Post by Commissioner on Feb 15, 2023 10:33:14 GMT -5
Many of us older guys remember growing up in Detroit and watching curling on Channel 9 out of Windsor. One might run across it if you accidentally turned the dial the wrong direction when trying to get from Channel 7 to Channel 4, or maybe if you were looking for a rerun of Gilligan's Island. It was kind of a funny novelty, worth watching for a few minutes as grown men with whisk brooms swept 40 pound granite rocks down the ice.
Anyway, curling has come a long way since then, and is rising in popularity in the U.S., in part thanks to the Team USA winning the gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. A couple years back my wife and I took up the sport--it's a great game of skill, strategy, and athletic ability. What about UofD adding Curling?
Drawbacks:
1. The U can barely support its current athletic programs.
2. Curling is not an NCAA recognized sport. If we're going to add teams, we need teams that participate in the NCAA, because we're already operating with a limited number of D1 teams that could jeopardize our standing in D1 basketball.
3. Who the hell cares? It's not like this will make the University widely known or attract large numbers of students.
4. Where the hell is the team going to practice and play?
Pluses:
1. The sport is a natural for Detroit, bordering, as we do, Canada, where it's the national sport (hockey be damned!). Curling in the U.S. is centered around the Great Lakes.
2. There are curently about 2 dozen colleges and universities that sponsor curling. These include a lot of schools that, academically, you would want to hang around with if you want to boost your academic rep in people's minds--Penn, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rochester Institute of Technology, Bowdien, Cornell, RPI. They include a team Titans would probably like to see us play in any sport--Notre Dame. They include some reasonably travel friendly potential opponents--in addition to the Irish, Toledo, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Green Bay, Wisconsin-Superior, Penn State. There are also a number of nearby clubs that sponsor tournaments (bonspiels, in curling lingo) in which a team could compete. The national collegiate championship will be held next month at the Bowling Green (Ohio) Curling Club.
3. It's Title IX friendly.
4. It's a sport not dominated by large state institutions--not yet, anyway. Stevens Point is the defending national champion (the championship is sponsored by USA Curling). Currently, the #1 ranked team is RPI (Rennselaer Polytech).
5. While it's not going to attract an extra 5000 applications nationally, it's not a scholarship sport, so the costs are low, and I expect you could get several students to come to Detroit who would not otherwise do so, because they want to curl in college. In other words, right now it is a low cost niche sport that probably would attract new students you wouldn't otherwise get. Being somewhat unique, one could also see some PR/media opportunities there. The cost would be minimal, and would probably pay for itself or even turn a profit with even a handful of new students and minimal sponsorship.
6. The Detroit Curling Club is 5 miles from the McNichols campus, in Ferndale. It's a relatively large club, with 4 sheets of ice. My guess is that arrangements could be made for practice and game time there.
Anyway, just a thought--something I might look into if I were the AD (the Athletic Director, not the point guard).
P.S. Won our league match last night, 6-2. Just one loss on the season!
Anyway, curling has come a long way since then, and is rising in popularity in the U.S., in part thanks to the Team USA winning the gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics. A couple years back my wife and I took up the sport--it's a great game of skill, strategy, and athletic ability. What about UofD adding Curling?
Drawbacks:
1. The U can barely support its current athletic programs.
2. Curling is not an NCAA recognized sport. If we're going to add teams, we need teams that participate in the NCAA, because we're already operating with a limited number of D1 teams that could jeopardize our standing in D1 basketball.
3. Who the hell cares? It's not like this will make the University widely known or attract large numbers of students.
4. Where the hell is the team going to practice and play?
Pluses:
1. The sport is a natural for Detroit, bordering, as we do, Canada, where it's the national sport (hockey be damned!). Curling in the U.S. is centered around the Great Lakes.
2. There are curently about 2 dozen colleges and universities that sponsor curling. These include a lot of schools that, academically, you would want to hang around with if you want to boost your academic rep in people's minds--Penn, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Rochester Institute of Technology, Bowdien, Cornell, RPI. They include a team Titans would probably like to see us play in any sport--Notre Dame. They include some reasonably travel friendly potential opponents--in addition to the Irish, Toledo, Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Green Bay, Wisconsin-Superior, Penn State. There are also a number of nearby clubs that sponsor tournaments (bonspiels, in curling lingo) in which a team could compete. The national collegiate championship will be held next month at the Bowling Green (Ohio) Curling Club.
3. It's Title IX friendly.
4. It's a sport not dominated by large state institutions--not yet, anyway. Stevens Point is the defending national champion (the championship is sponsored by USA Curling). Currently, the #1 ranked team is RPI (Rennselaer Polytech).
5. While it's not going to attract an extra 5000 applications nationally, it's not a scholarship sport, so the costs are low, and I expect you could get several students to come to Detroit who would not otherwise do so, because they want to curl in college. In other words, right now it is a low cost niche sport that probably would attract new students you wouldn't otherwise get. Being somewhat unique, one could also see some PR/media opportunities there. The cost would be minimal, and would probably pay for itself or even turn a profit with even a handful of new students and minimal sponsorship.
6. The Detroit Curling Club is 5 miles from the McNichols campus, in Ferndale. It's a relatively large club, with 4 sheets of ice. My guess is that arrangements could be made for practice and game time there.
Anyway, just a thought--something I might look into if I were the AD (the Athletic Director, not the point guard).
P.S. Won our league match last night, 6-2. Just one loss on the season!