Momentum for Varsity Women's Hockey?
Santa and the regents recommend a feasibility study for varsity Women's hockey, the first (required) step. Could it finally happen? It's long overdue, but it sounds like the right people are behind it.
Interesting that it's the NHL that funds the feasability study.
95% of this is finding a proper facility.
Yost is 100 years old and is in no condition to house 2 NCAA hockey teams, so either 1) a new facility is necessary for the men ($120-150m), or 2) a new house is needed for the women ($50 mil for a WAG).
Solve that and the rest of this can come together fairly quickly.
Yeah i think if Michigan has an easy facility to house a womens team that we wouldve had one a long time ago
I don't know where another facility would go. Double stack at Yost?
Could they add ice to Crisler Center?
I assume it would take like 18 months to retrofit Crisler with a full ice plant so that's probably off the table.
Really, there isn't much in terms of space...
* The old outdoor track (the older football field)? You would have to call it Jesse Owens Rink at Ferry Field or something.
* The old indoor track building? Might not be enough room to squeeze it in between the railroad tracks and Fisher Stadium
* Uh...North Campus?
* Take out baseball and/or softball and move them to one of the places mentioned above? I could almost see moving baseball to North Campus near the hospital somewhere, and tearing down the old indoor track and putting a new Penn State style arena where those were. You might not even lose any parking.
Another option would be the site Briarwood Mall. Forget condos or whatever at the demolished Sears. Buses run up and down State already. Hotels and restaurants there. Easy on /off of I-94.
Interesting idea, as today Michigan Medicine just announced their plan to develop a facility at the old Kmart HQ in Troy. I’m sure they have at least considered whether Briarwood was an option for future facilities.
Seems like Michigan Medicine is looking to expand their footprint in SE Michigan or just find relatively low cost areas close to Ann Arbor.
The UMHS Specialty Pharmacy mail order pharmaceutical facility on Joy Road in Dexter ( where the old Thomson-Shore book manufacturing plant was) is an example. Funny the old Edwards Brothers book manufacturing plant on State Street is the new site of the UM indoor track.
I think the old KMart HQ allows Michigan Medicine to attract workers/patients to a more attractive/convenient location than going to ever more congested and expensive Ann Arbor.
Really radical idea : UM should buy part of Ann Arbor Pioneer. The Ann arbor school system faces a huge budget deficit and severly shrinking overall attendance of the three high schools (Pioneer/Huron/ and Skyline).
Alton, few have more of a stake or investment than you on this: how amenable are you to a replacement of Yost?
March 29th, 2024 at 12:48 PM ^
Ah. Well. This is a surprisingly hard question, even though I can admit to myself that my desire not to leave Yost is almost purely sentimental right now. It's a great arena and Yost and I have been through some amazing times together.
I just don't want to say it, I guess, but maybe it might be better for the program(s) if there were a different setup for hockey. I hate that they will never again have 6000 fans at a game. I hate that they have replaced all of the fixtures with cheap aluminum bleachers. I hate how they are forcing the visiting teams to dress behind cubicle walls on the south concourse. I'm not sure I trust them to build a state-of-the-art arena, but I think they might need to do just that.
Basketball court: 94x50
Ice sheet: 200x85
That’s a tall ask of Crisler.
Impossible, probably. And not a good idea, almost certainly.
Need their own rink ideally
March 28th, 2024 at 10:23 PM ^
Why? Because the men use it 168 hours a week? The basketball teams share Crisler. I understand the need to have separate locker rooms, but they should be able to share the ice.
As an interim rink couldn't the women start out using the nearby Ann Arbor Ice Cube since the USA National development team moved out to Plymouth?
Ferry Field now just a seldom used track and could be a long term site for a new hockey rink. The new indoor track by the lacrosse field is beautiful. It would cool to somehow use the Albert Kahn designed Ferry Field gate for an ice rink entrance.
The plaque about Jesse Owens' amazing feat on May 25, 1935 setting three world records and tying another at the Big Ten meet at Ferry could be accommodated somewhere close by. And get a plaque for Willis Ward too!
Owens tied the world record of 9.4 seconds in the 100-yard dash, then had a long jump of 26 feet, 81/4 inches, ran the 220-yard dash in 20.3 seconds and the 220-yard low hurdles in 22.6 seconds for Ohio State. That feat is amazing enough — but Owens did all four in the span of 45 minutes.
Unpopular take:
if they want to add a growing women’s sport, they should add wrestling.
there are 5 times as many girls participating in high school. The growth rate is explosive.
Another sport that gets televised instead of men's ice hockey? No thanks!
/s
March 29th, 2024 at 10:57 AM ^
I remember watching the US vs Canada women's games in the Olympics the last few times... those were intense and well worth it.
March 29th, 2024 at 11:24 AM ^
Wrestling?
March 29th, 2024 at 12:36 PM ^
Hockey.
Son of THE PARTY ROOM was talking about wrestling, to which I responded.
It doesn't have to be an either/or proposition. Find the donors to fund women's wrestling and you're more than halfway there. Looks like the NCAA is going to add it as an official championship sport, so it'd be a good time to do it.
Not difficult to do both... Plenty of AD money coming from these new TV contracts.
March 29th, 2024 at 10:20 AM ^
Yes, but I think a lot of big time ADs like Michigan are probably hesitant to make big moves right now not knowing if a lot of that football TV contract money is going to end up going to the football players under some kind of CBA. Seems silly for the football TV money to go toward funding all sorts of AD projects rather than just going to the football players
March 29th, 2024 at 10:50 AM ^
Building/expanding the ice facilities is the major cost, which is an investment that would benefit the university for decades to came (at least... look how much we've gotten out of Yost).
Running a women's hockey program *aside from the facility cost* isn't that much really... they've been making do with shouldering travel, equipment, etc. costs themselves for decades now. The AD can certainly help.
Keep in mind that this isn't "football money" - while true that football is the primary driver for this network revenue, using it to float the AD (such that it doesn't adversely impact the overall university budget) is the trade-off for the university allowing a de facto semi-pro franchise to operate (almost independently) within the overall structure of the university (and for the rules & standards that might get get bent along the way to allow the revenue sports to get the people & policies they want... and treat them very differently than all the other *school* sports at the university). Throwing some of that money towards expanding women's sports is a small ask.
I think I’d rather have a real baseball program.
March 28th, 2024 at 10:40 PM ^
You would need a domed stadium for that.
March 29th, 2024 at 11:21 AM ^
Hmmmmmm.......
March 29th, 2024 at 12:50 PM ^
Okay, so one vote for a combined baseball/hockey facility.
That would certainly be an innovative solution.
I did not grow up in Michigan. I have never played hockey. But I do not understand how the greatest college ice hockey program in history does not have a women's team.
Make it happen, Santa.
March 28th, 2024 at 10:31 PM ^
I have helped coach girls teams and coached girls that play with the boys. I have also coached girls that went on to play DI hockey, and it’s sad for them to know that if they want to play at the highest level, they have no choice but to leave the state.
March 28th, 2024 at 10:39 PM ^
Michigan should have had a women's hockey team long ago. Any objections regarding Yost are ridiculous. The women's club team has played at Yost. Where did the players dress? Anyway, Yost itself is obsolete. Its seating capacity for hockey has consistently decreased with each renovation. Over 100 years old, it was built in 1923 under Fielding Yost's supervision and was used for basketball for decades while hockey used the even older 1909 coliseum. Hockey deserves its own new state of the art facility. Can Michigan afford it? Of course. In addition to all the alumni who would contribute, is everyone aware that Michigan's endowment is larger than the endowment of the entire University of California system in the aggregate, including Berkeley, UCLA and seven other major schools? Stop being cheap and spend what is necessary.
[sigh] Once again, that's now how endowments work.
March 29th, 2024 at 12:29 PM ^
Right. They don't work at all. They should be taxed.
How will this be paid for? Is Denise Ilitch volunteering any of her family's money?
March 29th, 2024 at 10:47 AM ^
The AD isn't exactly hurting for money.
March 29th, 2024 at 10:46 AM ^
YES PLEASE
i’ve said it before, many times - promotion of intercollegiate sports within the university at large is the reason the athletic department exists in the first place, literally BY DEFINITION.
arguing against the creation and support of a new intercollegiate sport is no different than arguing against the continuing existence of every other sport on campus. i’m not interested in field hockey, personally (no reason, i’ve just never been exposed to it), and i’m certain it doesn’t make money, but its profitability is irrelevant. field hockey is, not to put too fine a point on it, the reason we have an athletic department in the first place. women’s ice hockey is no different.