People are concentrating too much on the "Central Illinois" aspect and not enough on the "Chicago" aspect. Ultimately, Illinois is a school that has more Chicago area students than virtually all of the schools that are actually located in Chicago. Once again, just like Penn State previously before it moved up to Division I, the Illinois club hockey team *sells out* its games regularly. There's already a longstanding culture of attending even lower level hockey games on campus (similar to Penn State). The school's students are also Chicago-centric and hockey interest has boomed over the past decade due to the success of the Blackhawks. How USHL teams have performed in Central Illinois is pretty much irrelevant when it comes to Illini support. The Lord Stanley's point, the Block I on the jersey actually does matter greatly for the same reason why we have boards like this that discuss college sports 24/7/365 as opposed to minor league baseball and hockey or G-League basketball.

This really isn't much of a risk for Illinois. The only big issue is where the upfront capital costs will come from. As long as those are covered, it's honestly as close to a no-brainer as there is out there as far as athletic department expansions go.