MSU assistant hockey coach Dave McAuliffe’s childhood dream of rushing out of the Spartan Stadium tunnel is closer to becoming a reality, as MSU is in the process of planning an outdoor hockey game on the football field next season.
The game would probably be played toward the end of the season in either February or March against archrival Michigan, replacing the teams’ annual meeting at Munn Ice Arena.
The fate of the proposal should be finalized within the next two weeks.
“Growing up in this area, I went to football and basketball games my whole life hoping someday we’d get a U-M/MSU game there,” said McAuliffe, who played for the Spartans from 1986-90 and has been an assistant coach for nine years. “I imagined coming out of the tunnel, the place is crazy and the stadium is sold out. That’s the whole dream, coming out of the tunnel and the place goes crazy just like football.”
Head coach Ron Mason never took the idea seriously when McAuliffe first started joking about it five years ago. But when Mark Hollis, associate athletics director for external relations, caught wind of McAuliffe’s dream, he began to seriously look at the logistics.
Since then, the athletics department has been in contact with Custom Ice, a Toronto-based company, and one other company about the cost of converting Spartan Stadium into a hockey rink for one night. The NHL even recommended a Los Angeles-based company to MSU.
Hollis said a goal of the event is to break the current record for most fans attending a hockey game - which stands at 55,000. That record was set by the Russian National Team in the 1950s when it played in a soccer stadium in Moscow. Spartan Stadium’s capacity is 72,027.
But the event, which could cost about $100,000, will have to be profitable for the university in order for it to take place, Hollis said.
“If we do it, at a minimum, we want to make money,” he said.
Mason said the final decision will be made by the athletics department, but would still need to be approved by the administration.
“It’s more a reality than a fantasy,” Mason said. “We’re waiting on numbers - it will come down to a financial decision.”
While the decision remains a financially based one, the athletics department wants to make the event feasible for fans by selling the majority of the tickets for about $10. However, there is the concern that ticket sales could lag if weather is poor.
Also, fans might not be as close to the action as they would be at Munn. Even though the rink would spread only from one 20-yard line to the other, only the pep bands would be allowed seats on the field.
Mason, MSU’s coach of 22 years, said he sees the game as a great way to promote college hockey rather than as a gaudy publicity stunt.
“I don’t think it’s gimmicky; I think it’s an event,” Mason said. “It’s an event that will give people an opportunity to see us in a place other than (Joe Louis Arena) or Munn.
“Anytime you can get publicity or focus on your game on a national level it’s a good thing.”
MSU senior right wing Adam Hall said before he found out the details of the setup, he thought the idea was unbelievable. He called it “far-fetched.”
“But the possibility of breaking that record here in East Lansing against a team like U-M would be phenomenal,” Hall said. “Having the opportunity to play in a forum like Spartan Stadium - a lot of players don’t get that chance.
“It would be really something.”
Hall added he didn’t think the team would have a problem adjusting to the change of atmosphere or be intimidated by playing in front of so many people.
“We’ve played in the Joe in front of 20,000-plus fans,” Hall said of Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, where MSU and U-M often meet.
“But Spartan Stadium is a little more spread out. I really would not know what to expect, but as long as the ice surface is the same I think we’d be able to do our jobs.”
Justin A. Rice can be reached at ricejust@msu.edu.
