Part V: Will Barta add more sports to growing list of facilities?

IOWA CITY - A proposed 7,000-seat, $45 million arena in Coralville's Iowa River Landing has eyes on hosting ice hockey at all levels, from junior leagues to college.

Right now it's the University of Iowa's club hockey team that's the likely tenant for the new arena, once it gets its funding. But if it comes to fruition, there's wishful speculation that Iowa's athletics department should add men's and women's hockey as a full-time sport.

Penn State added hockey three years ago, which allowed the Big Ten to reach its magic number of six and sponsor men's hockey. The schools with men's hockey include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State and Penn State. Only four schools - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State - play women's hockey, so the Big Ten does not sponsor it.

Each sport offers a maximum of 18 scholarships. According to numbers supplied by the schools to The Gazette, expenses for men's hockey ranged from $2.35 million (Ohio State) to $5.8 million (Minnesota). As for the women, Ohio State and Penn State spent a little more than $1.7 million, while Wisconsin ($3.4 million) nearly doubled it.

With men's hockey programs averaging $3.74 million in expenses and women's programs averaging $2.33 million, that's more than $6 million in extra costs Iowa would absorb with hockey. Even with a flush of new income from a Big Ten media rights deal, it's not enough to move Iowa Athletics Director Gary Barta toward adding a sport right now.

'Every time that it comes up, one of the things that hockey has a disadvantage in our situation has been there hasn't been an arena,” Barta said. 'If there was a facility, would that make it better? I don't want to give false hope, but at least that takes one thing off the table.”

'We've made great strides (in several sports), but until we are solid just hitting on all cylinders, right now I don't see that it makes sense to add a sport when I'm not done yet giving the sports that we have all the support that they need.”

Barta's words also include men's soccer and lacrosse. The Big Ten added lacrosse last year after a Big Ten expansion included Maryland (men and women) and affiliate member Johns Hopkins (men last year, women next year). Iowa sponsors soccer for women but not for men. To add men's soccer, Iowa would have to either drop a men's sport or add a women's sport based on gender equity.

There also would be added expenses. Men's soccer programs offer 9.9 scholarships. Wisconsin, for instance, spent $2.28 million on soccer in fiscal year 2014, according to figures revealed to The Gazette. Iowa's men's gymnastics program offers 6.22 scholarships and spent $723,768 the same year.

'Soccer, lacrosse, there's a lot of great sports out there that if we were planning to add a sport, we would evaluate the merits, positive and negative,” Barta said. 'First of all, we have 24. Until we are hitting on all cylinders in those 24, I'm not planning in the short term to add any sports.

'We provide the full scholarship allotment. We provide the full coaching allotment and we do pay attention to whether it's golf or tennis, whether it's men's basketball or women's basketball, how are we compared with our peers across the country,”

Barta plans another wave of improvements as part of a facility master plan. Tuesday he unveiled plans to renovate Kinnick Stadium's north end zone ($35-45 million), construct a new indoor track and field facility ($15-20 million) on the west side of campus and build a residence hall ($85 million) for athletes and other students. Athletics will form part of the dorm cost, along with dormitory revenue bonds.

Among other future possibilities include a small arena on the west edge of campus, new baseball, softball and track stadiums and a dining center.

Iowa completed a $55 million football operations center late last fall, which has led to a wave of football commitments this summer. Barta said it has had 'a tremendous impact” for football, as did the Carver-Hawkeye Arena practice facility as part of a $47 million project.

'It's recruiting, but it's more than that,” he said. 'Every day when those student-athletes come to work out, come to train, come to study film, they're just in an incredible environment. It's a great environment to work in, it's a great environment to train in, study in, spend time in.”

That's the goal for any project for Iowa athletics.

l Comments: (319) 339-3169; scott.dochterman@thegazette.com