Sacred Heart is "no hockey school, but it is making a big bet that it can be," as it is "building a $60 million, 4,000-seat arena set to open in 2022 for its men’s and women’s teams in an effort to step into the ranks of college hockey’s most competitive programs," according to Dave Caldwell of the N.Y. TIMES. Sacred Heart AD Bobby Valentine said, “There’s a plan now, with the arena being a shining star, for all of our sports having a facility to call home in a short period of time." Sacred Heart's men's team for the past four seasons has played its games at Webster Bank Arena, an 8,500-seat arena in Bridgeport, Conn., 15 minutes from Sacred Heart. All but two home games this season drew crowds of fewer than 1,000 spectators. Caldwell writes Webster is a "top-notch facility," but it is "too big and not theirs." In that light, the arena idea "still seems audacious: a private Roman Catholic university without a big hockey portfolio funding an arena on its own, through borrowing and fund-raising, ticket sales and concessions, and by renting the ice and the facility to outsiders once it is completed" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/30).
