Much to the dismay of many of the local champions of D-3 hockey in the area the University of Georgia is building a $34 million rink for their Club Hockey Team! And oh yeah, it appears they have fans who come to their games.

https://www.redandblack.com/sports/planned--seat-classic-center-arena-to-provide-permanent-home/article_80a96e70-3d7d-11ea-b45c-bb627230b725.html

"But, but, but...my kid is playing up at some northwoods Division three school and the hockey is almost as good as Hockey East and Club Hockey sucks and really he's there for the education even though he will receive a degree from a school no one in America has ever heard of...but the alumni network is strong...because no one has ever heard of the school the alumni band together. . . and the hockey is almost D-1 quality, who wants to go to a fun school with real sports and fit cute girls and a football team and nice weather..."

Arizona State 2.0? D-1 coming to GA?

That's what people don't understand. That's the end game.

And if the do get a D-I team, how many players from the current UGa Club team would be on it? That would be none.

I don't care how many people go to the games. The hockey is not NCAA hockey. But, the fans don't know that.

When the Predators first started, fans could listen to a guy that was explaining the game while things happened. Not play-by-play, Hockey 101 - what is icing, offsides, why did the whistle just blow, why is that a penalty?

The worst team in junior hockey today is coached by a guy that was the club coach at Duke for 15 years. They are 1-34 with a -220 goal differential. I'll do the math for you - that's an average margin of defeat of six goals per game. In hockey.

Hey, they enjoy it, good time to have a beer with a buddy. Doesn't mean it's competitive with NCAA hockey.

Hahahahah! Yeah, they're building a $34 million facility because fans in the South go to club hockey games. Oh, that's rich!

Hey Buford, find someone that knows how to use a calculator.

Let's say they average 2,500 paying customers a game. That seems high to me, but for argument's sake.

Let's say they charge $5.

Let's say they play 25 home games.

The gate is $312,500 per year.

So, ignoring carrying costs and operating costs- which is ignoring a lot - it would take 108.8 years for club hockey to cover JUST the construction cost.

Oh the angry D-3 dads show-up! Tired of driving up to all the way up to Burlington VT to watch your kid (who was just a hair short of making a local D-1 team in your mind) play in front of 97 fans with 40 of them being moms and dads and the rest either roommates, dorm mates or girlfriends. Too funny.



Hey Biffy, find someone who seems to be able to read -

"...the Athens-Clarke County Mayor and Commission added a proposal to provide $34 million toward the construction of a new arena at The Classic Center to the Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax 2020 project list. Voters approved the project — one with a larger permanent seating capacity of 5,500 — when they passed the SPLOST 2020 referendum in November."

Biffy, any clue how many seats you need to sell to recoup a sales tax funded stadium that also will be used for 'Concerts and other entertainment events.' Hold it, let me grab my calculator. . . . hmmm, let's see...sales tax....paid everyday....ahhh, year around, for eternity...plus, hmmmm 'other entertainment events' times hmmmm say 5,000 over the next 50 years hmmm, plus concerts....say three a month times 12 that's 36 a year times 50 years .... so I'd say for hockey they would have to sell annually ZERO FRIGGIN' TICKET TO A COLLEGE HOCKEY GAME, PER YEAR FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS!

I think everyone would understand if they are in fact following AZ State it would take some time to create the actual D-1 level infrastructure to support a team, go through the NCAA process, hire a coach, land player commits just like they did in Arizona or even Penn State when they started a program from scratch. No, none of the Club players would be part of that process obviously and certainly not the coaches as they would be looking to other D-1 programs or major junior programs to hire from once the pieces get into place. The animosity is pretty apparent though. Instead of celebrating the potential of adding a new D-1 program the angry "The hockey is not NCAA hockey" stupidity is there. No one said anything about it being Hockey East. A new venue, growing the sport, maybe adding a D-1 school eventually, getting more people interested in the sport, all good things. And in the meantime the club team gets to play in a nice facility. Good for those kids and hockey.

Agreed with what you said. I'll add that for the level of interest in the sport and the quality of players available D1 should grow. Compared to the other 3 major sports there are few D1 teams.


Baaketball 347
Baseball 299
Football 130
Hockey 60


Not saying that hockey should have as many as any of them but 10 - 20 more and you would not see a drop in quality of play.

"Agreed with what you said. I'll add that for the level of interest in the sport and the quality of players available D1 should grow. Compared to the other 3 major sports there are few D1 teams."



Totally agree with you, and I would go so far to say that the word "should" in your statement could be replaced by the word "needs". Hockey in the USA continues to grow in participation and the quality of players being produced gets better and better each year yet the number of D1 hockey opportunities remains stagnant. The lack of growth in NCAA hockey places an artificial cap on the overall expansion and growth of the sport.

Imagine the amount of growth that would happen if the SEC, (entire) Big Ten, ACC, and PAC schools decided to go all in on NCAA D1 varsity hockey. Youth hockey participation would explode across the Atlantic Coast, South, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, and in the Pacific as kids would have the goal of someday playing hockey for the Tar Heels or Orange, Bulldogs or Crimson Tide, Cornhuskers or Hawkeyes, Buffalos or Ducks, etc., etc., etc.

New parents to the sport would see there is an actual opportunity to go to college playing this game instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on an activity that probably isn't going to get you anywhere. College hockey expansion would bring the sport from the fringes to the mainstream on places like ESPN who only knows the NBA, college basketball, and the NFL.


The entity that would reap the biggest benefits (aka money) would be the NHL as the number of fans and interest in the game would grow along with the fat TV contracts they'd be signing. NCAA expansion is the key to increasing participation numbers and making the game more mainstream in the USA.

I've seen this argument on here many times before. 2 years ago my son was faced with the decision of a year or 2 of juniors with the hope of varsity hockey somewhere, most likely D3 or going straight to a big school and all that comes with it (big time football/basketball games, great college town, girls...) The school he chose had no varsity hockey but a club team that was taken seriously by the players, had a coach, campus rink, fan support.... He has friends who chose the junior route and ended up at small schools they would never have chosen without hockey. Could a good D3 team beat his club? Probably, but not by much. He was and is very happy with his decision. We should be encouraging hockey at every level for whoever wants to play it.

Nobody has ever - ever - said there wasn't a place for ACHA hockey.

But, please stop deluding yourself about it being even close to D-III. Your kid made a choice, he's happy, be happy for him. If he wants to rationalize it, that's fine. When you do, you look foolish.

You also look foolish when you mention "girls" as being a reason to go to as big school. You do realize there are more guys at big schools, too. If your kid wants to improve his chances of getting a date, like, ever, there are schools that have better ratios than others. Probably small schools, in fact.

The reasons mentioned above (big time football/basketball, great college town, girls....) I think were meant to highlight the advantages of a big school like NC Chapel Hill, Georgia.... over small schools like Hobart, Conn College... If you want to argue the hockey is better then yes you have a point but the other important things (girls) don't even compare

Wow, I didn't realize times were that tough in the New England teenage dating scene that boys have to head south to get laid! I better tell my kid he should hang onto his girlfriend. Oh, wait, he already knows that.

So, great, your homely New England kid can walk around the campus with a hard-on staring at all the gorgeous girls he has no shot at dating.

Or, he can spend his tuition wining and dining some coed that's gonna dump him for an older guy with more money when she graduates anyway.

I hear the girls in the strip clubs are better looking, too. Maybe he can date one of them.

Elmira, NY vs Athens, Ga. Ever been to Elmira, or Cortland, or Oswego? Try takin your high schooler to one of these towns for a campus tour in the dead of winter. I’ve/we’ve been to them all. If playing D 3 hockey is that important to your kid (more likely you) let them have at it and spend 4 miserable years in one of these crappy, dumpy towns in the middle of nothing, paying 50k+.
Honestly, outside of a handful of these D3 towns (Middlebury comes to mind) they have one thing in common-they all suck.

Please go to the college rec / Club hockey dboard, they need you there.

We get it. Your kid got shut out of NCAA hockey after you spent 10s of thousands of dollars.

He was probably pretty good too. It just didn’t work out. It won’t work out for many people here, but please just go. You are acting like a lunatic.

Hahaha-hope your kid has a great 4 years in Norwich or whatever other dump of a school he ends up going to.

You continue to show your absolute ignorance about both schools and hockey, I don't have a kid playing D3 (actually playing DI), but if he couldn't be playing DI, Norwich would be great place for both.

Not to mention the number of really great D-I schools - for academics or for hockey - that are in places one would never describe as "garden spots."

I remember quite a bit from my undergrad and graduate school days. One thing I hardly recall is the weather.

My kid has zero desire to go to a school where he's taking English Comp 101 with 250 of his closest friends. Regardless of where he ends up going, regardless of whether he plays hockey or not, looking down on the quality of small schools is small-minded. Not for your kid? Great. Doesn't mean there aren't great choices.

Uh huh-yeah right. You’ve been to Norwich? We have, as well as all the other towns mentioned. I guess they’re nice if you happen to like being in the middle of nothing.

Congrats on your kid playing D1.

Congrats on your kid playing intramural hockey in a big rink.

Again, you show your ignorance about top schools and top hockey programs.

This Bud Light is for you Mr. Bitter Dad, the guy who sent the kid to prep hockey because 'the hockey was so frickin' good,' and whose kid was 'almost good enough' to play D-I if it wasn't for the politics, paying the D-3 tuition bill to a school no one outside of the North East has ever heard of and sitting through marginal hockey the dad believes is 'almost as good as D-I,' in a cold ice box of a rink with no fans or even a concession stand to see his kid major in Communications and date some gem who shows up to every game with her cow bell she might as well be wearing. This Bud is for you.

This is a Junior & College hockey forum, Club hockey talk does not belong in here. Please refrain from cluttering up the board with your silliness.

I sent a message to the Admin to see if they can creat s spot for you and you 5 alias to talk bout the big Lousianna Tech v. Mississippi Regional Voacational College match-up this weekend.

Fingers crossed.

Hahaha, Club IS college hockey. You know, the games with the student actually attending the games.