Re: Oakland U Exploring Addition of Men's and Women's Hockey
The top 3 hurdles for Oakland establishing a hockey program are: 1. Funding 2. Funding 3. Funding!
Penn State added men's and women's hockey only through a gift of $100 million from oil man Terry Pegula. Oakland will need a huge cash donation, possible not a 9-figure sum like Penn State, but certainly well in excess of $50 million to have a chance of making this working.
The feasibility study is easy, find a Terry Pegula-type donation and then you have a chance to start a program. The next issue would be sustaining a program in an already crowded sports market place. Close to 90 percent of the student enrollment consists of commuter students. These are not your typical sports fans and can't be counted on to support the teams.
Good luck finding the $$$$. It would be nice to add another Division 1 hockey program, but the chances of this happening don't seem to be very realistic.
The top 3 hurdles for Oakland establishing a hockey program are: 1. Funding 2. Funding 3. Funding!
Penn State added men's and women's hockey only through a gift of $100 million from oil man Terry Pegula. Oakland will need a huge cash donation, possible not a 9-figure sum like Penn State, but certainly well in excess of $50 million to have a chance of making this working.
The feasibility study is easy, find a Terry Pegula-type donation and then you have a chance to start a program. The next issue would be sustaining a program in an already crowded sports market place. Close to 90 percent of the student enrollment consists of commuter students. These are not your typical sports fans and can't be counted on to support the teams.
Good luck finding the $$$$. It would be nice to add another Division 1 hockey program, but the chances of this happening don't seem to be very realistic.
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