The University of Michigan Board of Regents is currently publicly seeking the addition of a Division I women's hockey program.
“The time has come for the University of Michigan to establish a varsity team for its women's hockey program,” Board President Dennis Ilitch said at Thursday's meeting.
“The people of Michigan are not being served right now,” Ilitch added, citing Michigan natives as an example of the “broken cycle” of elite talent having to leave the state to play college hockey. He cited Kirsten Sims and Kathy Hall.
Sims, a Plymouth native, was a finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation's top female hockey player. Hall, a South Lyon native, also played for the University of Wisconsin, which lost 1-0 to Ohio State in the NCAA finals in Durham, New Hampshire, on Saturday.
Michigan State President Santa Ono said he is now recommending athletic director Ward Manuel conduct a feasibility study. Manuel did not attend the meeting, but Ono said he would report to the regents after making the proposal.
Ilitch's public call is the loudest and most powerful voice in the movement to add varsity hockey to the University of Michigan.
In March, the Women's Professional Hockey League held a neutral-field game between Ottawa and Boston at Little Caesars Arena, setting a league record for an American audience of 13,736.
For the PWHL, this was a test of a potential expansion market, with multiple PWHL players considering the option of playing college hockey in the state, which has the fourth largest population of women's hockey players behind Minnesota, New York and Massachusetts. He asked for an increase. To USA Hockey.
“As a public servant who is trying to do what's best for the people of Michigan, I think there's a clear need and a clear deficit here,” Regent Jordan Acker told the Detroit News. “Michigan is a hockey state. We produce some of the best female players in the world, and because we don't provide them with opportunities, they have to go somewhere else.” not.”
Mr Acker said there were important issues that needed to be considered and were likely to be covered in the sustainability study.
“You have to understand how much it costs, not just the cost of the program, but also the cost of the facility,” Acker says. “And that was a big question mark. … Yost (ice arena) is not what you would call a built-in modern facility, and there's no space to build it. So we need another piece of ice to make this work. I think there needs to be a general understanding that this is the case.”
Acker said as regents he can push for this and support it, but ultimately it's up to the president and athletic director to move forward with a potential process.
“These things take a lot of time,” Acker said. “In times of uncertainty in the college sports world, it's important to take the time to get to know the reality. But for me, it's important to take the time to consider what it will take to bring Division I hockey to Michigan. It is also very important that we do our best.”
Sean Shapiro is a freelance writer.
