D-I hockey financially unsustainable

In November of 2014, The Hockey News created a list of the top ten college club hockey teams that could make the jump to Division-I hockey. Strong club programs at Penn State and Arizona State had already made the jump and immediately have found success at the next level. Penn State is currently second in the Big Ten in points, even in front of multi-national champion Minnesota in the standings. Arizona State is in talks about a deal to play games in Gila River Arena (home of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes) and will send six players to represent Team USA in the World University Games.

Maybe surprising to many, the NC State hockey team was ranked No. 8 on this list.

“Based out of Raleigh, the Wolfpack could draw off the successful Carolina Jr. Hurricanes program, whose alumni include Canes pick Josh Wesley,” the article stated. 

While the NC State team doesn’t have the necessary talent to compete at the Division-I level now, top talent could be lured by the promise of a bigger stage. 

But could NC State really make the jump to Division-I? To assess that, the university needs to explore where and which teams the Wolfpack would compete against and more importantly, the costs associated with jump-starting the program.

The NC State hockey team plays at the Raleigh IcePlex, a small, family-centered ice skating rink a little more than 15 minutes away from NC State’s main campus. The facility itself is strikingly small, with few bleachers meaning that the majority of students stand for most of the game. The sightlines are terrible and the crowd is packed in tightly.

The fans, to their credit, are a rowdy and loud bunch that give the Wolfpack a home-ice advantage. One reason for the rowdiness may be the beer that is consumed by nearly half of the fans in attendance. However, all of this adds up to a subpar experience that would never cut it for a Division-I hockey arena. 

The NCAA requires that all Division-I hockey teams have an on-campus arena and the cost of building one would be colossal. However, NC State once had an ice hockey rink on campus.

Back in the 1960s, Reynolds Coliseum housed an ice skating rink during times when the basketball team wasn’t playing. 

According to Billy Ray Dunn, a facilities worker for Reynolds Coliseum who has been employed at State for 48 years, the workers used to pump hundreds of gallons of water into Reynolds Coliseum and then let it freeze, creating an ice rink overtop where the basketball court is.

The crew would change the surface over after the Harlem Globetrotters left in March, allowing them to house famous teams such as the Russian National hockey team in April. 

Unfortunately, the piping used for the rink has since been removed. According to Dunn, the costs to install an ice rink would be astronomical.

Another major obstacle to overcome would be the distance involved in playing road games. If the team was to make the jump to the next level, the best fit conference-wise would be the Hockey East conference due to the size of the schools affiliated and the proximity compared to the teams in other conferences. The Atlantic Hockey Conference is also a possibility but no school has an enrollment over 5,000 besides the Rochester Institute of Technology. 

Even so, the closest road trip for the Wolfpack would be Connecticut at 632 miles away. The Wolfpack would also be required to travel 941 miles to face the University of Maine. Worse, if NC State were in the Atlantic Hockey Conference, they would need to travel to Colorado Springs, Colorado—over 1,655 miles away— for a road trip every season. 

The only scenario that could allow the Wolfpack to make ends meet conference-wise would be if Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest all upgraded their club hockey teams to the Division-I level. This would give the Wolfpack conference opponents in the same state and minimize travel costs.

Unfortunately, the chances of all those schools doing so are incredibly unlikely due to financial plausibility. Even UNC, which has a budget over $82 million a year probably couldn’t afford it. 

All of these factors point to one overwhelming conclusion: The idea of Division-I hockey at NC State isn’t plausible. I find it hard to believe that the athletic department would pony up the necessary high costs to start the program, although I believe that Wolfpack nation would support it well and the Wolfpack could compete at the next level. 

Unfortunately for puck fans all throughout Wolfpack nation, it’s likely the Hurricanes will remain the only high-level hockey team in Raleigh.