Oklahoma State football will receive revenue from Bedlam on Ice hockey game
· Yahoo Sports
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State football coach Eric Morris extended his left arm and pointed out Michael Mann in the back of the Cowboy football meeting room.
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“Kudos to you, sir," Morris said.
In a Tuesday morning press conference leading into Morris’ weekly trip to the podium, Mann, the OSU Hockey Chairman of the Board and booster, outlined details for the Bedlam on Ice event on Jan. 30.
Alongside the featured hockey game outside in Boone Pickens Stadium, five Grammy-winning musical acts (to be announced) will perform pregame, during intermissions and postgame. In the days leading to the event, the ice will be open to the public to skate on.
“That’s awesome, I’ll be promoting the hell out of that,” Morris said.
The entire event will cost $1.5-$2 million, Mann said. The rink itself costs $1 million to build and disassemble.
Mann broke another piece of news, too: The majority of revenue from the event will go to OSU football for the purposes of roster construction. Another portion will go to Cowboys Care, the mental health initiative OSU President Dr. Jim Hess and First Cowgirl Angela Hess launched.
“That’s a great surprise,” Morris said. Everybody have that on camera?”
Tickets went on sale Tuesday through the OSU ticket office. Lower level tickets cost $43. Upper level tickets are $28.
How much money does Mann expect the event to generate?
“Let’s put it this way, I expect that if we were not giving our profits back to football and some other things, we would be profitable,” Mann said.
Mann is from New York and lives in Dallas. He said one of his first roommates in New York City went to OSU and brought Mann to an OSU-West Virginia football game, where he fell in love with the culture in Stillwater.
OSU Athletics operates independently from OSU Hockey, although Mann said the relationship is a daily one.
“The university is putting no money towards this,” Mann said. “Not that they didn't want to. Obviously, funding for anything today within the university world is difficult. So, our student committee actually has worked with sponsors, corporate donors, great supporters of the program, and they helped put all the money together so it's all been done by the group.”
The vision for a hockey game in Boone Pickens Stadium came from OSU Hockey’s student board attending an outdoor hockey game a year and a half ago. Four months ago, talks intensified with OSU to get it done.
Mann said universities everywhere need to focus on alignment and winning. He believes if OSU’s hockey players and fans are able to get a once-in-a-lifetime experience and OSU benefits from it, everyone wins.
“There should be one goal: That’s to win at everything we do," Mann said. "Have the best engineering school, the best business school, win at football, win at hockey.
"And one of the things I preach around this university is I don’t want to hear the drama or the disagreements or any of these things going on. I want to hear the alignment and how we all get together and win at everything."
Ben Hutchens covers OSU athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Ben? He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ben_hutchens_. Sign up for OSU Sports Minute newsletter to access more coverage of the Cowboys and Cowgirls. Support Ben's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma State football will receive revenue from Bedlam on Ice hockey game