As the University looks to invest money in the aging Joyce Center, a few questions need to be asked. First of all, an arena that admittedly was built too small is now going to be losing seats. Second of all, the hockey arena has been deemed inadequate and needs to be moved away from the other inhabitants of the North Dome. They want to build a new hockey arena. Has the idea ever been considered to fix both problems with one construction?
Rather than build a new hockey arena, take the South Dome, which currently houses the basketball arena, and turn that into a nice and permanent hockey arena. The seating would be adequate for a good-sized arena that would rival the quality of conference foes such as Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan etc. As for the money that would be spent on the renovations of the Joyce Center and on a new hockey arena, use that plus additional funding to build a new state-of-the-art basketball arena. Under this plan you would be utilizing the limited space that we already have in the Joyce Center and would have nice and adequately sized arenas for both basketball and hockey. I would think that the University should step back and look at a plan that's best for both programs, instead of one that still creates problems in limited seating and adequate arenas for both.
Tom Staudt
freshman
O'Neill Hall
Oct.6
