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RMU cutting hockey programs


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22 hours ago, PUCKCOVID19 said:

didn't they lose a decent amount of players to transfers ? Something like 7-10 kids and it was the better ones too.... Guess a bunch of club kids will move up for a season. BUT who in their right mind would wanna go there after this rug pull?

Right. There's two issues. One is that the club they'll field this season will be a shadow of their former club.

The second is how they'll recruit anyone ever again.

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4 hours ago, Lifelongbender said:

Right. There's two issues. One is that the club they'll field this season will be a shadow of their former club.

The second is how they'll recruit anyone ever again.

Recruiting will definitely be tougher, but keep in mind there are only around 60 NCAA D1 teams, period. It's not like football, which has something like 120 teams at the top level, plus 1-AA and so on, or basketball, which has something like 350. On top of that, something like 30% of NCAA D1 rosters are Canadian players. If your choices are play NCAA D1 at RMU or don't play D1 at all, then you might just go to RMU and worry about what happens in the future when it happens. There is a huge supply of US born players for NCAA D1 Hockey.

Edited by Spear and Magic Helmet
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3 hours ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Recruiting will definitely be tougher, .........

 

........ There is a huge supply of US born players for NCAA D1 Hockey.

 

Wait, What? Huge Supply? You must be including all those faux AAA teams in your accounting..... LOL (I did say that I was bored and that I got a new canoe paddle to stir shit up with!)

Edited by GrumpyOldPucker
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17 hours ago, Spear and Magic Helmet said:

Recruiting will definitely be tougher, but keep in mind there are only around 60 NCAA D1 teams, period. It's not like football, which has something like 120 teams at the top level, plus 1-AA and so on, or basketball, which has something like 350. On top of that, something like 30% of NCAA D1 rosters are Canadian players. If your choices are play NCAA D1 at RMU or don't play D1 at all, then you might just go to RMU and worry about what happens in the future when it happens. There is a huge supply of US born players for NCAA D1 Hockey.

Will the team they do end up fielding even really be D1? In the end, no matter what happens with the program, there's no real sense in which whatever team takes the ice for them this season will really be a D1 RMU hockey team.

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17 hours ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

 

Wait, What? Huge Supply? You must be including all those faux AAA teams in your accounting..... LOL (I did say that I was bored and that I got a new canoe paddle to stir shit up with!)

Ha, very true. I just meant huge supply relative to the number of actual available D1 spots. Tons of kids in the USHL and NAHL, not so many spots to go.

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Don't forget every kid that played last year and I think the year before now have 5 years of eligability. I think there was over 300 kids in the NCAA Transfer pool this year before RMU killed the program and they wave sitting out a year to transfer for this season, not sure about next. Lot of kids in the pipeline, now scholarship money will be interesting, but I am sure they can find some kids looking for post grad and work something out, the program will bounce back quicker than you think, just like new programs starting up usally have good sucsess. early, then dip then stabalize. I'm sure RMU will find some good players, and loose a couple good players, but lets face it, if you where really good, whats the draw to go to RMU when you could go to a Big Ten teams, North Dakota, BC or BU to name a few. Rumor was RMU was going to be the main teneant at UPMC if they build the 3rd rink and finally get the facility and locker room it wanted, but not being on campus probably does not help. This is why Hunt Armory could be a good thing being close to Chattam, Pitt and CMU, maybe Duquense could work out a deal with them and Pens also and grow college hockey in Pittsburgh. It would be exciting to see a City game at the ncaa hockey level or a back yard brawl. I'm sure it will never happen as long as I am alive, but one can wish.

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I hate to be the pessimistic a$$hole here but none of this will matter because nobody will show up for the games and the program wont get the continued funding it needs and will be shut down again. Everyone wants to be a keyboard warrior for the program but when it comes to actually supporting the teams and showing up to the games, that's too much of an inconvenience. 

Or they come back and the arena is packed every night and they win the NCAA championship and Disney makes a movie about it. 

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On 7/20/2021 at 12:57 PM, forbin said:

I hate to be the pessimistic a$$hole here but none of this will matter because nobody will show up for the games and the program wont get the continued funding it needs and will be shut down again. Everyone wants to be a keyboard warrior for the program but when it comes to actually supporting the teams and showing up to the games, that's too much of an inconvenience. 

Or they come back and the arena is packed every night and they win the NCAA championship and Disney makes a movie about it. 

I think it's really hard to find time to go to these games with older kids.  The travel/game/practice schedules suck every second out of our lives during hockey season (true of the Pens too but they are drawing from a much larger probably more casual fan base). Not sure what RMU could do about it - try to feature local clubs with discounted tickets or something?   

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2 hours ago, aaaahockey said:

I think it's really hard to find time to go to these games with older kids.  The travel/game/practice schedules suck every second out of our lives during hockey season (true of the Pens too but they are drawing from a much larger probably more casual fan base). Not sure what RMU could do about it - try to feature local clubs with discounted tickets or something?   

If they had made their beautiful new basketball arena capable of being able to convert to hockey, attendance wouldn't be an issue. But, it is what it is, as they say.

Edited by powderfinger
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5 hours ago, powderfinger said:

If they had made their beautiful new basketball arena capable of being able to convert to hockey, attendance wouldn't be an issue. But, it is what it is, as they say.

Yeah, except where would the basketball team practice every day? Remember that both are winter sports and it costs a whole lot less to just turn on the lights than it does to keep a 17,00 square foot ice cube frozen.

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8 hours ago, GrumpyOldPucker said:

Yeah, except where would the basketball team practice every day? Remember that both are winter sports and it costs a whole lot less to just turn on the lights than it does to keep a 17,00 square foot ice cube frozen.

All of which is why it seems so likely that closing the D1 hockey program has been on their minds - or officially part of their plan - since the arena was in the planning stage. I still believe that they probably already had an interested buyer for the ice center when they broke ground on the basketball arena.

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34 minutes ago, aaaahockey said:

I mean this also begs the question if they could keep their program and sell the ice rink at the same time.   Im assuming a lot of this has to do with the rink itself not being profitable.  

Yeah, these two questions are why I think you'd have to be nuts to play there at this point.

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On 7/22/2021 at 7:21 AM, aaaahockey said:

I mean this also begs the question if they could keep their program and sell the ice rink at the same time.   Im assuming a lot of this has to do with the rink itself not being profitable.  

On 7/22/2021 at 7:56 AM, Lifelongbender said:

Yeah, these two questions are why I think you'd have to be nuts to play there at this point.

Who said the rink wasn't profitable? They said the NCAA teams cost too much.

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27 minutes ago, Ron Shock said:

Who said the rink wasn't profitable? They said the NCAA teams cost too much.

I was assuming it wasn't or it would offset some of the cost.  Maybe I'm crazy.  I've also heard ice rinks have small profit margins.  But you could be correct - were they planning to keep the rink but cut the team?

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1 hour ago, hockeyisgreat said:

RMU students started a petition on Change.org to have Dr Howard removed as President.  So I guess they didn't reinstate Hockey for 21-22 and are still leaving it open ended for 22-23 depending on how much fund raising gets done.

They raised $40k so far.  That ain't gonna cut it.

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On 7/21/2021 at 4:34 PM, powderfinger said:

If they had made their beautiful new basketball arena capable of being able to convert to hockey, attendance wouldn't be an issue. But, it is what it is, as they say.

Which leads us back into how this mess started where the bball boosters did NOT want hockey there. 

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On 8/15/2021 at 9:50 PM, PUCKCOVID19 said:

they never had the support, this isnt a NCAA hockey town and never will be.

This isn't an NCAA Football or Basketball town either!  I'm sure they spend a whole lot more money on Football then they did on the Hockey team.  Why didn't they cut football?

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2 hours ago, hockeyisgreat said:

This isn't an NCAA Football or Basketball town either!  I'm sure they spend a whole lot more money on Football then they did on the Hockey team.  Why didn't they cut football?

Even though I agree this isn't an NCAA football town, that program probably has a much higher profit margin.  

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Pittsburgh Hockey Family,

As you may have seen, as an update to the original discontinuation of the programs, Robert Morris has now suspended their Men's and Women's hockey programs for the 2021-22 season with hope for reinstatement.  While this is still not the full reinstatement for the year that we had hoped for, there is still hope for a return! But we need your help to do it!

The RMU Department of Athletics announced last week the "Hockey Is The Goal" campaign to encourage raising funds to support the reinstatement of the NCAA Division I men's and women's hockey programs. 

Below are the two campaigns that were announced last week. One of the campaigns is for donations and one campaign is for a Season Ticket Waiting List.. Please consider placing your name on the waiting list for season tickets to show your support today.  No credit card information or money will be collected until the programs are reinstated for either campaign.  If you are out of town, the tickets would be donated to a local charity.

22-23 Season Ticket Waiting List Information

Those interested in reserving season tickets for the 2022-23 season should a reinstatement of the programs occur are encouraged to use this link.

https://rmucolonials.com/sb_output.aspx?form=5

"Hockey is The Goal" Donation Campaign

https://www.givecampus.com/schools/RobertMorrisUniversity/rmu-hockey-is-the-goal

Thank you all so much for your support of Robert Morris hockey and let's get these programs back. #SaveRMUHockey

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