. New arenas are getting built or have been built long after the REA was built or refinished. 

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2 minutes ago, mattim said:

All things considered this was an over achieving rebuilding year. If we’d had Weatherbee this season and a Jake Sanderson for all but a couple missed games (no Covid and no Olympic injury) we’d have been considered a top 1, 2 or 3 team in the top conference/country. Those two players along with the rest of our team would have elevated our play considerably, won us a couple more games This season and would have had us going to Boston! 

Losing in the first round is considering over achieving?  Good lord.   I know a lot of people thought they wouldn't make the tourney at one point, but not winning a game or two at the tourney is never over achieving.  

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1 hour ago, Irish said:

Exactly my point.  Not saying we should get every blue chipper but we should be getting more.  Someone at Michigan must be doing a great job of selling their program.  And they're still playing.  And they haven't won a Natty since 1998.  They have some recruiting advantages we don't have and we have some they don't have.  Time for us to up our game.  

And their home rink is Yost Ice Arena, which is a converted basketball arena and is about 100 years old. If someone wants to argue that REA isn't a big advantage over that, please go right on ahead.

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1 hour ago, siouxkid12 said:

I could think of a few. Possibly a better coach, better exposer, Ann Arbor is much nicer than Grand Forks.

Based on this, we should never have become a national power, must less have 8 NCAA title banners hanging in REA. Grand Forks has never been as "flashy" of a destination, but we still managed to win 2 NCAA titles in a WPA-built, unheated barn and 5 in the Old REA, which seated about half of what the current version of REA does. Also, you have schools like Quinnipiac, UMass-Amherst, Union and MSU-Mankato either winning or coming close to winning NCAA titles over the past 10 years or so. And none of those schools have the same tradition, history, facilities and reputation in the hockey world that we do. We are an underachieving blue blood program, not a plucky mid-major overachieving and doing more with less.

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21 minutes ago, The Sicatoka said:

@siouxkid12 ... want better amenities and television? Make the check out to "UND Athletics". :) 

I do donate each year but unlike some people I don't dictate who gets my money. Also, I never said our amenities were trash, I just said there are some programs that have finally caught up to UND and some may have passed. They are still top notch, just not #1 like we think.

Television, I would love to donate if it meant a deal for all our programs to get more national exposer. However the question was what is needed and I simply responded to the question. 

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1 minute ago, siouxkid12 said:

I do donate each year but unlike some people I don't dictate who gets my money. Also, I never said our amenities were trash, I just said there are some programs that have finally caught up to UND and some may have passed. They are still top notch, just not #1 like we think.

Television, I would love to donate if it meant a deal for all our programs to get more national exposer. However the question was what is needed and I simply responded to the question. 

Could you show us the programs with better facilities and amenities?   

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15 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Based on this, we should never have become a national power, must less have 8 NCAA title banners hanging in REA. Grand Forks has never been as "flashy" of a destination, but we still managed to win 2 NCAA titles in a WPA-built, unheated barn and 5 in the Old REA, which seated about half of what the current version of REA does. Also, you have schools like Quinnipiac, UMass-Amherst, Union and MSU-Mankato either winning or coming close to winning NCAA titles over the past 10 years or so. And none of those schools have the same tradition, history, facilities and reputation in the hockey world that we do. We are an underachieving blue blood program, not a plucky mid-major overachieving and doing more with less.

You are also thinking hockey players from the early days are the same ones playing today. Kid's these days have a way different mindset then the Hrkac's, Belfour's, Johnson's and Blake's of the world. 

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5 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

You are also thinking hockey players from the early days are the same ones playing today. Kid's these days have a way different mindset then the Hrkac's, Belfour's, Johnson's and Blake's of the world. 

So we are destined to be relegated to being a plucky mid-major in the world of Division I college hockey? That is the ultimate nightmare scenario for UND and it must not be allowed to happen. If we need to make changes to how we recruit, fundraise or whatever else, we better do it before it is too late.

And you still haven't explained away how Quinnipiac, UMass-Amherst, Union and MSU-Mankato can arguably have more national success than we do. Those are not high-profile schools in the world of athletics by any stretch.

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1 minute ago, tnt said:

Could you show us the programs with better facilities and amenities?   

Ed Robson Arena

Pegula Ice Arena

Kohl Center

Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center

Value City Arena

Baxter Arena

Amsoil Arena

Arizona State University's (will be super nice once completed)

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6 minutes ago, siouxkid12 said:

Ed Robson Arena

Pegula Ice Arena

Kohl Center

Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center

Value City Arena

Baxter Arena

Amsoil Arena

Arizona State University's (will be super nice once completed)

Yes, everyone always compares all of them to the nicest NHL arenas.  :silly:

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7 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

So we are destined to be relegated to being a plucky mid-major in the world of Division I college hockey? That is the ultimate nightmare scenario for UND and it must not be allowed to happen. If we need to make changes to how we recruit, fundraise or whatever else, we better do it before it is too late.

And you still haven't explained away how Quinnipiac, UMass-Amherst, Union and MSU-Mankato can arguably have more national success than we do. Those are not high-profile schools in the world of athletics by any stretch.

I have explained it. Let me do it again. People say we can recruit the best because of our arena and history. Well guess what, that time has passed us. Again, arena's have caught up to UND. Those schools that you mentioned have done more by finding the right players for their program and I hate to say it but they have the correct coach for their program too. I know Berry would be snatched up by lots of other schools in a heartbeat but basically going 1-3 in NCAA play (not counting his first year) and missing out on the NCAA 2 CONSECUTIVE years, doesn't cut it. You think the folks at Alabama would allow that to happen?

 

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1 minute ago, tnt said:

Yes, everyone always compares all of them to the nicest NHL arenas.  :silly:

you can disagree with me all you want but the fact still holds true. you might not like them personally (because you probably haven't been to them) but they have caught up with UND when it comes to things players look for. Big deal the REA has granite countertop/flooring or that they have cherry wood seats. I am in no way saying the REA is a dump but take your blinders off and head to some of these other places and you will see they are very excellent places and you can see why kids would want to go there.

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12 minutes ago, tnt said:

Could you show us the programs with better facilities and amenities?   

You can find that by googling whatever school -hockey facilities. Maybe start with with Penn State. Many schools have a YouTube video tour. 

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