Thursday, June 12, 2008

Hockey in the Glass City?

Bowling Green athletic director Greg Christopher hosts an online chat every two weeks or so at the Bowling Green website, and in the June 6th installment, he dropped some pertinent knowledge.

First off, the Minnesota/Bowling Green football game will start at 7:30pm, and I'm assuming the varsity game will start immediately afterwards.

More importantly, there was this Q and A:
Q: With the new hockey arena opening in Toledo next year, is there any chance of BGSU hosting an annual holiday tournament up there?
Terry in Midland, Mich.

A: We have had conversations with the arena's management on two fronts. First, BGSU Athletics and the arena have submitted a bid to host an NCAA Ice Hockey Regional in the future. It will be several months before we know if the bid was successful, but bringing a regional to our area would be a plus on several fronts...especially if the Falcons were in the field! Second, we have discussed options related to BGSU playing a home game or tournament at the new facility. Not sure if anything will develop, but having a first-rate hockey facility in our backyard is worth exploring the options.
Said new arena is the Lucas County Arena, the future home of your Toldeo Walleye, and possibly an Arena Football team.

This an extremely exciting development for a couple reasons. First, it helped lead to the demolition of the Toledo Sports Arena. Ask any former hockey player to tell their worst story about life in the minor leagues, and 95% of the time, the Toledo Sports Arena will be the setting for that story.

Second, the midwest is always desperate for neutral sites to host NCAA tournament regionals. Basically there is Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, which I think people got sick of, and recently, sites in Wisconsin, which in terms of college hockey geography, is in the west, not midwest. Toledo is pretty centrally located in CCHA-country, and could probably draw a decent-sized crowd if any number of CCHA teams made the tournament.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This an extremely exciting development for a couple reasons. First, it helped lead to the demolition of the Toledo Sports Arena. Ask any former hockey player to tell their worst story about life in the minor leagues, and 95% of the time, the Toledo Sports Arena will be the setting for that story.

And The old "Sports Pit" would more than likely be the setting of 99.9% of players best stories if they played for Toledo. That old building just reeked of history and nostalgia. Including the hoisting of the Turner Cup many times, including the time former Golpher and Herb Brooks player Mike Greeder captained the Goaldiggers. As a local hockey fan and avid college, junior, and any other hockey follower I say bring on the NCAA Regionals!

Anonymous said...

The demolition of the Toledo Sports Arena will be a sad day for anybody who grew up playing hockey in Toledo. Clearly one of the worst rinks in the world, but having grown up playing the occasional game in that rink, I can say it was a one of a kind barn and I'll be sad to see it go. But, the construction of the new arena should help grow hockey even further in northwest ohio.

Anonymous said...

Chris,
Remember Appalachian St win over Michigan.......funny.

Anonymous said...

Yeah. Can't wait to go to a regional... in Toledo.

gofalcons said...

Anon 8:21 -

Have you been to Albany? I'll take Toledo with its great zoo, world class art museum and Tony Packo's any time.

Anonymous said...

Chris,
Remember Appalachian St win over Michigan.......funny.

2:23 PM

It is the biggest upset in college football history. I will never forget all the announcers discussing the Michigan loss it was great.