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In 2004, the Puck Stops Here
Coliseum lands NCAA Div. I women's hockey finals
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Business New Haven
3/4/2002
By: BNH
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Following burgeoning interest stimulated by the recently concluded Winter Olympic Games, can women's hockey attract a larger fan base?
Part of the answer to that question will be revealed in New Haven two years hence when Veterans Memorial Coliseum hosts the 2004 NCAA Division I women's hockey championships.
The two-day event will be co-hosted by the Coliseum, Yale University and the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC). Semifinals will be played on Friday, April 9, 2004 with consolation and championship games to be played two days later.
The 2004 event will be just the fourth NCAA Women's Hockey Championship. The 2001 Frozen Four was hosted by the University of Minnesota and held in Minneapolis, and 2002 is set for Durham, N.H., on the campus of the University of New Hampshire. Next spring the event will be hosted by the University of Minnesota/Duluth. The New Haven event will be the first time the women's championship will venture to an off-campus site.
The 8,000-seat Coliseum (NHC), managed by SMG, hosted its first women's hockey contest earlier this winter. The U.S. National Women's Hockey Team played an exhibition game on December 15 and drew 3,276 in a win over Sweden.
According to Coliseum General Manager Lisa Audi, “With national television coverage, numerous out-of-town guests and college hockey's women's championship to be crowned at the Coliseum, this is a great day for the city of New Haven.”
The 2002 championship will be broadcast live on CNN/Sports Illustrated and the New England Sports Network (NESN).
The Yale men's hockey team has played 16 games at the Coliseum over the years, averaging 4,579 fans. The largest home crowd in the history of Yale hockey came to the Coliseum when 7,460 showed up for the Bulldogs' first game at their home away from home, the 1979 Harvard game. The Yale women's program, which began play in 1977, has played all of its home games at Ingalls Rink on the Yale campus, which holds 3,486 spectators for hockey.
The ECAC is the largest women's college hockey organization in the country, sponsoring four playing leagues in Divisions I and III and totaling 33 teams for the 2001-02 season.
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