Ohio State could decide to move forward with construction a new hockey arena, as the university has issued a request for bids on the project.
Ohio State’s men’s hockey program currently shares Value City Arena at The Jerome Schottenstein Center with men’s and women’s basketball, and has done so since the venue’s opening in 1998. What university officials are considering is whether to move the program into a new facility that would be built to specifically accommodate hockey.
Preliminary plans call for a roughly 4,000-seat arena. The proposal would not only affect men’s hockey, but also women’s hockey, which would shift its games from the OSU Ice Rink, a venue that was originally constructed in 1961. The arena would have two rinks, including one dedicated to the two programs and another that is available for intramurals and other events.
Though Ohio State has acknowledged that it wants to explore its options, officials are noting that the school has not committed to the idea, and that the bids allow the university to do its homework. More from The Columbus Dispatch:
But Shaun Richard, the associate athletic director who administers hockey, cautioned that Sunday’s bid request does not mean that an arena will be built soon, or even at all.
“We’re more just doing our homework to get some numbers and get some concrete information for if we were to take that next step and do something,” Richard said. “We are not committed to doing this at all. We have no money committed at all. We have no site picked out.”
The new arena would have a considerably smaller capacity for men’s hockey than Value City Arena at The Jerome Schottenstein Center, which can seat as many a 17,500 for hockey.
