Coralville Ice Arena project - Hawkeye B1G hockey next?

HawkinGoferLand

HawkinGoferLand

Well-Known Member
This caught my eye today.

Coralville’s proposal for $12 million to help create a 7,000-seat arena with an attached sports performance center is on that list of projects still in the running for the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s state-funded Reinvestment District program.

http://thegazette.com/subject/news/...akes-the-first-cut-for-state-funding-20150428

Could this lead to UI having mens & womens hockey? One hurdle for UI having B1G hockey teams is an arena. Penn St added hockey in 2013 after they received donations to build an arena. Another hurdle of course is recruits, but the state of MN, or the State of Hockey as it is known, has the largest number of youth-HS hockey players in the country at 54,000, Michigan has 50k. 39 active NHL players are from MN, that's 16% of the league. There are 5 D1 hockey programs in MN (4 made the 16 team NCAA tourney this year). There were 1466 Minnesotans playing college, pro and junior hockey (like Waterloo Blackhawks) this past season.

150 Minnesota high schoolers committed to D1 programs this year alone and many more to smaller universities. There are several Junior Hockey teams in Iowa including Waterloo, Dubuque, Sioux City, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines plus Lincoln, Omaha, Bloomington IL and more - and most of these kids will play college hockey. So there are many regionally close players for UI to recruit.

I know it's probably a pipe dream, but would be cool to move from club to varsity status in hockey in IC!
 
Sorry to sleet on your zamboni but I am not interested.

Two more sports for Iowa to be mediocre in. Not a snowballs chance for iowa to be good enough to offset a negative slide on the balance sheet.
 
I'd LOVE to see varsity men's hockey at U of Iowa. As an avid Blackhawks fan and Chicagoland resident, I already drive to every home football game I would easily do the same for weekend hockey games in Coralville.

Just like every sport (and the overall student population in general), Iowa would need t recruit the Chicagoland area heavily to fill out a full ice hockey roster. The players are here and Illinois (Cook County and surrounding counties in particular) has enough talent to be the backbone of an Iowa Ice-Hawks squad.
 
I’m not much of a hockey fan, but if Iowa were to start a men’s and women’s hockey programs, I could become one quickly because I love anything Hawkeye! I would also dearly love to see Iowa start a women’s wrestling program too. We are one of the top wrestling meccas in collegiate wrestling and it would make sense to be one of the forerunners into this new sport. And it would also show that we are one of the premiere advocates for title IX athletics promotion. It isnt like we cant afford it with all the B1G television revenue that is rolling in and that will increase substantially over the next few years. We are midwestern people and have a long time pioneering spirit.
 
I grew up playing hockey until middle school, when I opted for basketball. I actually played organized hockey before I played Little League. Black & Gold unis with a Tiger Hawk on the helmets would be amazing. Plus, since the bug-up-their-ass fans apparently invade Carver, drunken Hawk-ey fans would have a place all their own!
 
Our team actually got to play the Elmhurst Huskies in "exhibition" type games after our season ended. This was a "district" that had great hockey tradition, and had the kids of several Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Cougars players. On that team? Blake Hull (son of Blackhawk great Bobby Hull) and his younger...Brett Hull. Yep, THAT Brett Hull.

This was 1971. At that time, the prevailing thought was that Blake was the one destined for greatness. Brett was a frigging little brat. But, then consider that these were teams made up of 3rd and 4th graders. Brett was probably only in first grade. He was certainly better than most of the guys on our team. He just happened to be on a team of guys that were two and three years older. So, yeah, he was probably destined for success at the professional level.
 
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