NCRHA Winternational

[TourFLA98]

Is the winternational for the college league going to be in Key West FL again? I live in Florida and don't even wanna travel to that crappy rink! Key West might be nice for the NCRHA employees getting a free ride, but it's a horrible choice for a winternational.

anyone agree?

[ISFN]

While I agree with you, you have to see if from their point and the logic behind it. They aren't looking to get the best of the best but more of a college vacation with some hockey involved. I personally think its a horriable idea but if thats the direction they're shooting for then its working.

I propose to drop the whole vacation first hockey second moto behind the winterfest and make it a rotating tournament just as the summer nationals are.

[GoRangrHky]

Well, they tried rotating it, and put it in Michigan. Have you been to Michigan in January? It truly is the intersection of Hell and Canada. It's awful. I'd like to see it at a warm weather spot, but I personally don't think Key West is the place to do it, simply because of the cost involved to get there. It's either you have to fly into Key West, which is typically hundreds more per ticket, or fly to Miami, and then rent a few cars and gas and drive for a few hours each way. While nice and scenic, and something I would probably be willing to do, I just don't think that too many college kids, especially right before the holidays, are willing to shell out for it. I agree that it can be planned for and fundraised all semester and everything that SHOULD be done, but the point is that it isn't. And that's why 3 schools are showing up every year for it, unfortunately.

[wednthavddr]

I think the main point that needs to be taken is that the tournament has not seen 6 teams. The NCRHA usually has the tournament the first weekend of January. Maybe delay some spring tournaments for schools and set up winternationals with NARCH. Last year NARCh had west coast winternationals at San Jose starting Jan 16th. Im sure you would get 4 teams from Cali to play in it with their college teams.

Maybe this idea is stretching it, but the plan right now is not inspiring to get players to key west.

[JLambertUMSL]

IMO they should keep it simple with a few special events like the ECRHA/Lindenwood/Michigan State/Central Florida weekend last year.

Or....Winters in San Jose, please!

[InlineMBA]

How about NARCh having a College Division at Winternationals, like the old days before the NCRHA? And, let all teams (D1, D2, D3) be in one division.

Steve Inge - ROXBURY 8

[wednthavddr]

If you do it at NARCh winters, would you have college divisions in both tournaments or one. If you will have them at both...how do you crown one Winternationals champion, or do you just have two..

It would be fun to have it at narch because then kids can put their teams into adult divisions and others.

[ISFN]

NCRHA @ Narch is the way to go, end the Winterfest and invest the time and money into a College division at Narch. Way more exposure for the NCRHA and should in the end be less of a hassle for all thoes involved and like the other poster said many college kids would then in turn enter in adult/junior divisions. Should be a no brainer for Narch but not sure the NCRHA would be on board.

[cojones81]

They had the college division in NARCH awhile back I think 04-05. I personally played in it and I think it went well. It was in Reno, Nevada where I was going to school, But EMU came out as well as DU and quite a few cali teams. I liked playing with everybody it came down to a OCC vs. EMU championship game which was fun to watch, after our ot loss to Brandon Barnette and Stephen Cambell OCC...
No it was a good tourney to me though. Always a thought to try again for NARCH, and in San Jose..
corey jones

[The Golden Boy]

Last Year I was in the process of organizing a winter national event. Unfortunately, we got started to late, and weren't able to get everything organized. The idea I had was to do an invite only event with all the top D1 teams across the country. It would draw 8-15 teams. The location was Ft. Myers, FL at a rink called Skatium. The rink has brand new floors and glass. Full locker rooms with showers, pro shop, food, etc. The rink is also about 5 minutes from the beach, and within close proximity to many Florida historical sites.

Their were two options for how the tournament would take place. One was, The games would all be considered exhibition games toward the teams regular season. It would strictly be a pool play tournament. The other option was to do this, make it as a regular season event. Let all teams play 4 round robin games which would go towards their regular season record. Then from their re-seed, and play it out as a tournament style in which the remaining games would be considered exhibition games. This would combine a cross regional event with a winter national event.

The biggest problem was the dates of schools final exams for fall. Since the northern schools start later than the southern schools there wasn't a date that would work for everyone. I am hoping that this year we can make it happen, and get a great turnout. Give me some feedback and suggestions.... who would be interested??

GB

[InlineMBA]

Since my son is going to be a junior in college, this September, I only remember the last 2 NARCh Winternationals (West Coast/East Coast) and the West Coast event was during Christmas Break, while the East Coast event was during the Spring semester.

I even remember the ECRHA having an event in Long Island the same weekend, two years ago, as the East Coast Winternationals. Lots of guys came over to catch some NARCh Pro games.

I would like to see all college divisions combined, this way - maybe, you could see some D2 vs D1 matchups.

Steve Inge - ROXBURY 8

[ssuhockey]

Disneys Wide World of Sports has a great set up for inline if anyone has ever been there.

Orlando is a great spot and fairly easy to get to!

[wednthavddr]

Very true about Disney but they only put flooring down once a year and it is usually for the echo tournament which i think is being held the first week of october this year. From what I hear disney charges a lot of money for that tournament

[ssuhockey]

In May they also do AAU Nationals... I worked the tournament this year for the AAU and the 2 rink set up is VERY nice!

[The Golden Boy]

Disney is out of the question. First off the rinks are smaller than what is called for by NCRHA standards. On top of this the rink is ridiculously expensive. Usually when the "ECHO" event is there it is not really an echo event. Echo just runs the event, kind of like a hired outsource. I am not sure what the AAU situation is, but I am confident that AAU as a whole has a contract with Disney since there are many AAU events in all different sports there. I have worked at Disney, and spoken to the people who run the World Wide Sports Complex, and unless the college event is somehow incorporated into an existing tournament, it will never be possible, and AAU wont ever do this until the NCRHA is sanctioned by AAU.

[ssuhockey]

I think saying "Out of the Question" is a little assumptious. The way things run right now it may not make sense, but if they could somehow make the tournament appealing to Disney then they would work with the NCRHA to make it happen.

What are the rink dimensions @ Disney? I wasn't down on the floor but they looked plenty big enough to me. I just think if you want to make it appealing to teams to come down then that would be a great location.

Also, if UCF or SECRHL wanted to jump in more and "host" the event I think it could be very successful.

[The Golden Boy]

I play for UCF...... Disney is 100% out of the question. Trust me, I have looked into it multiple times! Last year the floor was down for 2 weeks. They had an AAU and an "ECHO" back to back weekends. They wouldn't even open the rink for us for a 2 hr practice one night during the week because they claimed it wasn't "cost efficient". Unless somehow the College event was incorporated to an existing tournament at Disney, there is no way it would be affordable. Maybe a college national championship with 50 teams..... but even then the budget would be VERY tight. A Winter National or regular season event could never happen though. And on top of all that, those rinks aren't up to par. One hard crash into the boards and they move. By the end of the weekend if you look closely the boards are more crooked than someones spine with scoliosis!!

[wednthavddr]

Im not sure of the dimensions but the rink is very skinny and the "corners" of the boards are very extreme.. They aren't rounded. There are like 2 rounded boards that make up the corner.

Overall disney is alright. They charge for spectators to watch, the walk from parking lot to rink is long, the view to watch games kinda suck unless you are front row, and the rinks are not up to par.

The locker rooms are awesome and surrounding area is great. I just do not see it in the future.

[ssuhockey]

Is there another rink in central florida that would work?

It just seems that a winter tournament in the "tourist capital of the world" wouldn't be all that bad...

[The Golden Boy]

The only facilities in Florida that could host a major tournament are Skatezone and Skatium. The Skatium Facility is much nicer. It may not be in Orlando which has Disney and such, but I don't think someone coming from the snow up north will have anything to complain about having a beautiful beach 5 minutes from the rink. LOL. Skatezone is also great facility but the locker rooms and fan seating is not very accommodating for the roller rink. TECO, or "Germain" arena is also amazing, but all three rinks are ice, and word of mouth is that not even NARCH can afford to go there right now because of the money they are asking to rent the facility. In my personal opinion I love playing at Skatium, and think it is the nicest roller facility in the state, as of now.

[ssuhockey]

Yeah, in my mind if I would bring a team from Ohio I would love to go to Florida in January.... It is so much more costly for Key West then it would be for anywhere else in Florida. I say keep the tourney in Florida and just make it more accessible and you would see a considerable increase.

Key West is a nice idea for a perfect destination it just seems hard to pull off.

[GoRangrHky]

SoCal for me. I'd love to be on the beach in January out there.

[ssuhockey]

SoCal for me. I'd love to be on the beach in January out there.

Anyplace has to be better than Mass. in January correct?

[GoRangrHky]

I don't know, the NCRHA has a winter tournament one year in Michigan in January. That was probably worse. http://www.ncrha.org/article.php?article_id=50235

[spencerhs5]

I play for UCF...... Disney is 100% out of the question. Trust me, I have looked into it multiple times! Last year the floor was down for 2 weeks. They had an AAU and an "ECHO" back to back weekends. They wouldn't even open the rink for us for a 2 hr practice one night during the week because they claimed it wasn't "cost efficient". Unless somehow the College event was incorporated to an existing tournament at Disney, there is no way it would be affordable. Maybe a college national championship with 50 teams..... but even then the budget would be VERY tight. A Winter National or regular season event could never happen though. And on top of all that, those rinks aren't up to par. One hard crash into the boards and they move. By the end of the weekend if you look closely the boards are more crooked than someones spine with scoliosis!!

Sounds about right Disney is fun tournaments as a kid, as an adult it pretty well sucked because of the rink. If the league is just looking for an exhibition style tournament in good vacation atmosphere they really should look at the Deerfield rink. It gets the teams to south florida, they can fly into a major airport (Ft. Lauderdale) and have less than a 20 minute drive. It is only a one rink facility so it could not host a major tournament but its a decent floor and boards. If they had to they could play a game or two at skatezone since its only another 20 minutes from Deerfield, I dont recommend having the whole thing at skatezone because that would take the teams hotels further from Ft. Lauderdale. Plus between downtown ft lauderdale, beach place, the hard rock and the beach itself theres enough for them to do here.

[FAUplayer]

PB Skatezone would be a great place for a Winternational. They have one permanant roller rink, which is really all you need for an event this small. There is one hotel on Skatezone property, and another down the street still in walking distance (two hotels is more than eneough for an event like this). Palm Beach International has started become a larger airport, and can find decent flights there (less than 10 minutes from skatezone). Ft Lauderdale International is about 35-40 minute drive, which is not too bad, because you can get a lot of great prices. Your a 35 minute drive from Downtown Ft Lauderdale, and like 10 minutes from City Place. The beaches are great nearby too. As far as the seating and locker rooms, if you were at TORHS, you would have answered those questions yourself; they removed the picnic tables from rooms and place in regular locker room benches (worked out perfectly) and they removed the picnic tables from the perimeter of rink and placed in small bleachers. TORHS was great at Skatezone, and could easily hold an event like this. Also, One of the guys in charge of Skatezone, Mike Bunting, also holds a high rank with USA Hockey (I believe) and they oversaw everything at Nationals this past year. Deerfield Sportsmall can potentially hold this event, but not at its current state. The rink usually has no aircondition, and technically the "locker rooms" were deemed unoccupiable by the city marshall; they now use the mens and womens gym locker rooms for each team to use. The actual rink I like more at Sportsmall, a nice fast sportcourt, and it is also larger than Skatezone. The location is cheaper in Deerfield as well, and it puts you much closer to Fort Lauderdale Airport and Downtown.

Overall, I think if the NCRHA decided to move the tournament to Skatezone or Sportsmall, you will get ALL Florida schools to at least commit, and get a lot of out of state schools as well, instead of 4 random teams like in the past.

* Disney is a great facility to play at. It creates an atmosphere that is unique. I have played there many times. In october, theres a good 3 or 4 week period when the floor is down for 3 tournament; AAU , ECHO, and Dek. An event liek this would not work because the facility is way too big for such a smaller event; a summer national would be suitabel though.

* As far as Teco/Germain arena, I do not think NARCh does not go there because of the cost of it; the city pays for pretty much everything because of all the business it brings to the area. I think they have not gone back there because they have gone there so many times already.

[TourFLA98]

SO CAL should def. be the spot for winternationals! I need another excuse to visit the west coast.