UAA Hockey Arena: My Penultimate Words

Let's talk about arenas shall we?  I don't really want to but there's a hubbub.  It's not something I'm fond of doing as my blogging style lends itself more to the rant & rave milieux. Getting a dumb parking ticket at the University while trying to delve into the whole issue doesn't exactly get my juices flowing so expect this to be my personal next to last words on the subject. My last words with regard to arenas will be an announcement of an on campus standalone arena for UAA Hockey.  I will now endeavor to simplify the process here for everyone's mutual benefit and edification.

Eric Tuott's ADN Compass: Add Ice To Sports Center

Last Thursday, UAA Seawolves Alumni Eric Tuott sent me (for my perusal) his submission to the Anchorage Daily News Compass page which is their section for opinion from the community.  The piece focuses on the proposition that the approved new UAA Sports Center include an ice rink.

Active Thursday Reading

Writing is a sedentary sport. There's two things moving around. My eyes and my fingers. Reading usually only requires your eyes. Today though I'm asking something specific of you beyond eyeball movement and comprehension. This thread regarding the proposed new arena over at The UAA Fan Forum is the genesis for this post. With the run-up to the season and my generally busy fingers I hadn't thought much about the arena. One of the fine folks who comments here sporadically mentioned this a while back and my thought was," cool, thanks for mentioning it; I've already forward my thoughts." But that was it. I should have dedicated a post to the whole thing and didn't. I'm rectifying that now.

There's a lot to say about the new rink without mentioning the budget cutting drama that we went through over the summer. I first mentioned a new Arena back in July 2006 when I had no idea it was being considered. In February of this year I posted an update which included a link to the "masterplan" which talked about the arena. Then in April (thanks to Wolfman who BTW is soon to be on his way to lovely Iraq) I posted the preliminary drawings. Since that time the Governor vetoed some requested funds saying that UAA had the money already. So the UAA Administation moved forward and the planning process is still underway. More important than any of that stuff (which we all pretty already know) is this page at Go Seawolves which says:

UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer has created a planning team to develop a comprehensive plan for determining location, design, funding, construction, operation, traffic and parking, and other assorted elements associated with a multi-use sports arena. Bill Spindle, interim vice chancellor for administrative services, heads the planning team. The planning process is expected to take up to one year to complete.

"We will involve the UAA family, our neighbors and the Anchorage community in this process,” said Chancellor Ulmer. “Construction of a sports complex to meet both the needs of our students and the Municipality is an important step in strengthening community partnerships and developing the Anchorage campus.”

Preliminary discussions within the UAA athletic community have occurred over the past several years, the result of which are several preliminary sports complex and arena concepts. Artists’ renderings, available online at GoSeawolves.com, show some of the designs the planning committee will consider.

The preamble to all that is why I'm writing today. It says (in nice bold type):

UAA is interested in your thoughts, concerns & ideas regarding the proposed new multi-use sports arena.

Between that preamble and the announcement above is the meat of the matter. It's a link to an email address which I'm hoping that each of my fine regular readers will exercise after reading this sentence. The email address is:

meagan.olson@uaa.alaska.edu

So if you're reading this sentence then I'm assuming that you've opened your email application or webmail site and that you've typed in the address and added your thoughts in support of the arena then hit the "SEND" button. Chancellor Fran Ullmer is hoping that you have. Arena Planning Administrator Bill Spindle would like to hear from you. And I've no doubt that Athletic Director Steve Cobb wants your input. The entire community of UAA athletes and staff need you to do this. Building this arena isn't a process that happens without community input and support.

So I'm asking that today you become an Active Reader and participate in the process. Tell 'em all what you think. If the Arena can't be built fast enough for you, tell them that. If you believe that it's important for the schools identity to provide quality facilities for its students and athletes, tell them that. If you want to see some specific feature incorporated into the joint, tell them that. If you want to see the facility named after the hockey programs founding father Brush Christiansen, tell them that. If you're the CEO of a large multinational corporation and you want to donate millions to help get it done, tell them that. If you're an alumni of the program and know how much it will benefit all sports at UAA, tell them that. If you're a Blueliner Booster Club member or just an itinerant fan and you're excited to get a quality venue, tell them that. If you're primarily an Aces fan and hope to see 10,000 people in a rink cheering during an ECHL season, tell them that. If you're a fan of college hockey in general and live in Minnesota, Colorado, Georgia, Maine or Timbuktu and you know a new UAA arena is a good thing for the sport in general, tell them that. Whether it's 10 words or 1000 lets fill up that email inbox eh?

With filling that inbox as a goal, I've created the leaflet to the left that I'm hoping to print and pass out at UAA games. I figure I've got somewhere around 500 readers. But every weekend around 8 times more people than that show up at the Sully to watch the team.

I thought printing something like the following and passing it out this weekend would be a good idea. Let me know if you're interested in helping in any way. Can you print a thousand? Help pay for a thousand? I figure 4 leaflets to a single 8 by 10 sheet and four people distributing them before the games is what's needed. Click on the picture to see a bigger picture of the leaflet. If you want to help email me or text me using the text widget. I don't know if we can get this done before this weekend's games but if we don't the next home games aren't until the end of November.

Doing this sort of thing isn't necessarily one of my strengths. I like to think of myself as mostly an idea guy; but I'm willing to do whatever legwork is necessary to help get as many emails into the planning committee's email inbox as possible. I'm hoping I have an active reader or two (or four) that feel this is a good idea and want to participate. Do I?

UAA Arena in the Daily News

The benefit of writing a less bombastic (and less polarizing) piece about UAA's need for a new arena is that the ADN will actually print it. Of course, it helps that the author of the article is the the Vice-Chancellor in charge of arena planning. Here's the text of what Bill Spindle wrote in a Compass article which was printed in Sunday's Daily News.

UAA is the largest campus in the University of Alaska system -- serving more students than the rest of the system combined -- and we continue to grow. More than 15,000 students seek undergraduate and graduate education at UAA's Anchorage campus. We are Alaska's biggest source of career and technical education and work force training; its major provider of baccalaureate education in the arts, sciences, and professions; and its largest source of graduates at the master's level. We also have a vibrant, on-campus community of almost a thousand students, which we hope to double in size over the next 10 years.

To meet the needs of this growing university, we must have adequate infrastructure. The state has provided funding for crucial projects including the Consortium Library and the Integrated Science Building. There are critical needs that have not been met, however, including a large deferred maintenance bill and a new health care education facility to accommodate the explosive need and growth in health care fields. We also need more classroom space for programs like engineering, which has tripled its size in three years.

We cannot overlook another important priority as we continue to grow: providing strong wellness, exercise, recreation and intercollegiate athletics programs that serve our students, faculty, staff and the Anchorage community. Our current facilities are too small for a community of our size. The sports complex was built 30 years ago for a community college with a student body of just a few thousand. Now this facility is expected to serve the needs of more than 15,000 students and a community of nearly 300,000.

We have the highest enrollment of any Great Northern Athletic Conference team and the least available seating. Our hockey team plays in a rented facility competing with other programs. We have limited teaching space and no classrooms for our growing Health, Physical Education and Recreation academic programs. Our athletes' weight training facility is a small converted racquetball court. Students have access to a fitness room on a limited schedule, competing with physical education classes. Our entire gymnastics program is housed off campus. Our students have never seen a home track meet.

Our fans and student athletes are loyal and patient, but they deserve better. Time and time again, improved sports and recreational facilities have taken a back seat to more pressing infrastructure needs.

Building a sports arena would provide the space for our student athletes to practice, compete and succeed. It would provide our students adequate recreation space. It would contribute to a thriving on-campus student life. It would draw community members on campus through athletic events, recreational opportunities, concerts, lectures and more.

There will be a public process to develop a final concept for the sports arena. Community input is essential. What will result is another campus facility that inspires pride in our students, alumni and community. We will consult with key internal and external community groups. As we should for any capital project of this scope, we will pursue private funds to support the sports arena. A great city and a great state need a great university, and we are committed to doing our part to meet that promise.

Note that Bill is smart enough to stay away from the issues which I was unable to leave out of my Compass submission. Regular people don't really want to hear some loudmouth nobody (me) tell them that their state is flush with resources when the politicos have spent so much time telling them over and over how broke the state is. In any case, it's better than excellent that Mr. Spindle's piece was printed since it contains all the salient rationale that makes this an important project for the school and community.

Governher Shoots and Palin Saves?

Could I have mistaken the Governher's matter of fact (pretty much smug) demeanor on the TV yesterday? I'm frankly not sure this morning. But perhaps a journalist may have just proven me a bit hasty in my judgement. You decide I guess ...

Here's the two key quotes from Andrew Hinkleman's story today in the Anchorage Daily News. Hinkleman says the Governher said that there is nothing to stop UAA from continuing to plan for a new sports complex.

"Within the university's funding level that the state and the legislature already agreed to, the million-dollar plan for a new sports center will come out of that, not a special appropriation," she said. "We're making sure ... they are able to find the funds that are already there, already having been appropriated by the legislature and our administration."

"I'm all for sports arenas," Palin said. "(But) the university has a billion-dollar deferred maintenance project list, so we need to make sure we're addressing deferred maintenance on existing structures as we weigh the need for new facilities."

So ... um. My interpretation of all this? She's telling the University to go ahead and spend the money out of this years already allocated budget. She saying her adminstration will make sure it helps the University find the funds in the current appropriation. Is that what she is saying? I'm not sure... lemme be rhetorical here. It seems to me that part of "fiscal responsibility" ought to be a proper accounting for expenditures made by the government. Isn't it? So in the spirit of that effort shouldn't entities like UAA breakdown their budgetary requests? You know .... so everyone knows where the money went. Does the Governher think the University can just pull 1,000,000 bucks out of it's ass? Can they? If this item had been in the "General" budget allocated to UAA would we be having this problem? Is this all just some doublespeak since the second quote greatly obfuscates the first one?

Why does she tell the press (Hinkleman) all this on Thursday night at the Alaska Wild game but UAA officials seem to be unaware of it on Friday when the paper calls them for comment on the veto she signed midday on Friday? Someone pinch me ... I just need to know if I'm concious.

And I thought that weird optical-illusion pic I used the other day was convoluted. Is it just me?

Governher Palin Screws UAA

The Governher vetoed a quarter-billion dollars from the state budget today. Included in her wide-ranging cuts was the one-million dollars UAA officials had hoped to get in order to begin the planning for UAA's proposed new arena. She said nobody should be surprised and I for one aren't. "Now is the time to save for the future," she said. She repeated it. "Live within our means" was another of her sound-bytes. I'm laughing out loud at the complete and total hypocrisy of that horseshit. Our "means"? It's an effective bit of rhetoric since I'd venture to guess that 75% of people in Alaska aren't really aware of what "our means" are.

The reality of the fiscal situation in Alaska is pretty positive. Not only is there 39 billion dollars in the "savings account" the ongoing revenue picture is generally as rosy as it has ever been. While other states struggle with increasing income taxes our fine state is FLUSH with money ...

39.3 billion dollars invested in the Permanent Fund
-projected to be 48 Billion by 2013

2.39 billion in revenues for 2008
-Thats 60% more than 2007

2.2 billion in the budget reserve
-Money set aside from previous years

I'm not going to search through other state's revenue numbers but I highly doubt that per capita there is a state in the U.S. in better shape than Alaska. 2 billion dollars a year in revenues without taxing a single person in the state? That's nothing less than fucking sweet! But yeah ... it's time to save for the future because the 39.3 billion in our savings account isn't growing fast enough. It's only going to grow 1.5 billion a year? Man ... what the hell is up with that? Do any of us really have an idea of how much a billion dollars is. Here's how much ...

If you spent a dollar every minute it would take 1900 years to spend it.
A stack of a billion one dollar bills would reach the edge of space.
A billion ones could "wallpaper" the entire Transalaska Pipeline with enough leftover to buy a sweet Lambroghini.
Counting a billion dollars at the rate of one per second would take 30 years.
If you earned $1000.00 a day it would take more than 2,700 years to reach a Billion.

And the State of Alaska has 39.3 of those billions? Nearly every penny of that $39,346,700,000 is invested outside of Alaska. The state owns a shopping mall in Virgina as part of the $3,762,200,000 (3.7B) it has invested in real estate. $11,527,500,000 (11.5B) invested in the U.S. Stock market. $5,401,300,000 (5.4B) in international stocks. $9,332,700,000 (9.3B) in U.S. Bonds. Apparently, the Permanent Fund Corporation doesn't see much potential to investing in Alaska since it has the pathetically low total of $169,300,000 (.16B) invested in Alaska. We Alaskan's only pay attention to the dividend that these huge investments pay us. When the State spews it's paltry $60,000,000 (.06B) to it's citizenry every year it is getting exactly what that money was intended to get ... silence from the sheep.

The "Rainy Day" fund started 30 years ago in order to buttress the State in times of need has turned into nothing other than the plaything of high-powered money management specialists whose goals are nothing more than to keep the fund growing at the highest possible rate. The promise of the past has died. This chick isn't the first greedy asshole to toss a shoveful of shit onto the Permanent Fund coffin and she won't be the last.

This fiasco (I mean orgy of self-gratifying masturbatory gubernatorial power flexing) has little to do with "fiscal responsibility". It has little to do with satisfying her core republican constituency. It has everything to do with flexing her muscles. Power corrupts. We've all seen the results of corruption the past few months. We've seen some of the "mighty" fall. We thought we got rid of a hubris-filled asshole when we threw Murkowski out on his arrogant ass. Unfortunately, we (I shouldn't include myself since I didn't vote for the chick) turned around and elected someone who (rather than live up to her responsibilities to represent the people of the state) is more interested in showing everyone how tough she is. It's funny how early supporters of her highness didn't see the same level of cuts in their districts. Politics as usual in Alaska. Give someone power in this state and you can guarantee it will fill their head with visions of their own self-deluded greatness. If you were one of those people that thought perhaps a new generation of leadership in this state would add to progress you were seriously mistaken. This chick is all about consolidating her personal political power in much the same way as Murkowski (and that piece of shit Dubya) have done.

But hooray for "fiscal responsibility" eh?

UAA Arena Update

Where we at? I can't say how many times I've cringed when someone has "aks" me that question. Is that supposed to be some sort of quicker/easier way of asking "Where are we?". What? ... it saves one whole letter of the alphabet? I'm all about being concise (actually I'm not but for the purposes of this mini-rant it works to say I am ...) but is saving one frigging letter really worth destroying grammar? Sorry, I'm sure my "street-cred" will suffer ... oh well. I'm not big on literary and/or verbal "September Eleventh" references being condensed to "Nine-Eleven" either. Wow ... thanks for saving me a syllable. If "December 7th" was good enough for the generation that preceeded mine then "September 11th" sure ought to be good enough for this one ... Nobody would consider referencing Pearl Harbor with "Twelve-Seven" would they? I'm not enamored.

So here's where we are: The UAA Northern Light has this update on the status of the new arena's funding in today's issue. It doesn't really contain much new for anyone who's followed this issue closely but it is definitely nice to have some folks on the record about the project. Interim Vice-Chancellor of Admistrative Services Bill Spindle says,

"It's the first step in a lot of steps ..."
"We've always talked about (building on) the south side of Northern Lights (and Bragaw) on UAA property"

He also indicated the the research phase would likely last 6 to 9 months and could possibly be followed by a preliminary building phase. The new arena would be step one of a three part plan for upgrading UAA's sports facilities (with the Wells Fargo upgrade #2 and a recreational sports facility in the student housing complex #3).

I'm most encourage by the "step one" reference. As I'd mentioned the original timeline was projected as 2013 but perhaps (and it's still a BIG perhaps) that reference means it wouldn't actually be 6 years before the new arena is done. Kewl beans to that.

I regularly fish through my site meter statistics and info to get an idea of who is reading the blog. Sometimes it's a little clunky to look at but occassionally it provides me with a nugget or two. A coupla-three weeks ago I noticed some hits coming from a web forum used by Alaska Aces fans and since they were unique I checked it out. Turns out someone had come across my blog and started this thread there. Naturally, I decided to join in the conversation to provide any information I could. Just as naturally, it turned into a typical Internet fan forum conversation filled with political BS and more than one or two insults. Read at your own risk.

Speaking of fan forums; over at USCHO's fan forum, Wolfman continues his presence updating the college hockey community about this arena and advocating for the Seawolves. There's a fine group of UAA fans that represent the school at that joint but there's something missing. Since they booted me from there nobody has really stepped up to fill the "prick/asshole" role that I so carefully cultivated. So ... I'm here to encourage someone out there in UAA Fan Blog readerland to jump into that pool and make some waves this coming season. You just need to be proud of the UAA program, a bit arrogant and intimidatingly insulting. Some bombastic traits would help. If you're loud and know how to string a sentence together you can probably fill the hole created by my absence. Hey ... every other program has at least on person posting that meets the "prick/asshole" criteria (and hey JimmyJam ... you're just not quite mean enough to be "the asshole" so don't start with me!). UAA needs one too! And oh yeah ... don't be afraid of getting suspended and becoming a social pariah (it actually has an upside!). There can be a fine-line to walk between being just another chest-thumping yahoo and a knowledgable dedicated prick but you can always email me for mentoring if necessary. I'm sure someone can step up. Feel free to register with some sort of name reminicent of my old moniker in order to immediately gain a certain cachet. I'd suggest "DTP Protege" or perhaps "DTP Too" or "DTP Redux" something like that which will twist USCHO's knickers. Thanks.
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Note: And if you didn't read my Alternative NHL Draft coverage over at The College Hockey (&other stuff) Blog then here's a link to that marginally comedic bit.

UAA's New Arena Takes Shape

Ok then ... this is the first off-season breaking of my self-pledge to not post anything here until August 1st. I don't think there's a lot of commentary I need to add since a picture is worth a thousand words right? That being the case here's four-thousand words you won't have to read from me. Click your mouse on the pictures to get full sized versions. It's a good looking plan at first glance. And it's sure nice to see this process moving forward. This new arena will make UAA a perennial powerhouse in the WCHA!


My understanding is the hockey seating is 10K. I don't see any balcony so the sightlines should be very good for everyone in the rink. I looked for me on the entrance picture and while lots of the people are in short sleeves there sure isn't anyone wearing short pants. Sigh.

Lastly, all credit for acquisition of these pictures goes to UAA's biggest fan in Shreveport, USCHO's "Wolfman" (pictured below ... left).

New Arena: The Skinny

Last summer in this post I talked about a new arena for UAA under the assumption that nobody important was thinking about much less planning for an on campus arena. I quickly found out I was wrong and since that time there has been planning and I understand the University is scheduled to make some sort of announcement sometime this spring. If you click on the picture above it will enlarge and you can see the location of the new arena along with a couple of other landmarks for reference. Not long after my intial post about this subject I was pointed to this webpage and this document (14.2Mb PDF) which as you can see is the long term Masterplan. A short scroll to the 2nd page of the "concept" PDF shows the configuration and initial timelines for some of the additions campuswide.

From what I hear and read I'd guess somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 seat arena in use within the next 6 years (by 2013) is the goal of the Athletic Department. There's obviously a lot of expansion planned when you spend anytime perusing the Masterplan. There's a fair amount of speculation and I'll try to leave that up to others. But it is clear this proposal is in it's early stages. Funds for planning and design are budgeted/planned this year ($1,000,000). Hopefully, the powers that be regarding timelines and priorities (Regents, Admins, Alumni and Community) find the need for UAA Sports programs to share a home of their own an important consideration. It's clear reading through the Masterplan that a desire to create a more student-centric campus is a desire and a new arena would certainly be one of the goals of that entire effort. The assumption amongst many fans is that UAA plans to move to Division 1 in all sports and a new arena supports that effort. It's important to not get confused by the effort to build a new arena and the planned expansion/retrofit of the Wells Fargo Sports Center. They are two separate efforts. So I have to believe that getting it all done within 6 years is probably a reasonable estimate.

I've added a photo below that gives some context to those not as familiar with the Anchorage area as those of us that live here.

Stop Talking About It

As far as I can tell nobody that matters much is talking about a new arena for UAA. And after I finish this post that will continue to be the case. But having heard some talk about a new arena I'll happily chime in. I'm all for it ... duh. It makes some sense to me to build a new arena on campus. It makes sense to me for it to seat at least 8,000. It makes sense to me for it to accomodate all of UAA's athletic's. Lastly, it makes sense to me to move this from the talking stage to the planning stage.

For most of UAA's D-I history, UAA has played it's home games at Sullivan Arena. The Sully was built in the early 80's. The "glorydays" of the early 90's saw 6400+ in attendance at virtually every UAA game. There were a couple of years where UAA ranked in the top 5 nationally for average attendance. The Sully's been a good home rink for UAA; it's always had good ice and it can be a damn noisy place when it's full. But with that in mind it's important to remember that the Seawolves certainly haven't outgrown the place. I can't remember the last time the place was packed. No longer is UAA the darling of the local sports community. The Aces have long since gained that blessing.

Building an arena on campus will bring the opportunity to about 900 dormitory students to attend games. Walking five minutes across campus is a helluva lot easier than getting to the Sully. We've never seen any sort of organized student presence at the Sully. There have been times when a few more students showed up and those limited instances tell me that their enthusiasm is regularly missed at the Sully. 500 or 600 students in a section being raucous has an effect on the whole arena. I've seen that happen. When 500 or 600 organized UAF fans (lots of students) showed up at the Sully and humiliated the UAA fanbase. The Sully has lost it allure as a great home ice venue when that sort of thing happens. A campus arena would give UAA the true home ice that it needs in the WCHA and it will provide better access to a cultural right of passage for university students.

What? You say that if UAA were more successful, that those problems wouldn't happen at the Sully? It'd be packed with UAA fans so 500 Squarebankers couldn't take over. Yeah .. perhaps. But the competition for the working man's dollar is going to go to the Aces. Beer and fighting? You think "Joe Hod Carrier" goes to sports to appreciate the amateur athlete? No. They go for the beer and the fights. So even if UAA were successful what we have at the Sully is a very similar situation to other programs with off-campus arena's. Lots of people who are loyal to the program. Lots of people that appreciate amatuer hockey at it's highest level. And (unlike those other WCHA schools with off campus arenas) a few students. Unfortunately people loyal to the program combined with amatuer hockey affcianado's don't exactly make the loudest supporters. And 27 students sitting in the student section of a half empty Sully means virtually nothing. So what I'm saying is if you transfer the current core of UAA supporters (3.5K to 4K) and add a few hundred students in a section then home ice would be more meaningful. Access for the on-campus popualtion is absolutely necessary for UAA hockey. We need the student's enthusiasm.

Put 4500 people into a rink that seats 8000 when they're already playing at a rink that sits 6400? It'll look even more empty! It's true. It will at first. But even just a marginal increase in success and more UAA fans show up. A big increase in success (like home ice for the playoffs) would fill the place. I have little doubt of that. Besides, it would be an arena for the future. A future that already includes D-1 gymnastics and perhaps a possible (probable?) move to D1 basketball at some point. Real planning should start soon. I'd imagine it would take at least 5 years from the start until the opening. Corporate sponsors and politicians need to be wooed to get the ball rolling. So everyone who likes UAA hockey outta get to wooing. Bribe some politicians or whatever it takes. Call up Exxon and tell them we'll name it after Joe Hazelwood if ya havta.