Inside College Hockey | NCAA Picks Future Sites

June 27, 2003
St. Louis, Denver to Host Frozen Fours
Committee announces 2007 and '08 sites, plus Regionals

By Nate Ewell and Mike Eidelbes

St. Louis and Denver will host the 2007 and 2008 Frozen Fours, respectively, the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Committee announced on Friday.

Future Frozen Four Sites
2004	Boston
Look forward to: Thursday's pregame meals at Fours, between games meal at Durgin Park, and a postgame meal in the North End.
Be wary of: Eating too much.
2005	Columbus
Look forward to: Hanging out at The Varsity Club with Maurice Clarett. There's no chance he'll turn pro before then, right?
Be wary of: Going to the wrong arena. With a pair of 15,000-seat rinks 15 minutes away, just remember you want Value City Arena.
2006	Milwaukee
Look forward to: Bratwurst.
Be wary of: Anyone on the organizing committee who says, "We plan to run this just like Bud Selig would."
2007	St. Louis
Look forward to: Views of the arch and tours at Anheuser-Busch.
Be wary of: Affordable hotel rates in East St. Louis.
2008	Denver
Look forward to: Magnificent views of the Rockies and a nice steak from the Chop House, a favorite hangout of the Colorado Avalanche.
Be wary of: The thin air, which will affect the teams on the ice and your tolerance at the bars in LoDo.

The two cities won out in a very competitive bid process for what has become one of the NCAA’s No. 2 money-making championship (behind men’s basketball). St. Louis will host its second Frozen Four and first since 1975, while Denver will host the event for the third time and first since 1976. Detroit, Philadelphia and St. Paul were the other finalists who made in-person presentations to the committee.

“There’s a very broad spectrum of criteria considered, and all five finalists made excellent presentations,” said committee chairman Ian McCaw, the athletic director at Massachusetts. “We felt like St. Louis and Denver rose to the top.

“We only had two awards to make and had five outstanding choices,” McCaw said. “Ultimately it was a matter of making the best decision for college hockey.”

In addition to the Frozen Four selections, the committee awarded eight regionals in 2005, 2006 and 2007 (see box, right). The eight selections came from 16 bids—10 in the West and six in the East—with Amherst, Mass., Green Bay, Wis., Rochester, N.Y., and Denver scheduled to host their first regionals in those years. Grand Rapids, Mich., which was awarded the Midwest Regional in 2005 and 2007, was the only city to earn more than one of the eight regionals awarded Friday.

Most notably, 2007 will be the first year when none of the regionals will be held at on-campus sites.

“We certainly heard the coaches (on that issue),” McCaw said. “The feedback suggested that there was a great deal of interest in moving to neutral sites. We did do that for 2007 and certainly for the next cycle of bids for 2008 and beyond that will be an issue the committee has to discuss.”

The 2007 Frozen Four will be held at the Savvis Center, home of the NHL’s St. Louis Blues. College Hockey America and the St. Louis Sports Commission are the co-hosts for the bid, and the committee praised their well-organized bid, which included support from local government officials.

Future Regional Sites
2004
East	Albany, N.Y.
Midwest	Grand Rapids, Mich.
Northeast	Manchester, N.H.
West	Colorado Springs, Colo.
2005
East	Worcester, Mass.
Midwest	Grand Rapids, Mich.
Northeast	Amherst, Mass.
West	Minneapolis, Minn.
2006
East	Albany, N.Y.
Midwest	Green Bay, Wis.
Northeast	Worcester, Mass.
West	Grand Forks, N.D.
2007
East	Rochester, N.Y.
Midwest	Grand Rapids, Mich.
Northeast	Manchester, N.H.
West	Denver, Colo.

“From St. Louis’s perspective, the committee recognized their enthusiasm for college hockey,” said incoming committee chair Ron Grahame, an associate athletic director at Denver. “They sold us that the community would embrace college hockey.”

While it could be labeled a non-traditional site, St. Louis has hosted the Frozen Four before – in 1975 when Michigan Tech won its most recent title – and it did have a team in the city. St. Louis University was one of the founding members of the CCHA, but dropped its program after the 1978-79 season.

The Pepsi Center and the University of Denver play host the West Regional in 2007, one year before they welcome the crowds for the 2008 Frozen Four. The NCAA hockey championship has its origins in Colorado – it was played in Colorado Springs for the first 10 years – and has been held in Denver on three previous occasions.

One surprise among the selections could be that a return to St. Paul, Minn., isn’t on the horizon. The Xcel Energy Center hosted a wildly successful Frozen Four in 2002—setting attendance records and generating an incredible buzz thanks to the hometown Golden Gophers. McCaw praised the city’s bid—as he did Detroit’s and Philadelphia’s—and specifically noted that he would expect St. Paul to be a factor in the next cycle of bids in 2005.

The committee also announced that the 2004 Frozen Four, to be held at the FleetCenter in Boston, is sold out. It’s the fifth consecutive year that the event has been sold out.

The next cycle of bids – for the 2009, 2010 and 2011 Frozen Fours and regionals through 2011 – will be awarded in 2005.