Hockey

Wed Jun 04, 2014 8:57 pm

I'm watching the Stanley Cup right now....pretty good game. It got me thinking though.....at the NCAA level, a lot of cold weather areas understandably dominate at hockey. North Dakota, Michigan, etc....it's pretty common. Why is that Wyoming, who obviously has hockey weather pretty much the entire school year, doesn't play hockey at the NCAA level? I can understand the reasoning behind no baseball, but no hockey? Consider me ignorant on the topic.

Wed Jun 04, 2014 10:07 pm

Title IX may be a good start.

Wed Jun 04, 2014 10:31 pm

Money! Hockey is an expensive sport, probably 2nd most expensive to football. Not to mention that there aren't a lot of close teams: DU, CC, AFA, UND and Nebraska-Omaha are about it west of the Mississippi.

Wed Jun 04, 2014 11:50 pm

Do any of the high schools in Wyoming even have hockey? If not, that's probably why the university doesn't sponsor it. Oh, and Title IX.

Thu Jun 05, 2014 12:41 am

There's actually about 10 teams in the state at the high school level. It's a club, not varsity, sport.

Thu Jun 05, 2014 8:53 am

WestWYOPoke nailed it. Think about it; hockey has to be played on ice. Winters get cold around here, but inconsistently cold. There are no ponds or lakes that freeze over and stay stable all winter. Therefore you have to have an ice rink, which is easily the most expensive playing surface in sports to maintain. After that you run into equipment costs. Pads are fairly inexpensive for hockey, but only shoulder pads and gloves can truly be passed on to another player. Helmets have to be carefully inspected annually, kids grow out of skates quickly, and sticks break left and right.

I would have loved to play hockey, but living in a small town there was just no opportunity. I'm willing to bet that there are literally thousands of other people from Wyoming that have a similar story.

Tue Jun 17, 2014 6:36 pm

As both a U of North Dakota (7 time national champs at the HIGHEST level...Go Sioux!) and a Wyoming (Go Pokes!) alum, I'd love to see D-I hockey in Laramie. But, realistically, it probably won't happen for reasons already pointed out.

Title IX...which boils down to $$$. Hockey is expensive. Plus, the competition in the winter with basketball and wrestling. Only so far the Wyoming sports dollar and population will stretch.

However, one nice thing about hockey is the up and coming abundance of talent from the USA. Kids all over are playing and competing at a higher level. Seeing kids on the UND team from California, New Jersey, Florida, etc., makes you realize that Canada isn't the only recruiting ground. So, if a team would somehow get started in Laramie, I think with the proper financial support, facilities and coaching staff, they could recruit and compete effectively.

Just my

Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:05 am

WestWYOPoke wrote:There's actually about 10 teams in the state at the high school level. It's a club, not varsity, sport.

Which is a travesty IMO. It should be a high school sanctioned sport - like it is in Colorado. There is plenty of money in the high school / school district system to fund at least part of it. Wyoming high school (referred to Midget-level hockey) is a blast to watch if you haven't taken it in. Here is a link to Wyoming hockey - looks like there are 11 teams:

http://www.wyohockey.com/

Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:00 am

One way to get around the money for a rink would be to have the university and city of Laramie join together and build a rec center with a rink, similar to the Rock Springs rec center. Build the rink to hold 2-3k, which would be sufficient. It could be open to the public during off season and even during the season, jus closed to the public during practice and games. That's what they do for HS club hockey in Rock Springs. It would take a few years to pay itself off, but it would be getting paid off whenever its doors were open to the public and attendance for games. And if you bring in opponents like Denver, North Dak and Minnesota people would come. If Denver and North Dak can stretch their attendance from wrestling, basketball and hockey, WYO could aswell. This is something that should be brought to attention at Cowboy Joe Club meetings. Find out what donors and fans are for it and go from there.
Honestly, Laramie is pathetic when it comes to attractions. A city of 30k with no mall, and no rec center. Hardly anything for anyone to do outside of the university.

Sat Jun 28, 2014 6:34 am

kansasCowboy wrote:One way to get around the money for a rink would be to have the university and city of Laramie join together and build a rec center with a rink, similar to the Rock Springs rec center. Build the rink to hold 2-3k, which would be sufficient. It could be open to the public during off season and even during the season, jus closed to the public during practice and games. That's what they do for HS club hockey in Rock Springs. It would take a few years to pay itself off, but it would be getting paid off whenever its doors were open to the public and attendance for games. And if you bring in opponents like Denver, North Dak and Minnesota people would come. If Denver and North Dak can stretch their attendance from wrestling, basketball and hockey, WYO could aswell. This is something that should be brought to attention at Cowboy Joe Club meetings. Find out what donors and fans are for it and go from there.
Honestly, Laramie is pathetic when it comes to attractions. A city of 30k with no mall, and no rec center. Hardly anything for anyone to do outside of the university.

I would love to see D-I hockey at both UW and CSU. (Budweiser Events center is nearby. I'm not a big fan of the Eagles, but I love college hockey and would like to see games played there.)

Just a small point here. Denver U and UND do not have wrestling. UND draws 11,000+ per hockey game (See the arena here: http://www.theralph.com/the-ralph/video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) and about 3000 for basketball. Denver draws about 5000 per hockey game and probably about 3-4000 per basketball game. (that number needs to grow for UND in D-I) Both schools have women's basketball. UND has women's hockey as well. Denver does not.

DU doesn't have the overall community support in the metro area that both UW and UND have. in that respect, I could see Laramie embracing a new D-I hockey program. Yeah, you would need to stretch attendance, but having a rink with only 2 to 3000 seats wouldn't cut it in D-I hockey. You need about 5,000 seats to pull it off. Getting UND and Denver to Laramie for a game would be difficult for a beginning program. Both programs are well established and elite. They might come as a favor to help a beginning program. I've seen that happen. Minnesota? No. They only travel to smaller programs in the state of Minnesota. But, usually a well established program, like the one in Grand Forks, would have a beginning program come there for a weekend series.

UW's biggest concern would be getting into a conference. Air Force plays in the Atlantic Hockey Association. Their games are all with teams from the East. Major travel costs. The WCHA lost major players when Big 10 hockey formed and the NCHC came as a result. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska Omaha, UND, Colorado College, Denver, Minnesota-Duluth and St. Cloud State all left to join those conferences. Those conferences are out of UW's reach.

If UW could get into the WCHA, which I think would be the best option, there would still be major travel costs. Games would be played as far away as Alaska (Fairbanks and Anchorage), Houghton, Michigan and even at Alabama-Huntsville. But, I think UW could be competitive more quickly in this league.

I think it's do-able. If the money is available to do it. It's not cheap. Hockey is an expensive sport.

Mon Jun 30, 2014 10:58 am

kansasCowboy wrote:Honestly, Laramie is pathetic when it comes to attractions. A city of 30k with no mall, and no rec center. Hardly anything for anyone to do outside of the university.

Last time I was there (Laramie) - they had a newer rec center, an new ice center, and there was quite a bit to do...some great city parks, river fishing, lakes, mountians, hiking, biking, etc.

Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:41 pm

McPeachy wrote:
kansasCowboy wrote:Honestly, Laramie is pathetic when it comes to attractions. A city of 30k with no mall, and no rec center. Hardly anything for anyone to do outside of the university.
Last time I was there (Laramie) - they had a newer rec center, an new ice center, and there was quite a bit to do...some great city parks, river fishing, lakes, mountians, hiking, biking, etc.

Rec Center is now 10 years old. Got a thing in the mail the other day they were doing a thing on that. There's plenty of fishing around town (even a bit in town), beatiful parks to go to, movie theaters (BTW, the cheap seats Wyo Theater is being renovated), Jubilee Days (now people can have an excuse for being drunk in the middle of Down Town Laramie), and other things.

Mon Jun 30, 2014 4:51 pm

I love Laramie. One of the best places in the state to live, in my opinion. I would move back in a heartbeat if I could find a job in my career that would make it worth my while.

Mon Jun 30, 2014 6:06 pm

WYO1016 wrote:I love Laramie. One of the best places in the state to live, in my opinion. I would move back in a heartbeat if I could find a job in my career that would make it worth my while.

I feel the same for my hometown of Casper.

Wed Jul 02, 2014 8:17 am

WYO1016 wrote:I love Laramie. One of the best places in the state to live, in my opinion. I would move back in a heartbeat if I could find a job in my career that would make it worth my while.

Don't feel you have to answer - but what is your career, and where are you living now?

Wed Jul 02, 2014 11:00 am

McPeachy wrote:
WYO1016 wrote:I love Laramie. One of the best places in the state to live, in my opinion. I would move back in a heartbeat if I could find a job in my career that would make it worth my while.
Don't feel you have to answer - but what is your career, and where are you living now?

I'm an insurance agent. I live in Pine Bluffs, work in Cheyenne. The trick with insurance is it's all commission based. It's hard to find a guaranteed base salary, but I've got a guaranteed base with the company I'm at now. It would take a pretty good bump in that guaranteed salary to get me over the hill to Laramie because my bills living in Pine are way cheap.

Wed Jul 02, 2014 12:13 pm

Speaking of moving to Laramie, avoid moving to the Pointe Apartments that are behind Albertsons and McDonalds. You have to sign a year long lease agreement and pay $500 a month to have a community share apartment (you only get a bedroom for privacy) and to top it all off, they were not built to code, to the point where people aren't even supposed to be living there. Right now the City Council is trying to figure out how to get people out of their lease agreements so they can get the hell out of those apartments, it's that bad.