Hockey at UL

[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.

[Kal]

_ 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. _

You never know what may happen in the next 5 or 6 years. Gerald is doing some really great things with fundraising. Not to mention that we will be having a new president in the next year or so. I'm not gonna hold my breath, but I am going to be optimistic. If the hockey team can garner some decent support, I can see us moving up to D1 in the future. We also just got a budget increase. Now I know that that increase has to go where it is needed and right now that is not to a hockey program. But we don't know what the future holds for UL. I'd like to think that there is room for a D1 hockey program at this university somewhere down the line. I also like to think that the community would support it. I know the die hard fans of the icegators would. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with being hopeful and optimistic.

[Hammer58]

_ Like I said, there's nothing wrong with being hopeful and optimistic. _

Nothing wrong with it at all. I'm just trying to look at it realistically. Even with our recent budget increase and assuing Doc or the new Prez would allow am athletic fundraising organization to be formed I think we would have to double or even triple our budget before we could consider it. As for the icegator fans, I don't know that they will all translate into UL fans. Having said all tht, I hope in a few years we have tripled our budget and can have this conversation for real. Like you said, nothing wrong with being hopeful and optimistic.

[RCAJUN90]

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.

The IceGators made an awful lot of money for an awful long time in Lafayette. Good point about travel costs.

[Hammer58]

_ The IceGators made an awful lot of money for an awful long time in Lafayette. Good point about travel costs. _

That they did. I just don't know if we could count on all of those icegator fans to support a UL team and have that translate into the same type of funding. I also think that a lot of us (myslef included) came for the rough style of play that the ECHL allowed. I don't think NCAA teams can play that rough, brawling style. So would the ECHL fan follow a more mainstream form of hockey? I have my doubts.