The Berry Events Center has been home to NMU Hockey for the past eight seasons. As the Cats embark upon their ninth season at the Berry, we decided to write an overview of the facility and how the Cats have fared over the previous eight years.
The Berry Events Center, located on the eastern edge of NMU’s campus in Marquette, is a beautiful state of the art multi-sport facility. The $12 million facility was constructed in 1999. It is not only home to the Wildcat hockey team, but also the men’s and women’s basketball teams, United States Olympic Education Center short track speed skating team and special entertainment events. The Berry seats up to 4,000 for hockey (including standing room only), and includes a 100′ X 200′ Olympic-size ice sheet, NMU Hockey’s private NHL-caliber locker room, four multi-purpose locker rooms, state of the art workout and weight rooms, 15 luxury suites and a banquet room.

The Berry’s existence was largely made possible by the generous contribution of $2 million by John Berry, a 1971 graduate of NMU. Mr. Berry was a very popular student at NMU and a legendary TKE fraternity member. He also comes from a very distinguished and successful family in Ohio. In fact, Mr. Berry’s grandfather invented the modern-day yellow pages, used by virtually every city in the United States. Today, the Berrys are one of the most successful business families in Ohio. NMU will forever owe Mr. Berry a great debt of gratitude for his contribution to the facility.

Despite the Berry’s tremendous superiority to NMU’s former hockey home at Lakeview Arena, many fans and residents of Marquette have expressed disappointment over the past eight years. People have often complained about the poorly designed chair seating, narrow walkways and alcohol ban. In addition, the exterior of the building was constructed with tan-color Spancrete panels, which totally conflict with the campus-wide design standard of brick and mortar. These design flaws have been a major sore point to many fans and supporters of the program. Ironically the firm that designed the Berry (Integrated Design, Inc.) had absolutely no previous experience with sports arenas, and have never been called upon to construct another facility in North America. NMU will forever be questioned for making that decision instead of listening to its own in-house expert, Paul Umari.

However, when you observe the Berry as a whole, there are not too many facilities of its kind in college hockey. The atmosphere in the Berry is second to none. The arena’s simplicity and small, cozy confines have drawn many great reviews by visiting fans from across the country. During a big game with a sold-out crowd yelling and screaming for the Cats, this facility becomes one of the premier places to play in the country. As the Wildcat program has improved under Coach Kyle over the past five years, so too has the energy and excitement of the Berry. The Olympic-size sheet and fantastic atmosphere has made the Berry truly a great home-ice advantage for the Cats. The Berry has become one of the great gems in college hockey.

Over the past eight seasons, the attendance for hockey games has been very good. When the numbers are broken down, however, they do reveal a roller-coaster like trend as seen in the chart below. Not surprisingly, the Berry’s first year was very strong with an average attendance of 3,284 fans. The worst year, believe it or not, was in 2001-02 when the Cats were 26-12-2. They averaged a mere 2,813 fans per game. When Coach Kyle took over in 2002-03, his leadership led to a big surge in fans to the all-time average high of 3,340 in 2003-04. Last season, in 2006-07, the Cats were 15-24-2 and slipped under 3,000 for average fan attendance after a three-year run above that mark.

With a slate in 2007-08 that includes 19 home dates, Michigan and Michigan State, and a brand new team, hopefully the Cats can get that fan support moving up in the right direction. The new team begins the home season on October 7 against the University of Toronto (exhibition game). Stay tuned!

Average Attendance Per Season

Berry Events Center

Average Attendance and Team Record

Berry Events Center