Land has been acquired, and plans have been submitted for Carolina to build their own Ice Hockey arena in Chapel Hill (probably in 2026).

Quote:CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The UNC Tar Heel Ice Hockey Booster Club released architectural renderings for a new arena that will be built at Carraway Village in Chapel Hill.

The team says the arena is scheduled to open for the 2026-2027 season.

heels to b1g ...

DEFINITIVE

Yep, Heels are gone.

It’s going to be a 2k seat arena. That would by far be the smallest Big Ten arena. Sounds about as smart as bringing our 50k seat stadium into the Big Ten smh

Smaller than the Wisconsin women’s rink!

(01-14-2024 01:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  It’s going to be a 2k seat arena. That would by far be the smallest Big Ten arena. Sounds about as smart as bringing our 50k seat stadium into the Big Ten smh

Yeah, they're not going anywhere.

(01-14-2024 02:07 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(01-14-2024 01:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  It’s going to be a 2k seat arena. That would by far be the smallest Big Ten arena. Sounds about as smart as bringing our 50k seat stadium into the Big Ten smh

Yeah, they're not going anywhere.

So you think.

(01-14-2024 02:13 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  

(01-14-2024 02:07 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(01-14-2024 01:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  It’s going to be a 2k seat arena. That would by far be the smallest Big Ten arena. Sounds about as smart as bringing our 50k seat stadium into the Big Ten smh

Yeah, they're not going anywhere.

So you think.

Right. You would definitely know more about this

Congratulations on adding a new major sport!

If I could have VT add a sport, it would be Men's Lacrosse (as the ACC is an unbelievable Lacrosse league) and Ice Hockey. Assuming we could get into a decent Hockey league. Which I don't think there are any in the South.

It’s for the club team and the Chapel Hill community. Let’s slow down a bit here. Nobody wants to watch a half arsed D1 effort

(01-14-2024 04:34 PM)esayem Wrote:  It’s for the club team and the Chapel Hill community. Let’s slow down a bit here. Nobody wants to watch a half arsed D1 effort

That is a good cover story, we'll go with that one.

(01-14-2024 01:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  It’s going to be a 2k seat arena. That would by far be the smallest Big Ten arena. Sounds about as smart as bringing our 50k seat stadium into the Big Ten smh

The Maryland men's ice hockey club plays off campus in a supposedly 600-seat ice rink, and that probably includes seats in the locker room and elsewhere in the facility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHQJNacl3is

(01-14-2024 04:38 PM)Garrettabc Wrote:  

(01-14-2024 04:34 PM)esayem Wrote:  It’s for the club team and the Chapel Hill community. Let’s slow down a bit here. Nobody wants to watch a half arsed D1 effort

That is a good cover story, we'll go with that one.

Yeah, I can't wait to watch Carolina hockey in an arena smaller than the Wisconsin women's arena be slaughtered by—I mean host—top 25 established hockey programs.

What's the cover story there, bub?

Question for the Carolina guys... Why not put ice in Carmichael? There is a lot of renovation going on. You might lose a few seats for WBB, but the capacity would get them through 5, maybe 10 years.

I've seen the plans though. It looks good!

It's possible to have a small venue which, if routinely packed with the right people, is a raucous and tough place to play. The ACC isn't short on such venues.

Cameron Indoor.
Conte Forum.
O'Keefe Gymnasium.

The 2k seating isn't a problem. The mindset where you'd willingly take on one of the more expensive non-revenue sports when football is sucking all the air out of the room and rearranging all the conferences all by itself ... that's more problematic.

(01-16-2024 10:04 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  It's possible to have a small venue which, if routinely packed with the right people, is a raucous and tough place to play. The ACC isn't short on such venues.

Cameron Indoor.
Conte Forum.
O'Keefe Gymnasium.

The 2k seating isn't a problem. The mindset where you'd willingly take on one of the more expensive non-revenue sports when football is sucking all the air out of the room and rearranging all the conferences all by itself ... that's more problematic.

Look at the newspaper article on this arena. It won't be on campus. It looks as if it won't even be owned or controlled by UNC. It's the booster club of the club ice hockey team. They say they have aspirations for NCAA Division I but no time soon. UNC isn't saying anything like that. It's saying nothing at all.

It sounds like there's one or more wealthy people in this club willing to put up some bucks for this but the idea of UNC starting a Division I ice hockey program is nuts. Ice hockey is gaining in the Triangle area due to the successful Hurricanes NHL franchise (which is probably hurting NCSU men's basketball) but not enough to make a Division I ice hockey program feasible. This isn't Minnesota or Michigan.

Let's say the ACC agrees to start and support Div 1 Hockey (I support the general idea). Would the broadcast rights of a new sport be compelled to be apart of current broadcast rights agreement with ESPN? Or could the ACC offering makes it's broadcast rights attractive to more media buyers, to drive up media rights revenue.

(01-16-2024 06:47 PM)AeroWolf Wrote:  Let's say the ACC agrees to start and support Div 1 Hockey (I support the general idea). Would the broadcast rights of a new sport be compelled to be apart of current broadcast rights agreement with ESPN? Or could the ACC offering makes it's broadcast rights attractive to more media buyers, to drive up media rights revenue.

Football is 80% or more of the revenue from broadcast rights currently.

The ACC could double the value of all non-football sports broadcast rights and still be laughably far behind B1G and SEC payouts.

Offhand .... broadcasting hockey is probably worth even less than broadcasting lacrosse in the ACC's footprint.

(01-17-2024 10:46 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  

(01-16-2024 06:47 PM)AeroWolf Wrote:  Let's say the ACC agrees to start and support Div 1 Hockey (I support the general idea). Would the broadcast rights of a new sport be compelled to be apart of current broadcast rights agreement with ESPN? Or could the ACC offering makes it's broadcast rights attractive to more media buyers, to drive up media rights revenue.

Football is 80% or more of the revenue from broadcast rights currently.

The ACC could double the value of all non-football sports broadcast rights and still be laughably far behind B1G and SEC payouts.

Offhand .... broadcasting hockey is probably worth even less than broadcasting lacrosse in the ACC's footprint.

The ACC could sponsor stock car racing...

(01-17-2024 06:25 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  The ACC could sponsor stock car racing...

ACC stock cars would be electric