Visions for the Civic Center

[HartfordTycoon]

Very very true.

UCONN football got the new stadium and theyre on TV now, and the games still didnt sell out (except for the first year). Did anyone watch their last home game back around Thanksgiving? There were more empty seats than there were full.

Its about the quality of the team. If UCONN football was beating number 1 and 2 teams, theyd be selling out and then theyd be on ESPN and not channel 11. If you put them on ESPN without a winning team, people wouldnt go to the game just because it is on EPSN

[redbaron]

And even with Football still in it's infancy there's still good press coverage and decent attendance. The last game wasn't great, but most home games this season were almost sold out. With Football you are still playing schools with nationally known teams and it helps. This is not to say that Uconn Hockey could not grow, I think it could, but there are huge differences in visibility between College Hoops, Football, and Hockey.

[blink55184]

Coleege hockey suffers in lack of exposure, what are there like 40 Division I teams? But it has a hugely loyal fanbase, especially in northern states. I went to school at UNH and there is a huge waiting list for season tickets.

[JimSawhill]

Coleege hockey suffers in lack of exposure, what are there like 40 Division I teams? But it has a hugely loyal fanbase, especially in northern states. I went to school at UNH and there is a huge waiting list for season tickets. I would love to see UCONN in the Hockey East playing there games at the civic center in the near term. I think they would draw larger crowds than the wolfpack if the program was upgraded.

[beerbeer]

UConn does not offer scholarships for men's hockey. Therefore they will never compete on a national level. It also means they would hang around the cellar of a conference like HockeyEast.

However, there is enough residual interest in UConn sports that a UConn hockey game in Hartford would attract a little more interest than their usual on campus game. Add Q, Yale and Central or Southern, and you would have a nice little tourney that would generate some press and interest.

[HartfordTycoon]

UConn does not offer scholarships for men's hockey. Therefore they will never compete on a national level. It also means they would hang around the cellar of a conference like HockeyEast.

However, there is enough residual interest in UConn sports that a UConn hockey game in Hartford would attract a little more interest than their usual on campus game. Add Q, Yale and Central or Southern, and you would have a nice little tourney that would generate some press and interest.

[JimSawhill]

That sounds like a totally accurate depiction of the situation with Uconn Hockey.

[redbaron]

UConn does not offer scholarships for men's hockey. Therefore they will never compete on a national level. It also means they would hang around the cellar of a conference like HockeyEast.

However, there is enough residual interest in UConn sports that a UConn hockey game in Hartford would attract a little more interest than their usual on campus game. Add Q, Yale and Central or Southern, and you would have a nice little tourney that would generate some press and interest.

[MadVlad]

There has been hockey tourney's at the HCC. It's funny, MSG originally had the tournament slated (about 8 years or so ago) and something happened and Madison Square Garden couldn't have the tournament anymore, so they moved it to Hartford. It did well, I remember RPI, Maine, and Colgate I think.

[beerbeer]

The problem is Title IX. For every men's athletic scholarship awarded by UConn they have to award a woman's athletic scholarship. Because there is no women's football (85 male scholarships), there are a ton of women's sports that get scholarship. Women's ice hockey gets scholarships at UConn, the men's team doesn't.

Title IX has beeen implemented in a stupid way -- like most things thhe government does it's inane.

[MadVlad]

The problem is Title IX. For every men's athletic scholarship awarded by UConn they have to award a woman's athletic scholarship. Because there is no women's football (85 male scholarships), there are a ton of women's sports that get scholarship. Women's ice hockey gets scholarships at UConn, the men's team doesn't.

Title IX has beeen implemented in a stupid way -- like most things thhe government does it's inane.

[GHartford]

The problem is Title IX. For every men's athletic scholarship awarded by UConn they have to award a woman's athletic scholarship. Because there is no women's football (85 male scholarships), there are a ton of women's sports that get scholarship. Women's ice hockey gets scholarships at UConn, the men's team doesn't.

Title IX has beeen implemented in a stupid way -- like most things thhe government does it's inane.

[robm324]

Not to make this a Title IX discussion, but it was a valuable thing for Women's Sports in its time, it needs to be torn down and reworked for the current time.

College hockey would do well, but there needs to be a dedicated staff to sell an event like this.

[beerbeer]

The UConn women's hockey team is quite good. They were ranked in the national top ten this week. #9 in the country.

[uconn99]

UConn has a long tradition with Soccer, always having one of the best teams in the nation. The Soccer program actually brings in quite a bit of money, sometimes drawing 8,000+ fans to Morrone Stadium.

If UConn ever wanted to get bigger they would offer scholarships like HockeyEast schools do. UConn may be D-1 for hockey but I don't believe they could ever get into the frozen four because they are kinda like D-1AA in football, I could be wrong?