Thursday, Bentley University announced that they’re building a new, state-of-the-art multi-purpose arena. This new arena will serve as the future home of the Bentley Falcons beginning during the 2018-19 season. The new on-campus arena will hold 2,000 fans for hockey and 3,400 for other events.
The Falcons are a member of Atlantic Hockey and finished the 2015-16 season in eighth place of the AHA standings with a 14-20-6, and 9-13-6 AHA record. One of the highlights of the Falcons season was a non-conference series sweep against the Northeastern Huskies (3-2 W, 4-1 W).
We are excited to announce the plans for a Multipurpose Arena! https://t.co/SJsoS8lGlk #BentleyU #BentleyHockey pic.twitter.com/ge3jykGXPX
— Bentley Hockey (@BentleyHockey) July 7, 2016
Currently, the Falcons play their home games at the 1,200-seat John A. Ryan Arena in Watertown, Massachusetts. During the 2015-16 season, the Falcons were 6-10-3 at home and were ranked 58th out 60 teams nationally in attendance. A new on-campus arena should give the Falcons a much-needed edge in recruiting and could help improve their attendance numbers.
Falcons head coach Ryan Soderquist is pleased with today’s announcement.
“I am grateful to the Board, our president, leadership team and the many others involved for all their hard work and commitment to this project. As the hockey coach, it is a dream come true for me and clearly, demonstrates the commitment to and excitement around our evolving Division 1 hockey program,” Soderquist said.
Bob DeFelice, athletics director for Bentley says, “We are obviously very excited about building a new arena for our university. It will provide our Division 1 hockey program a much-needed state-of-the-art facility as their home, and provide a large enough space to host a wide variety of events for the student body, which has been missing from our campus. It’s an important investment in the future of our school.”