goldy313 wrote:The state has given millions of dollars to Rochester, Mankato, Duluth, St. Cloud, etc for convention centers.....which also hold high school sports. They should renovate the Coliseum making it a ~4000 or so seat arena capable of hosting both hockey and basketball tournaments (the metro is also lacking in facilities for boys basketball sections).
I was hoping when the Super rink expanded such a facility would be built. All the infrastructure is there, the building is all that's needed. Attach a bar and resteraunt and Sparlimb could have his mail sent there as he lives up the street.
The Coliseum has a great history, but not much else.
The Coliseum has parking, an easy location to get to, land....lots of land you don't have to pay for, a fairly easy to generate revenue stream through the state fair. The fair would still use it of course.
You could also use it for the state volleyball tournament, consolation hockey games, section and state basketball games, etc. Saving the MSHSL the extortion the XCel and U of M do to them in terms of rent.
Of course that would mean tearing it down and building a new one, but for the money spent on the Saints, and now soccer St. Paul could have a multi use facility.
It would take you 10 years just to get through the permitting in St. Paul Goldy. And the "Arts" would want equal money spent for them. Politics in this state will prevent it from happening, as the girls don't "need" such a facility. Unless it's mostly privately funded, forget it.
Goldyismoldy wrote:It would take you 10 years just to get through the permitting in St. Paul Goldy. And the "Arts" would want equal money spent for them. Politics in this state will prevent it from happening, as the girls don't "need" such a facility. Unless it's mostly privately funded, forget it.
I know, it is a pipedream, but it is my pipedream.
Goldyismoldy wrote:It would take you 10 years just to get through the permitting in St. Paul Goldy. And the "Arts" would want equal money spent for them. Politics in this state will prevent it from happening, as the girls don't "need" such a facility. Unless it's mostly privately funded, forget it.
I know, it is a pipedream, but it is my pipedream.
You coming up on Thursday? I'd love to buy you a bourbon.
Tons of love for Aldrich, some great memories there, but its seen better days.
Put simply, the east metro needs a renovated rink north of 3,000 for sections. Maybe STA could expand their building - try to squeeze in another sheet.
Goldyismoldy wrote:It would take you 10 years just to get through the permitting in St. Paul Goldy. And the "Arts" would want equal money spent for them. Politics in this state will prevent it from happening, as the girls don't "need" such a facility. Unless it's mostly privately funded, forget it.
A) it took about 5 minutes for permitting for CHS Field
B) The fair grounds are in Falcon Heights, Minnesota
I say beat on the Ziggy, the Pohlads, Glenn Taylor, the Saints, and the MLS soccer team to come up with a good chunk of dough to tear down the Coliseum and build a new shed. I am opposed to business socialism and these handouts, so they can pony up out of appreciation for tax payer largess.
But I doubt you'd get the Fair Board to go along. Maybe if the new shed were built in a different part of the fair grounds. I doubt they'd go without horse shows for even one year. The fair Board is their own little fiefdom, answerable to no one.
goldy313 wrote:The state has given millions of dollars to Rochester, Mankato, Duluth, St. Cloud, etc for convention centers.....which also hold high school sports. They should renovate the Coliseum making it a ~4000 or so seat arena capable of hosting both hockey and basketball tournaments (the metro is also lacking in facilities for boys basketball sections).
The fair board would have to want to go along with that though. They seem to be of a mind that when its old and needs fixing to just shut it down and do something different. it's what they did with the race track too, not that I'm bitter or anything...
The Coliseum was fun, except for the parking, but, it is a non-factor. . Playing dbl-headers are risky for the 2nd game because of OT. Why put your chance to go to state at risk, when unnecessary. Marriuci makes zero sense from the point of why play on the big sheet when all year largest majority of games are on a regulation rink , as well as the State Tourney.
Aldrich is perfect for Sec finals..The house is packed,people jockeying to see,lines to get in,loud cheers, etc...Those are the things that all of the old-timers wish for, but, now complain because they're not willing to stand in line to get in the joint...
The kids will remember Aldrich for all of this.
nu2hockey wrote:The Coliseum was fun, except for the parking, but, it is a non-factor. . Playing dbl-headers are risky for the 2nd game because of OT. Why put your chance to go to state at risk, when unnecessary. Marriuci makes zero sense from the point of why play on the big sheet when all year largest majority of games are on a regulation rink , as well as the State Tourney.
Aldrich is perfect for Sec finals..The house is packed,people jockeying to see,lines to get in,loud cheers, etc...Those are the things that all of the old-timers wish for, but, now complain because they're not willing to stand in line to get in the joint...
The kids will remember Aldrich for all of this.
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AGREE 100% At least for Section 5AA, which doesn't draw quite as well as 4AA due to the driving distance factor, but still is completely full or sold out, the atmosphere is awesome, better than the Coliseum or Mariucci for a section final.
Section 4 should definetly be moved to Ridder. Part of the fun of the section tourney is the journey and advancing to better arenas as you go.
Round 1 local, round 2 Aldrich, Final Ridder.
Aldrich provides a little nostalgia that's great but that is a little old local rink, last night was a great atmosphere for a section semi. Ridder would provide the next level.
Better view for the fans, seating behind the net, better acoustics/sound. For the players some of the best ice you can play on, great lighting, NHL boards and glass (how has Aldrich not updated their glass?). And a neautral site.
If Mariucci ever gets an NHL sheet you could do the double header with 4&5 AA.
bauerman wrote:I would love it if STA played sections at Aldrich instead of Ridder, but I repeat my question asked on a different thread , Is HM the only school in the state that gets to play their sections in their home rink? maybe there are others and this is not an unusual advantage ,but I don't know of others
If section 3 played at Aldrich less people would go than currently at Ridder.
Rochester John Marshall plays all their home games at the Rec Center in Rochester, Century plays there too but they seem to split theirs between the fair grounds and the Rec Center. Many Big Nine teams end up playing at the Rec Center twice prior to playoffs.
To the extent possible, section games should be played in an arena close to the geographical area of those teams. Section 4 teams are from the east side of the metro. Section 4 should stay on the east side.
I think it would be sad to see section 4AA played at Mariucci. I thought it was awful when the coliseum rink closed; that was a wonderful old and historic place to play section finals. Next best on the east side of town is Aldrich. It's unfair that it's at the home rink of the Pioneers, yes. But the alternative is losing that community feeling of sections. (Queue the 'that's rich, a Hill fan concerned about community hockey' comments).
The City of Hill Murray is beautiful this time of year
And also, how is it possible that with all the St Paul colleges (I could be wrong but I thought I read once that St Paul has the second most colleges/universities in their city limits only to Boston) that there isn't a halfway decent rink. These schools play their games in Blaine for goodness sake. You'd think there would be ONE 5,000+ capacity rink in the whole of the city.
Edit....aside from the X. Hey aren't they building some rink where the old Macy's in DT St Paul was?
The City of Hill Murray is beautiful this time of year
BlueLineSpecial wrote:Edit....aside from the X. Hey aren't they building some rink where the old Macy's in DT St Paul was?
I think I read somewhere that it's mainly going to be a practice rink for the Wild. If I'm remembering this correctly then you wouldn't expect it to have a capacity anywhere near 5,000.
Down here in Roch, discussions are ongoing between the Rochester CVB, the Amateur Sports Commission, the Mayo Civic Center Commission, and others about replacing Taylor Arena with w new ~6,000 seat hall anchored by a USHL team. If/when this comes to pass, this answers the question of what to do about Section 1 and the Rochester Rec.
I went to the 1AA final last Thursday night. The RRC works for what it does, but to put it mildly the place needs work.
As for the Coliseum, any improvements funded by outside sources via either the bonding bill, Mighty Ducks, ballpark tax, whatever, etc. would require a shocking sea change in Ag Society mentality. Their first rule is to never, under any circumstances, accept state dollars. I can also tell you that the people who decided that the Coliseum cooling plant wasn't worth overhauling are no longer in the employ of the State Fair.
I left early from work on Friday and was at Aldrich at 3:00 to find out the game was already sold out. I'm sure it was a great atmosphere for those who were there, but at least one person who didn't get in was ticked off.
If nothing else, they should look into putting a temporary sheet in the Coliseum for a week, so they can use it for the three sections as they did in the past. Glad to hear that the people who made the decision to close the rink are no longer there, that was not handled well.
ChrisK wrote:I left early from work on Friday and was at Aldrich at 3:00 to find out the game was already sold out. I'm sure it was a great atmosphere for those who were there, but at least one person who didn't get in was ticked off.
If nothing else, they should look into putting a temporary sheet in the Coliseum for a week, so they can use it for the three sections as they did in the past. Glad to hear that the people who made the decision to close the rink are no longer there, that was not handled well.
I was one of at least 100 people kicked out at about 2:30. the box office guy said they had a line going at 1 o'clock
What does Wakota Arena seat these days? Some of you old-timers might recall that WAY WAY back in 1974 the demand for tickets to the Section 4 final between Henry Sibley and South St. Paul was so great they had to move the game from Wakota to the old Civic Center. They ended up with a crowd there of over 12,000. Sibley won and advanced to the State Tournament.
You know, in the 70s and 80s, A LOT of section finals--and semi-finals--were played at the Met Center. They drew big crowds, too, regularly over 10,000. I seem to remember folks sitting in the aisles in the upper level. I don't recall whether the end sections up there were blocked off, but that's possible. They had awesome section double-headers for years, until they blew the place up. So....why not consider using the X for these section games on the St. Paul side of the river? Couldn't the St. Paul teams pull off big crowds? And I have to wonder if the simple act of holding those games in that building wouldn't add to the attendance....
