Press Release: NCHC Announces Consultants

BETHESDA, MD, August 3, 2011 – The newly formed National Collegiate Hockey Conference has engaged two of the country’s leading sports consulting companies, The Goldwater Group and Stafford Sports, to handle planning, coordination and execution of several key projects.

After coordinating the July 13 news conference in Colorado Springs, CO, to officially announce the formation of men’s college hockey’s newest premier league, The Goldwater Group, based in Bethesda, MD, and Stafford Sports, of Medford, NJ, will work on multiple tasks on behalf of the conference’s six founding members: Colorado College, University of Denver, Miami University, 2011 NCAA champion University of Minnesota Duluth, University of Nebraska Omaha and University of North Dakota.

The consultant team has simultaneously commenced work on a national search for the conference’s first commissioner; a research and assessment process of prospective, additional members with no specific, pre-determined limit on the final number of institutions; investigating the best-possible media platforms, including a broadcast package, to be in place before the conference’s inaugural season in 2013-14; and identifying viable venues for a post-season championship game.

“As the athletic directors were exploring the possibility of forming a new conference, the complexity of multi-faceted needs was very apparent and we were fortunate to engage and partner with The Goldwater Group and Stafford Sports as our consultants,” said North Dakota Athletic Director Brian Faison. “I know I speak for all of the founding members in saying we appreciate the broad expertise, knowledge, responsiveness and leadership of our consultant team.”

The two consulting firms have successfully collaborated on a range of sports, business development, marketing and venue management projects in recent years and were tapped to utilize their collective experience to cover the variety of disciplines the founding members required to launch the conference. The consultant team is led by Bobby Goldwater, the president of The Goldwater Group, and Carl Hirsh and Rich Oriolo, the principals of Stafford Sports.

Additional information relating to the search for a commissioner, the assessment process for additional member institutions and the other projects being handled by the consultant team for the National Collegiate Hockey Conference can be obtained by contacting The Goldwater Group at bobbygoldwater@gmail.com.