National Collegiate Hockey Conference

[css228]

And now I live in Princeton...  don't get me started.

Watch out for those Princeton gangstas. They might scoff at you for not being an exclusive eating club.

This thread has drifted further from its starting point than Pangea.

[RichH]

There were far too few of us on the Hill during my time there. I'm from the Southern Tier. Even though ~1/3 of the students on campus are New Yorkers, only a small percentage were from the Upstate region(s).

Heh. Even fewer had even heard of the Maple City, you know.  "No, no. With an 'H'...'"

To continue the theme of talking about our upbringings...

[KeithK]

And now I live in Princeton...  don't get me started.

Watch out for those Princeton gangstas. They might scoff at you for not being an exclusive eating club.

This thread has drifted further from its starting point than Pangea.

I think it must be the off-season. :-/

[Trotsky]

UConn continues its attempt to gain membership in Hockey East.

Hockey East officials are taking a site visit today at the University of Connecticut, and are also expected to visit Hartford's XL Center, sources told CHN.

UConn does not currently meet Hockey East standards in two way — its arena is too small, and it does not offer any athletic scholarships for hockey.

Sources indicate, however, that UConn officials are committed to upgrading the program, with details still to be worked out, and will soon formally apply to Hockey East. The main sticking point is over where will the Huskies play.

A new rink, scholarships, and probably an interim period of playing 26 miles off campus? UConn wants desperately to be a member of Hockey East.

I'd say it goes both ways.  IIRC, Hockey East instigated the strong nudging that they would want UConn to upgrade the program, given that they would complete the large New England state school set for HEA. Without that encouragement from the league, and probable spelling out of revenue considerations, I don't think there would have been any moves made by UConn's administration.

And it's not unusual for UConn teams to play home games outside of Storrs.  Rentschler Field in East Hartford is home to UConn football, 22 miles from campus, and the XL Center hosts about half of both the men's and women's home basketball games.  This is despite the fact that Gampel Pavilion on campus holds over 10,000.

Personally, I'd be upset if I were a UConn student interested in one of those sports and be forced to travel that far to see my teams play home games.  I've been to a basketball game at the XL Center in Hartford and it was a surprisingly older demographic than I expected to see, and nothing special was afforded what little student section there was.  On the other hand, maybe undergrads are excited to get out of Storrs, which consists of the campus and a small strip mall.

I can't really comment on the current atmosphere at UConn hockey games, because I've never been drawn to head there to check them out, especially when I'm often traveling in the region for Cornell games.

I believe the XL Center (nee Hartford Civic Center) was used a few years back for Quinnipiac's inaugural game for the ECAC.   Indeed, they did.  Gordie Howe dropped the ceremonial puck: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2005/11/6/quinnipiac-takes-first-ecac-game-hartford/ 5000 showed for that.

Wow, I've never been to UConn, it really is in nowhere land. As a student I don't think I'd like it there. What happens if you don't have a car?

You're the guy without the DUI.

[Tom Lento]

And now I live in Princeton...  don't get me started.

Watch out for those Princeton gangstas. They might scoff at you for not being an exclusive eating club.

This thread has drifted further from its starting point than Pangea.

I loved that place, although that had a lot to do with the company I was keeping the first time I ate there. The BBQ joint that replaced it was disappointing.


I think this brings us back to an earlier point in the thread drift. . .

[Aaron M. Griffin]

There were far too few of us on the Hill during my time there. I'm from the Southern Tier. Even though ~1/3 of the students on campus are New Yorkers, only a small percentage were from the Upstate region(s).

Heh. Even fewer had even heard of the Maple City, you know.  "No, no. With an 'H'...'"

To continue the theme of talking about our upbringings...

Oh, I'm very familiar. I went to a leadership conference/summit my junior year of high school. They had to put our hometowns on our name tags. My supervisor said that when they made my name tag they thought I had made an error in the spelling. Then, they thought, no, that cannot be right, Cornell is in Ithaca, NY not Cornell, NY. It was very fun in foreign language courses on The Hill too.

My high school history teacher explains it as a combination of the company who makes SPAM and the university.

[RichH]

Cinemopolis on the Commons, and Fall Creek Pictures in the Fall Creek neighborhood a mile north of the Commons, are both independent theaters.  They show some 2nd run, but mostly indie & art house movies.  The State Theater rarely shows movies, as it's more of a live performance venue now.  The theaters up by the mall are your only cookie-cutter 14-screen cineplex experience nearby, yes.

Not to be a brat, but Cinemopolis did often show movies that were new that you couldn't really see anywhere else.  (See: Jane Eyre.)  I know I was more than happy to be able to watch independent movies at Cinemopolis (which I've only ever been to after its renovation but it is absolutely adorable), movies at Cornell Cinema (which is underrated and if you're a student, GO!), and movies down at the mall.  Also, after missing a bus once after a late showing of Harry Potter, a friend and I walked from the movies/mall to West and it really wasn't that bad a walk.  Actually kind of wonderful.  If you were to walk that distance in Philly, you'd be shot.

Oh, in no way was I trying to besmirch the good name of Cinemopolis, nor did I intend to imply that it was a 2nd-run theater.  My wording was poor.  I mostly go for indie & small-release films rather than the latest Michael Bay 3D explod-a-thon.  Looks like Cinemopolis has had even more renovations & upgrades in recent years, but I am a little sad to hear that Fall Creek is gone.

[RichH]

I can't really comment on the current atmosphere at UConn hockey games, because I've never been drawn to head there to check them out, especially when I'm often traveling in the region for Cornell games.

When I lived in the Hartford metroplex I attended a handful of UConn games ($3 tickets? yes, please).

The facility could best be described as a newer, slightly larger, Northford Ice Pavilion, where Q played games back in the day.

It's an airplane hangar with sheet metal walls, maybe 7 rows of generic metal bleachers on four sides, and nothing else. I think it seats about 2k.  The temperature is roughly that of the ice surface and the fan base is mostly townies, local kids, and player girlfriends. Attendance of 1k is a big draw. IIRC they played games outdoors until 2000 or so....

The UConn pep band plays for bigger games but there is otherwise no real atmosphere to speak of.

But give UConn credit. When they decide to go for it with a sport, they go all in. In ten years, they went from competitive football games with Yale to a BCS bowl. I've been wondering for some time when they'd finally turn their eyes to hockey. I'm sure the HEA tv deal didn't hurt their assessment of a major hockey initiative...

Back on topic, (I know, I know...) the write-up in the Hartford Courant didn't add a whole lot we didn't already know, but I took notice of the last sentence:

UConn is in the middle of a major fundraising program, with a new basketball facility a top priority.

That got me thinking that if that's true and there are plans in the works for a new basketball palace, there's probably a way to do exactly what Ohio State did when they decided to better support their hockey program: make it muti-purpose to house both the basketball and hockey teams like the Schottenstein Center.  Before moving into the Schott (capacity: 17,500) they played at the OSU Ice Rink (capacity: 1500).  While at the 2005 Frozen Four in Columbus, I walked over to the old place, and it made the Northford Ice Pavilion look like the Taj Mahal.  I can't believe they put up with that until the late-90s. It made it clear why tOSU teams were never successful until 1998...no big recruits would have wanted to play there, and not many good OOC teams would have wanted to make that trip, financially.  Same probably goes for UConn.

[Beeeej]

Our friend, Mark Andbinder

*wince*

[ugarte]

Our friend, Mark Andbinder

*wince*

That's even worse than Beeej!

[jtwcornell91]

That got me thinking that if that's true and there are plans in the works for a new basketball palace, there's probably a way to do exactly what Ohio State did when they decided to better support their hockey program: make it muti-purpose to house both the basketball and hockey teams like the Schottenstein Center.  Before moving into the Schott (capacity: 17,500) they played at the OSU Ice Rink (capacity: 1500).  While at the 2005 Frozen Four in Columbus, I walked over to the old place, and it made the Northford Ice Pavilion look like the Taj Mahal.  I can't believe they put up with that until the late-90s. It made it clear why tOSU teams were never successful until 1998...no big recruits would have wanted to play there, and not many good OOC teams would have wanted to make that trip, financially.  Same probably goes for UConn.

They also ran the risk of missing the NCAAs because beating such a bad team would lower their RPI (this more or less actually happened to Bowling Green once).

[Josh '99]

And now I live in Princeton...  don't get me started.

Try the eggnog at Halo Farms.

[bnr24]

Those were the areas (Mantua, etc.) that I was referring to. Center City is actually quite safe. I had no clue where he lived when he made that comment, and thus assumed he might be somewhere up around Temple or La Salle.Also I thought the general rule was around 45th you should probably start heading back to Penn.

Well, Mantua is actually a bit to the north of Powelton Village, which is the neighborhood directly north of Drexel, but I can understand the confusion because I was confused about it at one point or another.  The area around Temple, particularly to the east and north, is indeed a bit dicey but getting better by the day.  And the area around La Salle is also a bit of a conundrum, but then all of Germantown and why it is the way it is is a conundrum.

45th is fine, 46th and Pine is in fact one of our "dream corners" for owning half of a twin, and 47th is fine.  48th is where it maybe starts to change, but I truly think you're safe to 50th, at least north of Baltimore.  52nd is definitely a problem area, and will be for some time, I reckon.

All that being said, my general rule was (is?) to go to Local 44, sit down, and not even think about moving for at least a couple of hours.  The only turning around I ever did there was to stare at the chalked beer list.

And now I live in Princeton...  don't get me started.

She for the record.  Which not to be heteronormative, kind of makes the walking alone thing a bit different at night. East Falls is GORGEOUS. I wandered over there for a visit to Drexel Med's campus and it is beautiful.

As far as Center City goes, it's safe except if I want to walk THROUGH the sketchy areas to get somewhere.

Having grown up 25 minutes from Philly, I'm mostly familiar with safe areas (one of the reasons my parents didn't have a heart attack when I decided to live in Center City for classes).

[Roy 82]

She for the record.  Which not to be heteronormative, kind of makes the walking alone thing a bit different at night. East Falls is GORGEOUS. I wandered over there for a visit to Drexel Med's campus and it is beautiful.

As far as Center City goes, it's safe except if I want to walk THROUGH the sketchy areas to get somewhere.

Having grown up 25 minutes from Philly, I'm mostly familiar with safe areas (one of the reasons my parents didn't have a heart attack when I decided to live in Center City for classes).

Who you calling heteronormative? ::cuss::

[bnr24]

She for the record.  Which not to be heteronormative, kind of makes the walking alone thing a bit different at night. East Falls is GORGEOUS. I wandered over there for a visit to Drexel Med's campus and it is beautiful.

As far as Center City goes, it's safe except if I want to walk THROUGH the sketchy areas to get somewhere.

Having grown up 25 minutes from Philly, I'm mostly familiar with safe areas (one of the reasons my parents didn't have a heart attack when I decided to live in Center City for classes).

Who you calling heteronormative? ::cuss::

I was calling myself heteronormative for saying it's less safe for a girl to walk outside alone at night than a guy. :-)