Author Topic: Stony Brook Seawolves Basketball News, Press Releases, etc  (Read 38742 times)

Hammertime

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I wasn't sure where to put this topic, but mow that SB Arena is just about complete I think it would be a wise move to introduce a skating rink on top of the basketball  floor so SB can finally move their hockey team to NCAA div1 and play home instead of the Rinks... I believe, the extra money SB sinks into the Arena for a rink would come back 10 fold... SB hockey is currently ranked, I think 6 in the country in the ACHA league...  Just imagine how many more people open their eyes to SB University if they finally build a Hockey rink and SB goes into the NCAA.....Hockey on Long island is huge with the young kids and what could be better watching SB play BU at home!!!  . P.S. I am going to the Rinks Saturday night to whats them play West Chester!!!!!

Hammertime

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I wasn't sure where to put this topic, but mow that SB Arena is just about complete I think it would be a wise move to introduce a skating rink on top of the basketball  floor so SB can finally move their hockey team to NCAA div1 and play home instead of the Rinks... I believe, the extra money SB sinks into the Arena for a rink would come back 10 fold... SB hockey is currently ranked, I think 6 in the country in the ACHA league...  Just imagine how many more people open their eyes to SB University if they finally build a Hockey rink and SB goes into the NCAA.....Hockey on Long island is huge with the young kids and what could be better watching SB play BU at home!!!  . P.S. I am going to the Rinks Saturday night to whats them play West Chester!!!!!

I just found my answer on why SB did not build a hockey rink inside of the new Arena. One man... JIM FIORE!!! I am glad he's gone.. For approximately a million dollars more, SB could have laid the foundation for a ice skating rink.. Listen to SBH head coach interview with WUSB radio... It's a damn shame..

https://soundcloud.com/wusb-sports-radio/stony-brook-hockey-hc-chris

seawolfemeritus

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Way to kick a guy when he's down. JF did a remarkable job for SBU athletics, and if not for him, there would be no arena...period.

Sure, it would be nice to have a rink, just like it would be nice to have an 8,000 seat arena and 20,000 seat stadium. But you can't have it all day one.

To blame the guy who delivered the arena for not also delivering a rink is unfair.

Hammertime

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Way to kick a guy when he's down. JF did a remarkable job for SBU athletics, and if not for him, there would be no arena...period.

Sure, it would be nice to have a rink, just like it would be nice to have an 8,000 seat arena and 20,000 seat stadium. But you can't have it all day one.

To blame the guy who delivered the arena for not also delivering a rink is unfair.

Lets not even go there with that.. The AD did some good things with the AD department but he also did a lot of bad...Building a 8000 seat Arena at this time would have been a total waste of money ...But preparing the new Arena for a future Rink would not have cost all that money.. Listen to SBH Coach about what it would have taken to begin the process  of building a ice Rink...... Building a Rink would most likely have been a cash positive for the University....  After reading and doing some digging up on Fiore, he is a POS in my eyes. Sorry..  Just like in the NYPD... Be the best cop in the department for 20 years and make one bad mistake, you're tarnished for life.... He was held to a higher standards and he took advantage of people... This isn't acceptable anymore in Civil Service!!     If you happen to be a family memeber of him I'm sorry, dont take it personally!!!!!!!
« Last Edit: February 16, 2014, 11:23:52 am by Hammertime »

Seawolf97

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First  of all  I'm all for our hockey team moving  up to full Div 1 status and playing on campus. They are good  and hockey is a big draw on Long Island.  Downside is the NCAA requires  your home ice on campus  in a 3000 seat arena.  Also big downer is Title 9 and adding x amount of male scholarships along with balancing it  with  x amount of   female scholarships. At some point I'm sure hockey will get their rink and be a Div  1 sport instead of club.  We have come light years in a short time with our facilities and I hope it only gets better.  I cant fault our former AD for saying no  for now, that 1 million can be spent elsewhere. I'm sure in 10 years  Stonybrook  Athletics we see today will be totally different including an expanded football stadium.  Lets sell out the arena  for hoops every night as we sell out Pritchard now , maybe go to another  conference membership and a hockey rink is feasible.
  I have followed football since their D3 days in the mid 1990's on the little field playing powers like the Merchant Marine Academy and Gettysburgh College. Now we are in the CAA  with FBS  teams on our  schedule every season. We have to keep pushing the Stonybrook brand and building fan support. It will happen.

laxnation

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First  of all  I'm all for our hockey team moving  up to full Div 1 status and playing on campus. They are good  and hockey is a big draw on Long Island.  Downside is the NCAA requires  your home ice on campus  in a 3000 seat arena.  Also big downer is Title 9 and adding x amount of male scholarships along with balancing it  with  x amount of   female scholarships. At some point I'm sure hockey will get their rink and be a Div  1 sport instead of club.  We have come light years in a short time with our facilities and I hope it only gets better.  I cant fault our former AD for saying no  for now, that 1 million can be spent elsewhere. I'm sure in 10 years  Stonybrook  Athletics we see today will be totally different including an expanded football stadium.  Lets sell out the arena  for hoops every night as we sell out Pritchard now , maybe go to another  conference membership and a hockey rink is feasible.
  I have followed football since their D3 days in the mid 1990's on the little field playing powers like the Merchant Marine Academy and Gettysburgh College. Now we are in the CAA  with FBS  teams on our  schedule every season. We have to keep pushing the Stonybrook brand and building fan support. It will happen.

You could at least spell Stony Brook correctly.

seawolfemeritus

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Way to kick a guy when he's down. JF did a remarkable job for SBU athletics, and if not for him, there would be no arena...period.

Sure, it would be nice to have a rink, just like it would be nice to have an 8,000 seat arena and 20,000 seat stadium. But you can't have it all day one.

To blame the guy who delivered the arena for not also delivering a rink is unfair.

Lets not even go there with that.. The AD did some good things with the AD department but he also did a lot of bad...Building a 8000 seat Arena at this time would have been a total waste of money ...But preparing the new Arena for a future Rink would not have cost all that money.. Listen to SBH Coach about what it would have taken to begin the process  of building a ice Rink...... Building a Rink would most likely have been a cash positive for the University....  After reading and doing some digging up on Fiore, he is a POS in my eyes. Sorry..  Just like in the NYPD... Be the best cop in the department for 20 years and make one bad mistake, you're tarnished for life.... He was held to a higher standards and he took advantage of people... This isn't acceptable anymore in Civil Service!!     If you happen to be a family memeber of him I'm sorry, dont take it personally!!!!!!!

Go where? My comment pertains only to his record as AD, and very few will find fault with his accomplishments as an administrator and advancing athletics at SBU.

You however, choose to bring up the circumstances regarding his dismissal. There are only a handful of people who know the whole story, and despite your exhaustive reading and fact-finding....I'm sure you're not one of them (neither am I). And no, I'm not a family member, just someone who knows there are conflicting stories and who prefers not to pass judgement on a person before the entire truth is revealed.

ecasadoSBU

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College Hockey is expensive guys. Just sayin.

I think Fiore did the best he could with the limitations. Its not easy to have Division I hockey and I don't know how much revenue potential Division I hockey at Stony Brook has.

If the money comes around at a later time then we can add D-I hockey. For now lets see if we can just build the primary sports: FB, MBB, MLAX, WBB.

Think about all the subsidy that Stony Brook gets for athletic funding. That would probably increase a lot more if we funded DI men's hockey + Title IX requirements.


With that said... We gotta be happy with the situation we have right now. At the verge of opening a brand new 4k arena for our basketball programs. That is huge, and should allow us to compete well in the America East and in any other mid-major conference we choose to join in the future. Jim Fiore deserves credit for his efforts at building a great athletic department and despite the personal and workplace issues that led to his dismissal I think he did a great job for the University and set up Stony Brook for athletic success.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2014, 01:36:46 pm by ecasadoSBU »
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Chairman of the Board

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if SB hockey was to get a small venue rink on campus- perhaps in between the track and LaValle- i would show up to ice hockey games, and watch every telecast all season.  i might even buy an SB hockey jersey and wear it.

and when they create an AE double header at the garden with vermont, boston U, and UML, ill be there all weekend for the games.  8)
There are 29,413,039 corporations in America; but only one Chairman of the Board.

Seawolf97

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Agree on both counts. Hockey and our young wrestling  club team hopefully someday  will become D1 programs. Both have potential on Long Island just not now.  Sellout our arena  for hoops  every night, get SRO  crowds for football on  a regular  basis first then bring these  two teams up. Remember Title 9 plays into  all this  with female scholarship teams so money becomes a huge factor not to mention  coaching staffs , travel etc.  A ton of money for right now.

Hammertime

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College Hockey is expensive guys. Just sayin.

I think Fiore did the best he could with the limitations. Its not easy to have Division I hockey and I don't know how much revenue potential Division I hockey at Stony Brook has.

If the money comes around at a later time then we can add D-I hockey. For now lets see if we can just build the primary sports: FB, MBB, MLAX, WBB.

Think about all the subsidy that Stony Brook gets for athletic funding. That would probably increase a lot more if we funded DI men's hockey + Title IX requirements.


With that said... We gotta be happy with the situation we have right now. At the verge of opening a brand new 4k arena for our basketball programs. That is huge, and should allow us to compete well in the America East and in any other mid-major conference we choose to join in the future. Jim Fiore deserves credit for his efforts at building a great athletic department and despite the personal and workplace issues that led to his dismissal I think he did a great job for the University and set up Stony Brook for athletic success.

Stony Brook Hockey coach Chris Garofalo made  a real good point when he said Fiore should have prepared the Arena for a future rink.. It's my understanding, in Hockey, running the plumbing under the Floor. ( Basketball court) would have cost around a million Dollars....Iin the future, when the time is right,  you can finish up with the completion of the Rink.. He also went on to say  4000 seat arena is sufficient for NCAA rules.

I think Fiore should have given this a little more thought when he had the Arena built... We all know how long it takes to get anything down in NY so starting the ball now at a small price makes a lot of sense...

p.s...... Saturdays hockey game against West Chester University was a blast and SB won by the score of 14 to 1... This Saturday is the first round of the playoffs at the Rinks if anyone is interested in going, I'm going.........
« Last Edit: February 18, 2014, 05:31:44 pm by Hammertime »

Redwyn

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Not to be the bearer of bad news - but a few answers on Hockey, all of which come from years in touch with the highest level at SBU, both athletically and otherwise.

1. SBU will NEVER sponsor hockey as an NCAA sport. You can use any form of reasoning you'd like - Title IX, space, facilities, recruiting - it's all irrelevant. It's pure infrastructure, funds distribution, and long term sports of emphasis. Fact is, with extremely rare exception, you CANNOT have a decent men's hockey program without sacrificing funding and preference to MBB or Football. That's it. I can literally count on one hand the programs who really pull it off, and all have 80+ million athletic budgets and are placed in hockey crazed regions of the US. Examples of places that do it well include Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin. All those have humongous media contracts - we don't. Places that try all three and fail include Boston College (terrible Football, basketball), New Hampshire (America East and STILL suffers from very, very tight funding problems), and Minnesota (marginal basketball and football by BCS standards). Like any company, athletic programs need to have a mission. That mission involves a primary and two secondaries. We're spread thin enough with two primaries (Football and MBB) and one secondary (M Lax). There simply isn't the infrastructure at a midatlantic mid-major to support D1 hockey without decimating the focus for football and MBB. This is what the administration believes, and what they have believed for quite a while. Apparently more places agree, such as the recent rash of sport cuts (Robert Morris with M Wrestling, Temple with their exceptionally famous W Crew program, multiple schools with baseball).

2. If you'd like an example of a single campus organization single-handedly decimating funding to other groups, Men's Ice Hockey takes over 100K in USG funding, derived from student fees which were supposed to be dedicated to groups that encourage wide student participation. Instead, a group of 16 students give or take has a budget that exceeds that of any other campus organization. Perfect case study of what it would do to an athletics and facilities budget. Hockey is a budget black hole - plain and simple.

3. Fiore is NOT the reason there's no hockey arena at SBU. Taken from an exceptionally reliable source - again at the TOP of SBU's admin - Charles Wang approached Kenny and offered to build her an on-campus hockey arena around when he was looking for places to tax dump. In the name of endorsing football and MBB aspirations, Kenny rejected. By far the correct and sound business move.

4. SBU's athletic budget is so bad that it can't even support sports it DOES sponsor - by name M&W swimming. How bout they just get those taken care of and get their Title IX back in order?

5. After multiple direct conversations with the top of SBU's administration, the only target sports SBU is considering in any potential athletic expansion are those sponsored by target conferences. This is critical, as the more sports sponsored by a candidate program - the more attractive they are to potential conferences. An example is NJIT's bid to join the America East - did anyone else notice that they just added MLax? BU did the same in their bid to join the Patriot League. Beyond that logic, Supporting a non-conference program is very difficult. It requires a different set of travel arrangements, scheduling arrangements, conference fees and contracts - Football alone is an incredible demand, but non-FBS conferences endorse it as an integrated entity (CAA Football, MVC Football, OVC Football aren't actually the same company as the CAA, MVC, OVC, although they have the same commissioner. NEC, Big South, and Big Sky I believe are integrated, however). Very very few D1 conferences support hockey - Only Big 10 comes to mind. Instead, SBU is interested in sports supported by the AAC, A-10, and CAA - proper all-sports targets. Those include W Crew, W Fencing, and Field Hockey. The last is most likely, as the AEC supports it too.

Before you jump all over me - I"m a humongous hockey fan, and watch my Penguins nearly every game. However, having been involved with SBU's admin and with prior understanding of the true budgetary mandate (something no member of SBU Hockey appears to have, or wants to have by the way these guys come off) and demand that D1 Hockey will have at SBU - I will again say it will NEVER happen at this school. It seems to just be easier to wage an artificially created media war instead of understanding that it's nothing against SBU Hockey that there's no program, nor is it a lack of facilities, foresight, or interest - it's simply not in the business plan of SBU Athletics. Period.

Hammertime

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Thank you Redwyn for making this topic a closed topic.. Even though I am a little disappointment, you most likely are correct about fundings  for a Div1 Hockey team.. Hockey is a expensive sport and a school like SBU just does not have the funding and backing to even consider taking on a major sport like Hockey.... I actually asked Senator Lavalle tonight at the game if it would be possible to getting funding for a Hockey Arena and even though he loves hockey,  it's highly unlikely, in a roundabout way....
« Last Edit: February 19, 2014, 09:36:04 pm by Hammertime »

Redwyn

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Thank you Redwyn for making this topic a closed topic.. Even though I am a little disappointment, you most likely are correct about fundings  for a Div1 Hockey team.. Hockey is a expensive sport and a school like SBU just does not have the funding and backing to even consider taking on a major sport like Hockey.... I actually asked Senator Lavalle tonight at the game if it would be possible to getting funding for a Hockey Arena and even though he loves hockey,  it's highly unlikely, in a roundabout way....

Nothing to be ashamed about on our end - simply put, if Syracuse can't field a M Ice Hockey team, we're not going to either.

As for the football stadium - my sources tell me that the money is locked, it's an attendance issue. Fact is, we can't regularly fill an 8500K stadium besides maybe our opener and homecoming. We still bring in D2 schools because we're stuck in that no-man's land between mid-level performance and poor attendance/low guarantees. No one wants to see us in the hollow confines of a 15000K facility if we can only put 5K into it. Remember, 15K is an FBS minimum - and that's 15K turnout, not capacity. We're gonna need to get that thing to its maximum at roughly 25K or so to be a reasonable candidate. The MAC will welcome us as the first TRUE NYC media-market FBS team with open arms when we're ready and U Mass advances to the AAC. But I'm in no rush to see that happen - gimme a few CAA titles and playoff wins first.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2014, 09:57:07 pm by Redwyn »

sbufan

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It's always good to hear from you Redwyn.