Is Yahoo Kidding With Their College Hockey Site

(Check it out for yourself) When I first started up this site I was looking around for some quick access hockey pages to get up to the minute stories, interesting fluff pieces, and scores. Yahoo was one of the first I looked to since I frequent there often. Sure they have many faults, and uneven/redundent/slow reporting, but I don't see how you couldn't be happy with the amount of topics they cover over a wide variety of sports. Given that, there really is no excuse for how poor their college hockey coverage is. 

If you can make out that story above it is about the annual Beanpot tourney in Boston. Which would be great story to have on the front page, if it didn't happen a few days ago...and wasn't written by the AP instead of a staff writer. There are never any scores up, no standings to speak of, and above all else you can't get to it unless you google it. I get it is college hockey.  With only around 58 D1 teams it pales in comparison to college football and basketball.  However, it is 58 top tier, big school teams that you are missing out on. Is it too much to put an intern up to the task, a bottom of the ladder lackey trying to make a name for themself, trying to get experience? Yahoo could say that the reason they don't support it is because there isn't enough nationwide support for it. i say that's a chicken and egg thing, it's not popular so you don't put much time towards it, maybe if you put time towards it you could make it popular. 

It's time to write a formal letter...

The Unfortunate Case of the Madison Ice Muskies

This article does an excellent job of summarizing what happened to this doomed from the start franchise. It was written by Adam Hoge, who was also a broadcaster for the team and had a first hand account of the behind the scenes management, or lack thereof of the team. 

I'm not sure what it is about minor league hockey and Madison. You had the Capitols, the Monsters, the Kodiaks, and now the Ice Muskies all folding or moving, each one quicker than the previous. The Madison Capitols, although amateur, had relative success running for around 11 years during the 80's and 90's and producing NHL players like Brian Rafalski and Derek Plante. I remember going to a couple of Monster games, they seem to sell a decent amount of tickets and had some loyal fans. Maybe it was the cost of the facilities playing at the Coliseum, but they moved to Knoxville becoming the Speed. The Madison Kodiaks moved to Kalamazoo after 1 season of playing here in 2000. The Ice Muskies seem to be a different animal altogether though. Father and son "owners", Gene and John Rudolph from Chicago (go figure) somehow got $150,000 to start the team back in 2009.  It seems no one knows where this money went or if it even existed. None of the players got paid, the coach Rod Davidson was never paid and only got reimbursed for some expenses, and Hoge had a his checks bounce whenever he was able to get a hold of them and request them. Hoge and Davidson ended up taking on multiple positions to try and keep the team afloat, along with several people volunteering their time but the owners abandoned everyone and within its first season the team folded. The players were evicted from their apartments at the Regent when their promised rent checks from the Rudolphs stopped coming in. 

It's easy to focus on this apparent scam these owners were running if they really did have the money and the complete lack of professionalism on their part, but the most interesting aspect is without any real marketing to speak of people still went to the games. It may have been only a few hundred at the time, but if you would have had management with a brain what could have happened with the team? I, like a lot of other citizens in Madison, had no idea the team existed. There are people that are still trying to get the team running again, passionate fans who want to see another form of hockey in Madison. I haven't heard of any results this season, or if they were successful.  Even though it was the players that were hurt the most out of this, they still played the game with the dedication a lot of athletes say they would, but they proved that they would play for free. 

I hope those players find a way to continue to play the sport professionally and good luck to them in the future. Maybe someday semi pro hockey can be brought back to Madison with a decent management plan to give players like these a chance to reach the IHL or NHL.

Our State as Mileage Equilizer

One more reason to get a team into Wisconsin is how it impacts traveling on a team's budget. It may seem like a silly thing to use in a debate but you have to account for every kind of variable when considering this and travel adds up very quickly, with little stability. There are 41 away games in a NHL season, what could shaving a few hundred miles off the average trip save to a team's budget/energy? It may mean tens of thousands of dollars and dozens of hours, which could give you an extra a fan giveaway or two, an extra exmployee, better facilities.

AVG Distance to NHL City
Location	Miles
Wisconsin	1050
Phoenix	1825

That's 41 times you'll be traveling that extra amount. Granted you will play a majority of those games within a closer radius for your division and conference, but you could also take into account that LA is about 350 miles from Phoenix, similar for us going to St. Louis, and that's their closest. I did a hypothetical center of the state since there is only speculation where it could be taking into account where it is favored along with major interstate access. But even if we altered it for Milwaukee, it would reduce our figure above of 1050 miles. At today's gas and jet prices, not to mention the all important time, being closer would allow a little more wiggle room in budgets.  It also ensures that the teams that play us travel fewer miles and therefore their budgets would decrease too. It has gotten to that point where it is a noticeable factor. There were stories about how Green Bay Packers loses money on road trips relatively speaking.

What's the Story with the Bradley Center

A lot of the comments coming to us are all pointing the franchise towards Milwaukee.  That would even seem unlikely due to the current condition the Bradley Center is in, meaning if a team were to be started Milwaukee needs a new place to skate on. I guess the idea of just needing a slab of ice wouldn't fly. A little background on this arena:

• Home to the Milwaukee Bucks, Admirals, Marquette Men's Bball, Iron (AFL), the occasional NCAA hockey or basketball tourney and dozens of concerts every year
• Construction begin in 1986
• Initial costs of building were about $90 million
• It was opened in 1988 but is already one of the oldest NBA arenas, behind only MSG and the Oracle in Oakland, 2 others were finished in 88
• Often finds its way onto top 10 worst arena/stadiums in sports
• Built with money from Jane Bradley Pettit and Hary Lynde Bradley
• Later given as a gift to the city, and thereby state, minimizing major costs for the franchises that use it
• Originally built with the notion of getting an NHL team in Milwaukee
• Ironically the first event was an NHL game between the Blackhawks and Flames
• Needs roughly $20+ million in renovations for modernizing

Personally I've never had a great experience with the Bradley Center. I've been there about a dozen times, only 2 Bucks games and 1 hockey tournament. It was never bad for me, just average. It could have been the product I was watching though. All the seating feels awkward, steep stairs, narrow walk ways, bad angles, you name it. Although I was very excited for my first Bucks game, they were playing the Pacers and it was my first chance to see Ray Allen and Reggie Miller. If an NHL team did start in Milwaukee a new arena would be the way to go. You wouldn't have to put it downtown necessarily maybe in an area by Poto and Miller Park. Having an NHL team as well as the Bucks could help get that done. But how many arenas does a city need?

You know what, this doesn't make any sense. The arena is 22 years old and we are already calling for a replacement, for modernizing?  What is it with this notion that there needs to be all these new arenas and new stadiums. When is Miller Park going to be redeemed too run down, 7 years? Sure the Kohl Center and Miller Park have that initial fanaticism with newness but can you really replace County Stadium and the Field House in the hearts of a Brewers and Badgers fan. There is a reason they left that smaller field standing in the exact same spot in the parking lot in Milwaukee. My favorite coffee table is a solid wood one my dad made 30 years ago, I'll probably have it until the day I die. I could go to IKEA and spend $200 on some new smelling plastic but it would probably last 5 years, I'd hate it, and have to get a new one every few years. Maybe that's the problem with the Bradley Center, it hasn't achieved that kitsch, it doesn't have those great memories (yet), that sentimentality, that cult of personality that places like the Field House and Lambeau Field embody. Maybe it's because too many organizations call it home, or its original purpose has never been fulfilled, would feelings about it change if a Stanley Cup was won there? Why should a team have to be defined by its house, it should be the other way around. As with my first Bucks game, you create a great product on the floor fans for the most part will look passed little imperfections of where they are sitting and how they got there.

What will this modernizing entail? A jumbo, HD screen no doubt. But these do nothing more than tarnish the sport. I'm weary of the new cowboy stadium for that reason. I paid $200/ticket to have the live event be overshadowed by a screen almost as big as the field. What's the point of going anymore? The Brewers new screen will reportedly cost between $9 and $12 million. It's not my team but would that money be put to better use building up the farm system, bringing in extra players/personel? If they decide to go through with their updates, I wish they would use it to make better seating, maybe eliminating some to make it more spacious, opening up more parking options downtown, update locker room facilities, and make a state of the art training facility.

"The Future?" (as proposed by Lauth Property Group) 

That or they could take over the US Cellular Arena, revert back to the name MECCA, it also has its charm. If there will be scheduling problems with the Admirals move them to the MECCA. Considering they are an IHL team playing in an NHL arena. It might create that intimate atmosphere that people want when they go to semi-pro games. Even when the Admirals draw great numbers (5000-6000), it doesn't seem as great when the space is more than half empty.

What do others think of the Bradley Center?

Maybe there is more to the reason why Milwaukee has never gotten that team that they were initially striving for, maybe we need to look south for that answer...

PS I wish they would have kept County Stadium.

Introducing the Milwaukee Bocks

Last spring Puckdrawn had a competition where participants designed hockey uniforms for 6 cities in a fictional NHL expansion. The 6 cities were Hamilton, Halifax, Seattle, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Winnipeg which are probably the most likely cities to get a team next. 

Ryan Muraro (site) won in the final round of voting against the Hamilton Steelcats of Canada with his design of the Milwaukee Bocks and rightly so. Everything about this design works, not too mention a mascot as a goat would rub in that "curse" a little more for a neighbors to the south. For those that don't know (and myself) Bocks are sometimes represented by goats because Bavarians from Munich pronounced the town of Einbeck, where it was developed, as "ein Bock" or Billy Goat, probably was an insult as well.

All the Milwaukee designs can be found here, 

I almost lost it when I saw the Bavarians.  Tell me that these don’t get you excited for some hockey in Wisconsin.  I want to go out and buy those jersey and watch those teams right now.  Kind of puts my Pioneer logo to shame, maybe I should leave it to the professionals.  I liked the Milwaukee Railers.  Forget the political connotations for a second, picture a dude holding up a sign to the opposing goalie saying "we railed your mom".  Could be you…

Also we have unveiled our new look. A couple of the bigger changes, our email is now contact@nhlinwisconsin. We have gotten rid of the petition/info/design ones, since we have the forum and facebook, we also put most of the Plans into the forum so they can be discussed easier among everyone since that was the original intention of them. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, and comments.

Ideas? Thoughts? Questions? We want to make this with as much fan participation as possible, so please contact us by emailing contact@nhlinwisconsin.com.

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http://www.nhlinwisconsin.com