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Despite being the third-highest attended sport at Kentucky, the Cool Cats hockey club struggles every year to meet its budget and put a team on the ice.
While its fan base is only topped by men's basketball and football, the club generates no revenue. Unlike those two sports, UK ice hockey is not part of the UK athletic department but rather the university's club sports and activities program. The club has no access to the athletic department's resources, instead getting its funding directly from student government.
"Nothing comes from the athletic department," said Club Sports Director Tim King. "[Student government] gives us $10,000 to be split among all of the clubs. It's mostly divided on a need basis."
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Of the $10,000 allotted annually to the club sports program, the hockey team
sees a little less than $1,000. While that amount would be more than enough
for most of the other two dozen clubs to operate, it barely chips into the Cool
Cats' $55,000 annual budget. Ticketmaster
Because of the massive budget, players and team officials, the majority of whom are volunteers, must spend much of their time off the ice raising money and finding sponsors to keep the team afloat.
"The kids are each responsible for $250 worth of T-shirts," said general manager Ian Ward. "They can sell the shirts or just stick them under their bed and pay the fee themselves."
In addition to the T-shirt fee, each player must come up with a $400 registration fee and incoming freshmen pay a $50 jersey fee.
Starting this year, the student government has enacted a program aimed at relieving some of the monetary burdens on club sports. Through this program, any club can apply for an extra $1,000 by simply filling out an application.
Student government President Rachel Watts is optimistic that this extra money will have an impact on the clubs that take advantage of the program.
"The funding allows all club sports, large and small, to expand their participation in competitions, obtain uniforms and update equipment," Watts said. "It enables club sports to be more competitive." Ticketmaster
Cool Cat club officials plan to capitalize on the new grant program but admit that while the money will be helpful, it will not solve all of the financial problems they face.
One of the biggest hits to the club's expense report comes from ice time. The team pays over $20,000 to play and practice at the Lexington Ice Center, a complex several miles from the UK campus.
In addition to a $650 fee the team pays to the center for games, the venue also gets a piece of the ticket sales and all of the concessions. Despite these expenses, the club is still able to make a profit off of the games because of the support of its fans who pack the building by the hundreds on game nights.
"We are the envy of every Division II hockey club in the nation because of our fans," Ward said. "With Ohio State, we're supposed to alternate venues every year, but they will only play here because they love the energy of our fans."
One indication of the team's support came at the end of last season when they sold over 3,500 tickets for an afternoon game with Duke in Rupp Arena. Team officials were expecting another couple of thousand walk-up ticket buyers, but the game was cancelled due to an ice storm that crippled Lexington, Ky.
Ward pointed to the excitement leading up to that game as an example of just how popular ice hockey could be at UK.
"If we were closer to campus, I wouldn't be surprised if we had 2,000 to 3,000 fans a game," Ward said.
One way to escape the monetary difficulties that go along with being a major club sport would be to compete as a university sanctioned varsity sport. But even if the club managed to gain acceptance from the UK athletic department, it would still have to deal with Title IX rules that forbid an uneven number of men's and women's sports programs.
The team would also be making an almost impossible jump from a Division II club to the varsity level. Club officials note that the team would also lose its family atmosphere.
"If we were to go varsity, none of these players would be on the team," said hockey Media Director Matt Eichman. "None of us would be here. It really wouldn't have the same feel."
In the mean time, the Cool Cats are just hoping for a time when they don't have to worry about money and can just concentrate on the game of hockey.
"We just want enough money where we can bus to every road game and buy uniforms for every player," Ward said. "We would take what we need to operate the club and nothing more. Nobody's going to get rich."