Hockey at UL

[geo_cajun]

I'm not sure if this is correct, but a buddy of mine said that they will be playing in blackham and a special ice surface will be made. Does anyone else know anything because it just doesn't sound right.

[RCAJUN90]

We have a hard enough time filling up cajun field for football games, who do you think is going to go to the games? unless we had a huge influx of cannucks i didn't know about. I'm not bashing the sport of hockey, but as long as the athletic budget isn't being affected by this facade i don't care. but when the university starts putting money into this program when it could go towards new gear for baseball or football then i'll protest it.

I'll be there and dare I say buy season tickets!

[RCAJUN90]

I'm not sure if this is correct, but a buddy of mine said that they will be playing in blackham and a special ice surface will be made. Does anyone else know anything because it just doesn't sound right.

e-mail Ron Handy. I did and the guy e-mailed my back the next day.

[RCAJUN90]

Unfortunately, most of the folks who attended hockey games at the CajunDome did so because of the plethora of fights. That will not be case at the level of hockey anticipated as a club sport. I am not too certain that it would/will be supported by those fans who want to see fights, not hockey.

I was stationed for three years at Grand Forks AFB, ND and attended numerous hockey games. To be honest I can only recall one or two instances of "scraps" not fights. The hockey was topnotch and I enjoyed the games for the speed and physical play. The fan attendance was phenomenal. Of course they had a history of hockey dating way back.

Good point CC but I think the IceGators developed enough of a fan base that really appreciated the sport. Being in such a low league and getting so close but never winning it all did that franchise in. Also with the minors flooding the Louisiana market with a team in every city didn't do the franchise well. It will be interesting to see if they will like the college game (not fighting). I think it will be a success in Lafayette and might even generate revenue. Right now there is no hockey in Louisiana except for Shereveport.

[CajunCharlie]

_ Good point CC but I think the IceGators developed enough of a fan base that really appreciated the sport. Being in such a low league and getting so close but never winning it all did that franchise in. Also with the minors flooding the Louisiana market with a team in every city didn't do the franchise well. It will be interesting to see if they will like the college game (not fighting). I think it will be a success in Lafayette and might even generate revenue. Right now there is no hockey in Louisiana except for Shereveport. _

I would take in some games. I would expect the usual pulling, tugging, and banging along the boards. And I would expect on occassion for it to get rowdier. Thats okay, but the frequency of fighting that occured in Ice Gator games was not my cup of tea. I did not enyoy going to a fight and a hockey game broke out!

[keithj]

I know for sure I'll be at every home game and of course I'll need a jersey to support the team.

[RCAJUN90]

I'm not sure if this is correct, but a buddy of mine said that they will be playing in blackham and a special ice surface will be made. Does anyone else know anything because it just doesn't sound right.

I e-mailed Ron Handy a few months ago and he was talking about putting it in Blackham.

[TuffGuy84]

Little known fact about me was that I attended every Icegator game for about 4 years in a row right in the middle. I just grew up and had "more important" things to do (hey, I was jr/sr in highschool by that time) but still retained my love for the sport of hockey. I think that this sport can acctually generate some revenue, and not affect our title 9 (by being a Div II sport).

Tuffguy

[Kal]

I say if all goes well that we push for the school to get a women's gymnastics team. Once we do that, we can move the hockey team up to NCAA D1 level. Of course this is like 5 or 6 years down the road. But I love hockey and if it meant that we get a gymnastics team in the process, I don't think anyone would mind.

[Hammer58]

_ I say if all goes well that we push for the school to get a women's gymnastics team. Once we do that, we can move the hockey team up to NCAA D1 level. Of course this is like 5 or 6 years down the road. But I love hockey and if it meant that we get a gymnastics team in the process, I don't think anyone would mind. _

I can't see a sanctioned hockey team being realistic. What other teams in the area have ncaa sanctioned hockey? The travel costs to go on the road would kill us and the revenue generated would likely be nill. Where would we get the money to support this? We are struggling in terms of athletic budget as it is. In an ideal world with unliimited funding I would be all for it but I think supporters of this venture would have to come up with some solid funding for it to reach the level of a sanctioned team sport at UL.