Five cities presented bids to the Division I Men's Ice Hockey Committee during its annual meeting in the hopes of hosting either the 2007 or 2008 Men's Frozen Four. The presentations highlighted the committee's June 3-6 meeting in Indianapolis.

Presentations came from the University of Denver for the Pepsi Center in Denver; the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) for Joe Louis Arena in Detroit; the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and Rider University for the First Union Center in Philadelphia; College Hockey America (CHA) for the Savvis Center in St. Louis; and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, for the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"All five cities made excellent presentations," said Ron Grahame, current member and incoming chair of the committee. "All of the presentations were very thorough, and it was apparent that they had all done their homework. The committee was in agreement that they were five very worthy candidates."

The decisions made by the committee have been forwarded to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet, which will give final approval during its June 23-26 meeting in Bonita Springs, Florida. The decision will be announced on a media teleconference June 27.

The committee also recommended regional sites through the 2007 season, which also will be announced June 27. The committee decided to select the 2009-11 Frozen Four sites during its 2005 annual meeting, along with regional sites for 2008-11.

Besides listening to presentations, the committee spent most of its time meeting with other hockey groups, including the Men's and Women's Ice Hockey Rules Committee; the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Committee; the six Division I men's ice hockey conference commissioners; Frank Cole, the national coordinator of officials; and Ed Placey, the coordinating producer for NCAA championships on ESPN. Each meeting involved discussions to improve and promote college hockey.

Because the Championships/Competition Cabinet reviews budget-impact items on a two-year cycle, the committee discussed several recommendations that it will forward, including increasing the travel party size for teams that make the tournament and those that advance to the Men's Frozen Four.

In addition, the committee is supporting an Association-wide effort to raise the per diem for on-ice officials. The current per diem has been the same for the past 10 years.

The group also reviewed the team selection process in detail. The main issue involved conference teams playing against each other in the first round, which the committee avoided last season. The issue was raised because of the policy possibly conflicts with another policy in place that states teams will be banded in groups of four.

The committee determined that it was more important to keep teams in their original seeds than to avoid conference match-ups. Therefore, if five teams make the tournament from the same conference and all are either placed in the second or third band of teams, two teams from the same conference will play each other in the first round.

"We hope the committee is never placed in this situation," said Ian McCaw, current chair of the committee. "However, we felt it was important to get feedback from the coaches and commissioners on this situation in case it does arise so we can deal with it effectively."

Other actions

Regional ticket sales were another topic of discussion for the committee. Currently, teams that make the tournament and are placed out of region are guaranteed only 100 tickets for the championship, while in-region teams are guaranteed 250 tickets. The committee decided to increase the number to 250 for all teams that make the tournament, regardless of region.

Another ticket issue involved separating tickets for sessions during regional competition. Currently, all tickets are sold as all-session books and fans must buy tickets for all three games. The committee decided to institute a policy that would allow venues to split tickets starting with the Monday after selections. However, fans who buy the all-session tickets will purchase tickets at a lower price and will receive a better seat location. The committee also voted to have an all-session price range of $60 to $75 for all regional sites.

"This will allow us to reward our loyal fans by giving them better seat locations and prices," said McCaw. "However, this also gives the fans from the schools the flexibility to just buy tickets for their own game without having to buy a ticket for the championship in case their team doesn't advance."

The committee also reviewed the 2003 championship and commended the MAAC, Canisius College, Niagara University and the Buffalo local organizing committee for their work in hosting the Men's Frozen Four. Buffalo and all four regional sites were awarded their full honorarium.

All six Division I conferences were recommended for automatic qualification for the 2004 championship. The conferences are the CCHA, the CHA, the Eastern College Athletic Conference, Hockey East Association, the MAAC and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

In officiating issues, the committee decided that Hockey East's use of an experimental officiating system will not affect their officials' status in the championship. The rules committee approved the altered system that Hockey East requested, and it will become effective immediately for a period of no more than two years.

At the end of the meeting, the committee thanked McCaw for his years of service on the committee and welcomed his replacement, Marty Scarano, the director of athletics at the University of New Hampshire, who will officially join the committee September 1.