{"id":24719,"date":"2002-09-17T16:48:53","date_gmt":"2002-09-17T21:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2002\/09\/17\/uri-builds-new-rink-ponders-division-i-hockey\/"},"modified":"2010-08-17T19:54:28","modified_gmt":"2010-08-18T00:54:28","slug":"uri-builds-new-rink-ponders-division-i-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/2002\/09\/17\/uri-builds-new-rink-ponders-division-i-hockey\/","title":{"rendered":"URI Builds New Rink, Ponders Division I Hockey"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a little more reason for hockey excitement at the University of Rhode Island’s Kingston campus this fall. After over 30 years of men’s club hockey — and two seasons of women’s club hockey — the clubs will have the opportunity to play on campus this season for the first time in university history.<\/p>\n

A 2,500-seat arena with NHL-size ice opened its doors this semester for the first time.<\/p>\n

“It’s really nice,” URI Director of Athletics Ron Petro said. “We tried to make it an attractive building because it sits right out on [route] 138.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n
The 2,500-seat Boss Arena opened its doors at the University of Rhode Island last week. (photo by Nora Lewis)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It’ll be named the Bradford Boss Building — he’s a former ice hockey player, and he was president and CEO of Cross Pen. He’s been a long-time good supporter, and his dream was to get the rink up.”<\/p>\n

Understandably, college hockey fans in Rhode Island have begun to ponder whether the Rams might move from club to varsity status in the foreseeable future. For now, though, Division I hockey falls into the category of “wait and see.”<\/p>\n

“During [the last academic] year, the president [of URI] asked for a survey, so I talked to people from Hockey East, the ECAC and the MAAC as to URI — if we were able to fund it — getting into a league,” Petro said. “I made a recommendation to the president in April, but we’ve been hit with budget cuts as most people have been, so we’ve delayed any decision on that until we can get a better hold on how to finance a Division I hockey program for men and women, which we know would be way over a million dollars.”<\/p>\n

Prior to the budget cuts, Petro had recommended that URI attempt to gain Division I status.<\/p>\n

\"Bradford<\/p>\n
Bradford Boss, who founded the men’s club team at URI and donated $1.3 million to the building that will bear his name, meets the URI hockey teams.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“We are the only state university in New England that doesn’t support a team,” acknowledged Petro. “That would be a goal of mine in the future, but it all comes down to funding.”<\/p>\n

Petro didn’t want to comment on which league might be the best fit for the Rams. However, the MAAC would appear to be a reasonable target based on the smaller number of scholarships required as well as on the geographic proximity of potential competition and arena capacity.<\/p>\n

“The interest is there; there’s great excitement in the community and on campus, but the finances need to be determined before we can do anything else,” said Petro.<\/p>\n

Petro acknowledged that competing with other hockey teams in the area another cause for financial concern for a URI Division I bid. In addition to Providence College and Brown being nearby — and neither drawing incredibly well — the AHL’s Providence Bruins are another alternative for hockey lovers in the Ocean State.<\/p>\n

Over the summer, there also had been some speculation regarding whether the Naval Academy — a current club opponent for URI — might opt for Division I status as well. However, athletic director Chet Gladchuk — the former AD at Boston College — failed to return several calls on the topic over the summer. The Naval Academy would have no obvious geographical fit in terms of a Division I league — with the possible exception of the geographically scattered College Hockey America league — though the MAAC, because of Army’s presence, has been mentioned as a possibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a new 2,500-seat on-campus arena finally open, the only state school in New England without a varsity hockey program ponders its future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":140328,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nURI Builds New Rink, Ponders Division I Hockey - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With a new 2,500-seat on-campus arena finally open, the only state school in New England without a varsity hockey program ponders its future.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24719\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"URI Builds New Rink, Ponders Division I Hockey - 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