CANTLON: UCONN HOCKEY ARENA GETS GREEN LIT 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

STORRS, CT – The long-awaited on-campus arena eight years in the making is finally going to be built.

The UCONN Board of Trustees approved a $70 million price tag for the yet-to-be-named arena likely to be completed in the September-October 2022 time frame pending pandemic requirements and normal construction issues.

A late May groundbreaking ceremony is being tentatively planned.

The architectural firm will be JCJ Architecture in Hartford with six other national offices and the CM-Construction Manager is Turner Construction of Shelton that has offices all across the US and Canada.

However, the building will likely cost more but have less seating. It was originally conceived to cost $45 million and have 3,700 seats. So, for $25 million more the “Husky Arena” will be just 2,632 seats, just, 132 more than the 2,500 minimum required by Hockey East and a mere 83 more than the Lawler Center of Merrimack College, the smallest venue in the conference.

They didn’t shoot higher or to the top shelf either. They chose to go lower.

OTHER BUILDINGS

The Hockey East building lineup looks like this;

Boston College-Conte Forum (Built 1988)- 7.884
Boston University- Agganis Arena (Built 2005)-6,221
Maine-Alfond Arena (Built 1977)- 5,124
Merrimack-Lawler Center (Built 1972)-2,549
Northeastern Matthews Arena (Built 1909 was known as the Boston Arena till 1974)-4,747
Providence College-Schneider Arena (Built 1973)-3,030
UMASS-Amherst- Mullins Center (Built 1993)-8,373
UMASS-Lowell-Tsongas Arena (originally built 1998/Upgraded 2009)-6.003
New Hampshire-Whittemore Center (Built 1994)-6.501
Vermont-Gutterson Field House (Built 1963)-4,007

The new building has a matrix of resources that will be part of the financial equation for paying for the facility.

The arena’s $70 million budget consists of $33 million from the sale of revenue bonds, repaid from non-state sources including revenues from the facility; $20 million in donations made specifically to support the new arena; and $17 million in University funds.

UNIVERSITY CONTRIBUTIONS

The $17 million in University funds will consist of $11.5 million that UConn received from selling the former West Hartford campus and the Nathan Hale Inn – proceeds that are required to go back into capital projects and cannot go to operating expenses – and $5.5 million in operating funds from non-state sources.

Revenue bonds are tricky as the repayment is tied to a revenue stream that is negotiated for the loan to be repaid, but revenue estimates are also a tricky business. Across the country, there have been some spectacular financial boondoggles.

Arizona State University (ASU) is in the process of building a brand new 5,000-seat, Division I arena to host Sun Devils hockey. The price goes to the tune of $150 million and is set to open in 2022. The fall/early winter timeframe to replace the obsolete Oceanside Arena in Tempe built back in 1974 that has a capacity of merely 747.

Scott Jordan, UConn’s Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Financial Officer, said Wednesday that the original target for donations was about $9 million. The UConn Foundation has been working with enthusiastic supporters and remains confident that philanthropy will reach at least $20 million based on commitments already made and indications with more to come.

OTHER IN-STATE ARENAS

Downstate, Sacred Heart University in Bridgeport/Fairfield, and who play in the AHA, is building a new on-campus arena that is all privately funded at $65 million and will have 4,000 seats.

The other two state hockey arenas are on campus. Ingalls Rink, called, “The Yale Whale” for the building design in New Haven at Yale University was built and opened in 1958. The seats are all wood-back-bench-seating. At Quinnipiac University in Hamden, its People’s United Center was opened in 2007 arena and seats 3,086.

Both schools play in the ECACHL conference.

PLANS

Originally, the school wanted to build the new all-purpose arena at the corner of Route 195 and Unionville Road, but it ran afoul of the Town of Mansfield and the idea was scuttled.

The second idea was to co-join the building with Freitas Ice Forum, which seats just 1,650 or 2,000. It was built in 1998 to replace an on-campus, open-air arena, and has been the long-time practice rink for UCONN. It was the home ice this season because the XL Center in downtown Hartford was closed.

PLANS FIZZLE

That plan fizzled and the school kept getting conference waivers even though having an on-campus arena was a condition on admittance to Hockey East. It has been a long-standing issue in the conference under the previous leadership of former commissioner, Joe Bertagna.

The new arena will likely host non-conference games like Brown University and Sacred Heart and some select Hockey East games. The majority of the marque Hockey East games – like Boston College, Boston University et. al., will continue to be played at the XL Center.

UConn Head Men’s Hockey Coach Mike Cavanaugh – “First and foremost, I want to thank the University and the leadership for their commitment to this project and to our hockey program.  This is a great day for the UConn hockey program.  We are excited that we will have a new rink to call home on campus and for what that will mean to the continued growth of our program.  This will be a state-of-the-art facility that will enable our players to continue to get better every day and give our program the ability to reach the next level. This is an exciting time for UConn hockey and we can’t wait for our fans and alumni to see this first-class facility.”

WOMEN’S HOCKEY

All the games for the UCONN Women’s Hockey team – which has been a Hockey East member since the 2002-03 season will be played at the arena. The men made their entrance in Hockey East in 2013.

UConn Women’s Head Hockey Coach, Chris MacKenzie – “On behalf of our program, I’d like to thank the University’s leadership for their continued support and effort for this project. This arena will give us the opportunity to reach the highest levels of competitive success and student-athlete experience.”

CONFERENCE REACTION

The conference is pleased with today’s announcement.

“We’re excited for UConn and its hockey programs. This new facility will give them a state-of-the-art arena to practice and play in,” Hockey East Association Commissioner Steve Metcalf said Wednesday in a UCONN press release.

The bowl seating will consist of 80% with seatbacks and 20% on benches.

The key to the building will be its training facilities, which is the linchpin in recruiting will include full Division-I training and support for the women’s and men’s teams; team lounges; a dry locker area and locker rooms with video displays; locker rooms for the visiting teams; training space with a hydrotherapy area; strength and conditioning room; and other areas such as coaches’ offices, a press box, dining area, ice plant and spaces for support services.

The new facility will also have a large center-hung display scoreboard with perimeter ribbon boards and include state-of-the-art sound and lighting features.

FAN-FRIENDLY

Fans will also be able to access an ice-level lounge behind the home goaltender with café table seating and food and beverage service. A student-only standing room deck will also be situated behind the opposing goaltender.

“The new arena with its north-facing glass wall will be a beacon on game nights and serve as the capstone of the UConn Athletic District building program,” said Project Manager, Michael Schrier, UConn Director of Design and STEM Projects in the Office of University Planning, Design and Construction (UPDC).

The University had been working on plans for the new arena before the pandemic, which of course slowed the exigency of the project, and was originally slated to be built and opened for the fall of 2021.

The new plan is to have it open in the fall of 2022, but that will depend on multiple factors including whether the pandemic and any post-pandemic conditions affect the construction industry, or whether other unexpected delays occur.

NEW BUILDING SPECIFICS

The new 97,300-square-foot facility has been designed to meet all NCAA Division-I ice hockey requirements and all Hockey East regulations, which the Freitas Ice Forum does not meet in any capacity.

The current Freitas Arena will remain at its current site adjacent to the new rink. It will continue to be used for practices and other events, including UConn Recreation Club Sports ice hockey programs that play in the ACHA and some community uses.

David Benedict, UConn’s Director of Athletics, has said having on-campus games could also help build the student fan base.

“I would like to pass along my gratitude to University leadership for its continued commitment to athletics and for taking the final step in making this project a reality,” Benedict said Wednesday. “Our men’s and women’s ice hockey programs have been competing at a high level under challenging circumstances, and the future of both programs got a lot brighter today.”

The new building helps the athletic program to meet its Title IX requirements for equal men’s and women’s sports facilities.

UCONN officials have said it is also committed to maintaining the parking capacity in the Athletics District area, recognizing that parking there is tight.

OTHER ADDITIONS

As a complementary project, UConn trustees on Wednesday also approved improvements and reconstruction of the 360-space “I Lot” near Freitas to replace its pavement, regrade the base, and update necessary features such as the curbing, lighting, signage, pavement striping to address the parking crush on campus.

The improvements are set to be completed during the same timeframe as the ice hockey arena’s construction, with both openings in fall 2022 unless, as previously stated, there are unforeseen circumstances.

The final design will also include aspects to make the facility as efficient as possible in energy and water usage, in keeping with the University’s commitment to making its capital projects to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

UCONN – HOCKEY

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