If you’re going to have ASU pay for some of the arena and play their NCAA D-1 athletics teams in the complex, give them a home court/ice advantage too.
Nobody knows for sure how many ASU teams will be playing at the new stadium, but it would make sense for the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the volleyball team to utilize the two arenas along with the hockey team.
However they end up dividing the spaces, it’s still ASU’s space to use too.
So make flames and Sparky a real big deal.
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Use the logos they have, use indoor fire devices and make the mascot a part of the production. Focus on what makes ASU sports, and their hockey program, so unique from all of the other NCAA programs.
I think, in terms of ASU hockey, the coolest entrance for the team, and entirely unique for college hockey programs, is a real entrance like an NHL team.
It would both engage fans in an exciting start to a game and prove to be a strong recruiting point as ASU builds towards what could be a perennially winning NCAA hockey program in the future.
Ideally, the hockey team would enter from the zamboni entrance, with flames and and a pitchfork that rises to the rafters, much like the Coyotes’ moon does now at Gila River Arena.
On top of that, flames would shoot out of the three tips of the pitchfork after a Sun Devils goal (although not shooting high enough to catch the ceiling on fire of course).
A similar type of entrance for the Arizona Coyotes would be fantastic, as well.
With the Yotes entering from an end zone with the moon rising above them as they enter, which progresses from a New to Full Moon as it rises.
In my mind, it would not be as plastic and wobbly as the “Red Moon Rising” prop they have now, but something close to that.
Now that would be quite the experience for a college hockey recruit and Sun Devils/Coyotes fan alike.