Hockey in Hilton? Ever happened?

[Broodwich]

Yes I can. Referee intramural hockey. That's how I know it is one of the least popular intramural sports when it comes to participation numbers.

That's awesome that you can skate.

What's the single greatest thing keeping people from intramural hockey? Skill or interest?

Is Broomball hurting? Because broomball is hockey for people who can't skate.

[IcSyU]

That's awesome that you can skate.

What's the single greatest thing keeping people from intramural hockey? Skill or interest?

Is Broomball hurting? Because broomball is hockey for people who can't skate.

A combination of both. Some of the hockey teams don't have anyone who can skate (and it's funnier than hell to watch) and we have a lot of forfeits because teams can't come up with enough players to actually play. It isn't due to equipment or anything because that's all provided.

Broomball isn't hurting but it isn't thriving either. The interest in broomball is mostly from residence hall floors with a CA who will drag them out. The rest is a bunch of drunks who show up and end up getting thrown out more often than not.


Some of the issues with both however may be due to the times of the games. Turns out no one is thrilled to be playing hockey or broomball at 1:30am.

[aeroclone]

How about this for a knuckle-puck then: I don't buy that club hockey attendance is indicative of what Div.-I hockey attendance would be. For one thing, I think you'd pull more alumni and other non-students. Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Waterloo all seem to support amateur/semi-pro hockey teams fairly well, so it's not like the state doesn't like hockey just because the Stars/Chops had bad management and it's too expensive for the high schools to support.

That being said, the start-up is still way too expensive to really consider and it would probably hurt WBB support, but I just don't buy that there wouldn't be any market for it.

Actually, it seems like high school hockey may be getting a foothold in Iowa.

DM Metro High School League

It isn't a varsity sport at this point since there aren't a ton of schools out there yet, but 7 of the schools in the DSM metro area do have a league up and running. I'm pretty sure this didn't exist when I was in HS about 10 years ago.

[Broodwich]

Don't forget the Midwest League too.

http://midwesthighschoolhockey.point...ckey/home-page

[psyclone51]

Very interesting contributions here. But, I think some of you are missing the point. Hockey is novel to this area, perhaps, but we are not talking about a team here next year, but perhaps in 10 years. Look at the growth of hockey across the country; some of the top draft choices have come from "non-traditional" regions. As one exanmple, from last year's draft, #21 Noesen was from Texas. And on the roster of this year's world junior team, Emerson was from California and Zucker was from Nevada. Not exactly hockey hotbeds. So, where will hockey be in 10 years, and where does ISU was to position itself. Hockey is definitely growing in this country.

The absence of Big 12 support is a concern, but traditionally strong hockey programs exist in Colorado - Colorado College is ranked 10th in D1 right now and Denver is ranked 17th - without major conference support.

BUT, hockey is different in another way. For all other D1 sports, the road to a professional career is through NCAA. But not hockey. Kids who want to make the bigs in hockey can go NCAA or junior in Canada. Makes for a very different dynamic. The pool of available players can get diluted by opportunities outside NCAA. Interesting stuff!!

As for Hilton, even if we assume they have to spend significant coin to bring hockey back, adding 10 to 20 more home dates to the facility makes it cheaper for everyone to use, because costs are spread over more days of use. (But I worry about my beloeved Volleyball team losing access for practice).

On the other hand, will adding hockey add more financial support for the Cyclones, or merely re-distribute existing money from alumni and friends? Does it make the pie bigger, or just spread the pie wider? That's for JP to figure out.

He shoots, he scores.....

[letsCYber]

If it weren't for Title IX, we could play hockey at Hilton

[jdoggivjc]

If it weren't for Title IX, we could play hockey at Hilton

How many times does it have to be mentioned that Title IX is NOT an issue when it comes to adding sports at ISU? It is a 100% REVENUE ISSUE.

I would love to see Hockey go varsity. Unfortunately, I am also a realist and realize the finances will probably never be there to start up such a program.

[Flag Guy]

Pretty sure it's been covered in the last 7 pages but don't feel like reading through it all...


I remember hearing from some of the veteran stage hands when I worked at Hilton that the refridgeration on the West? end didn't work too well.... so they had trouble keeping the entire floor chilled

Probably some other issues since then, what with it being flooded a few times

[Bipolarcy]

The one and only hockey game I've ever seen live was in Hilton. Cyclones won. Don't remember too much else about it.