EDITORIAL: If you build it, they will come

The time is right to start targeting a donor for a varsity women's ice hockey team. Coming off the high of the U.S. women's gold medal finish in Nagano, the national interest in ice hockey is strong. At other colleges, the following of the sport is more loyal than that of even basketball. Students at Harvard and Cornell universities camp out days in advance for tickets to individual hockey games. And local interest in the sport is traditionally high. The Philadelphia Flyers could well be the most beloved team in the city. The minor league Phantoms, which play in the CoreStates Spectrum, also always see a huge turnout. So what's preventing Penn from establishing a varsity program? In a word: funding. The Athletic Department doesn't have the capacity to support the coaches' salaries, recruiting costs, quality equipment and travel expenses a new team would require. And because of Federal Title IX regulations, the department cannot build a men's team without allocating equal funding for a women's program. What the University needs is an individual donor who is willing to take on the brunt of expenditures for the start-up of a varsity women's ice hockey team. Given the current wave of enthusiasm for the sport, the timing is perfect to start targeting such a donor. Once a women's team is established, the University could look toward procuring funds to build a men's varsity program. The last team Penn created was women's soccer, which has -- in less than 10 years -- built an incredible program. It's been 20 years too long since a varsity ice hockey team graced the Class of 1923 Ice Rink. It's time to give ice hockey a chance.