UConn anticipates opening its new ice hockey rink at Storrs in fall 2021, financing it through a development partnership in which the University stands to gain significant revenue annually from ice time rentals to community groups, youth hockey leagues, and other organizations.<\/p>\n
UConn officials received the go-ahead this week to negotiate with three developers who responded to the University\u2019s Request for Expressions of Interest (RFEI) late last year. Proposed agreements with the preferred developer will be negotiated over the next few months and submitted to the Board of Trustees for its approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re sending a message to the world that we\u2019re serious about this,\u201d Scott Jordan, UConn\u2019s executive vice president for administration and chief financial officer, told members of the board’s Financial Affairs Committee and the Building, Grounds, & Environment Committee at a joint meeting this week.<\/p>\n
Those committees approved the financing approach, reporting their actions back to the full Board of Trustees at its meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n
UConn joined the Hockey East Association for men\u2019s ice hockey starting in the 2014-15 season. As a condition of being admitted, the University promised to meet the conference\u2019s requirement of an on-campus arena with 4,000 seats. Hockey East has since approved UConn\u2019s request to reduce the number of seats in the arena to 2,500.<\/p>\n
Depending on the design, UConn plans a hockey arena with 2,500 to 3,500 seats that will be built adjacent to the current Freitas Ice Forum, which will continue to be used for practices and other activities.<\/p>\n
The new $45 million arena will host all games of the women\u2019s ice hockey team \u2013 which has been in Hockey East since the 2002-03 season \u2013 and some games of the men\u2019s team, which plays primarily at the XL Center in Hartford.<\/p>\n
It will also be available to be rented by recreation groups, hockey leagues, and other organizations. UConn expects to garner at least $400,000 annually in revenue from those rentals.<\/p>\n
The new rink is anticipated to have about 75,000 usable square feet, and at least 2,500 seats. Whatever number of seats is initially provided, there must be expansion capacity to reach 3,500 in the future.<\/p>\n
The arena facilities and ice will also meet all NCAA Division I ice hockey requirements and all Hockey East regulations, which the Freitas Ice Forum does not. With that in mind, Hockey East gave UConn some leeway when it allowed the University to join the conference for men\u2019s hockey despite needing time to provide an appropriate facility.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving talked with the commissioner of Hockey East, I know how important it is for us to keep our word to them,\u201d said Board of Trustees member Thomas Ritter, who is also chairman of the board\u2019s Buildings, Environment, and Grounds Committee.<\/p>\n
David Benedict, UConn\u2019s director of athletics, said that while most of the men\u2019s ice hockey games will continue to be played at the XL Center in Hartford, having on-campus games could also help build the student fan base \u2013 which could translate to more students deciding to ride the buses to Hartford games, as they do for some basketball games.<\/p>\n
Benedict agreed with Ritter that making this week\u2019s substantive progress on the plan will be a good signal to Hockey East that UConn is serious about its promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey will be ecstatic if we get a shovel in the ground soon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The financing plan envisions the creation of a Special Purpose Entity (SPE) as the legally binding vehicle for the development partnership. The developer will create the SPE, and will be responsible for building the facility and staying on schedule. Once it\u2019s open, the University will operate it on a day-to-day basis.<\/p>\n
To pay for the new rink:<\/p>\n
Benedict said one donor has already expressed interest in giving $6 million for the project, and that they expect others will also be excited about supporting the rink. \u201cThere\u2019s obviously more prospects out there, and we\u2019ll look forward to going out to talk to them as soon as we know we\u2019re moving forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Jordan said the University is also committed to maintaining the parking capacity in the Athletics District area, and will require that parking for about 750 vehicles must be available adjacent to the new arena.<\/p>\n
The university\u2019s \u201cI Lot,\u201d a parking area near Freitas, currently has spots for about 350 commuter students. Depending on the design of the new rink and its surroundings, Jordan said, the number in that lot could go up to 400.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know there\u2019s a parking crunch on campus, and this is an opportunity to add some capacity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The tentative project schedule anticipates that university officials will negotiate with the three competing developers in coming weeks, and reach tentative agreements to be presented this winter to the Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n
If all remains as scheduled, construction would start in early 2020 and take about 18 months, with the arena opening in fall 2021.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The University plans to open a new hockey rink at Storrs in fall 2021, financing it through a public-private development partnership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":143168,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1712,2225,2233],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1932],"class_list":["post-143270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-news"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 14:28:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143274,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143270\/revisions\/143274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/143168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143270"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=143270"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=143270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}