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It kills me that womens hockey is taking off and realy getting some good fan n¨mbers yet here we sit with no plan to add it...just drop track or some other sport and do it all ready, hes said we need the revenue so we should have a womans sport that actually draws fans,and the chance of being a revenue generator and with the youth hockey program adding girls hockey this year and the fact that girls hockey is growing wicked fast, the time is now.

A certain school in Columbus has a women's hockey program that loses $750,000 every year and draws NOBODY. I don't think BG can take that kind of hit right now.

BTW, women's hoops and volleyball draw pretty well.

While your love for the great sport of hockey is obvious, I don't think you are being realistic. There aren't many sports in this world that are as expensive as hockey. Aside from the equipment and the travel and the coaches salary, think ice time. I don't think there is any chance of drawing enough fans to make a profit there.

Besides that, track and swimming are much bigger sports for Ohio high school girls than hockey will ever be.

Sorry Macman, this would never work here and rarely does anywhere else. Hockey is allready a fan particular sport adding women's hockey would drain our AD budget even more. What sport would you suggest drop anyway, tennis, swimming? Its just not worth it, our own men's hockey fanatics wouldn't care much about it not to mention the casual fans who would care even less.

falconboy wrote:Its just not worth it, our own men's hockey fanatics wouldn't care much about it not to mention the casual fans who would care even less.

Same could be said for women's bball, but yet here we are, they've provided us with an outstanding run, tremendous fan support, and a reason to watch.

I'm not saying women's hockey is an idea that would fly, mostly because it's more expensive equipment-wise than hoops, but you're wrong in the thinking that no one would care.

Is there even any interest? I do not live in Ohio, but how many high schools offer hockey?

When would the women's team practise? I remember playing intramural hockey at midnight because of usage from the varsity and club teams.

In Indiana, there are only a handful that offer men's hockey in high school.

Probable most midwest states are similiar.

Lets worry about the mens team. We had many crowds last year that were barely over 1,000 fans and that might have even been a stretch. A DI team in the CCHA should not barely outdraw the local HS team.

I dont think BG is a womens hockey market, plus the travel cost of joining the only womens league in the midwest would be enormous. There are no direct flights from BG to Bemidji St.

Good idea but definetly not feasible with the facility renovations on the horizon and small market of BG

as far as growth goes, this year ottawa hills is adding team, 3 other toledo area schools are laying the ground work for their womens teams.

Imagine what would have happened if in its beginnings BG fans had same thing about the mens program...it happened. womans hockey is growing fast...so fast its being called by some to be the fastest growing womens sport.

ice is not an issue, the womens club team gets out there.
its just a matter of removing some other womans sport
we have a new logo...a new tradition..the ad is all about new traditions so why not put up and get on with it and again be in the front runners.

Local teams really dont have much to do with it. Most of the women DI players come from Europe and Canada. Take a look at some of the WCHA rosters. Many US womens college players have olympic experience.

Eliminating a cheap sport such as track would not justify adding womens hockey.

If your house and garage are falling apart you dont buy a new car.

MACMAN wrote:as far as growth goes, this year ottawa hills is adding team, 3 other toledo area schools are laying the ground work for their womens teams.

Imagine what would have happened if in its beginnings BG fans had same thing about the mens program...it happened. womans hockey is growing fast...so fast its being called by some to be the fastest growing womens sport.

ice is not an issue, the womens club team gets out there.
its just a matter of removing some other womans sport
we have a new logo...a new tradition..the ad is all about new traditions so why not put up and get on with it and again be in the front runners.

No MACMAN. Ice really is an issue. Imagine what would happen if the University gave a varsity program the same ice time that the women clubbers get? All hell would break loose. No club team practices the same amount that a varsity team needs to. Imagine a varsity team starting practice around 11:30 p.m.

Also, what other paying customers would you bump off the sheet? Remember that most of those people actually pay for their ice time.

dannyk wrote:Lets worry about the mens team. We had many crowds last year that were barely over 1,000 fans and that might have even been a stretch. A DI team in the CCHA should not barely outdraw the local HS team.

They did outdraw the men's basketball team. Again.

I don't see a women's sport getting cut. Period. I'm sure there would be some kind of Title IX issue, even if you are replacing it with another women's sport.

Using track as an example, the budget of track is SIGNIFICANTLY less than would be the bugdet to run a hockey team, plus track teams carry more athletes than hockey teams do (and here's where Title IX would come in with the number of athletes). The same could be said for swimming.

On the flip side, the budget for a women's hockey team would be somewhat close to the budget of a men's team and therefore good for the spendingwise part of Title IX.

But budgeting aside, I can't see a university that has 60% female enrollment and has a football team cutting any women's sport, even in favor of another women's sport.

If BG were to add another female sport, my guess is it would be either lacrosse or field hockey. Lacrosse is growing in popularity all across the nation; the MAC sponsors field hockey. Those just seem more likely choices to me.

Solution: add women's hockey and men's track*. Men's track at BG has history and tradition on its side.







*Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

Yep...let's add them both along with a few million dollars to the athletics budget.

Rightupinthere wrote:Solution: add women's hockey and men's track*. Men's track at BG has history and tradition on its side.







*Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

I was sorry to see men's track go. That seems like a sport that all colleges ought to have.