Hockey and Biathlon Equals a Big Winter Weekend in New England

The New England region is known for many things; clam chowder, beautiful landscapes, a revolutionary spirit and, of course, winter sports.

The states that make up New England — Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont — all take pride in their sporting events. And when it comes to winter sports, the region is synonymous with fresh snow outdoors and crisp ice indoors.

Three states will host major sporting events during the same weekend of March 21–24. Hartford will host the NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship; the NCAA Division I Women’s Ice Hockey Championships take place in Durham, New Hampshire, and the U.S. Biathlon National Championships will be in Fort Kent, Maine.

“There’s definitely a lot of pride throughout our six states when it comes to hosting all sporting events, but especially winter events,” said Sheila Brennan Nee, strategic director for the Maine Sports Commission. “We’re thrilled to be hosting the U.S. Biathlon National Championships in Fort Kent and having other New England communities host the NCAA hockey championships just down the road from Maine is so exciting.”

Tackling the Terrain

The 2024 U.S. Biathlon National Championships will include a sprint race which will double as the inaugural U.S. Biathlon Collegiate National Championships, a pursuit race and relay races. The Fort Kent Outdoor Center hosted the Biathlon World Cup in 2004 and 2011, as well as the 2016 U.S. National Championships.

“We have a full 30-point biathlon range, which means there’s 30 lanes for shooting,” said Charlie Cobb, the venue manager and Nordic coach at FKOC. “So you can have 30 people shooting at once and for an event the size of a national championship, you really need that. There aren’t a ton of places that have that in the U.S. and our trails really are world-class. They have a good mix of terrain and they’re challenging. Plus, we usually get a lot of snow and we have some of the most reliable snow in New England.”

Cobb expects around 150 competitors between the U.S. Championships and the Collegiate Championships over the four days of action. Hosting big events is something Fort Kent is used to and most of the biathletes are already familiar with the terrain.

“A lot of these competitors have probably been here before from when we previously hosted the nationals or the Eastern regional triathlon races,” Cobb said. “And a lot of the New England athletes have been here before for training camps in the summer. U.S. Biathlon Nationals has been growing steadily every year. So I think this one will continue that trend and it’ll be just as big as previous ones.”

Fort Kent is mountain town of 4,000 people and includes only a few hotels and restaurants. However, Cobb points out there are hundreds of volunteers to make elite competitions come to life.

“We take great pride in our winter sports and what we’ve done up here,” Cobb said. “We’ve hosted two World Cups, so that’s pretty impressive. Your typical World Cup host site is probably a town of like 10,000 people. So we’re a small town, but we really do a lot and we usually host at least one big event each year up here. We’ve had a lot of biathletes stay here for a couple of years for training and then go on to make the World Cup team and Olympic teams. So there’s a big culture of biathlon and cross country skiing up here that we’re pretty proud of.”

In addition to hosting biathletes, Fort Kent also welcomes snowmobilers, hunters and ice fishers during the winter. Cobb says having the University of Maine-Fort Kent campus also helps when it comes to lodging for an event like the U.S. Biathlon Nationals.

“They’ve got some empty dorm rooms,” Cobb said. “So if we need to, we can have people staying there too. This event brings an economic boost to the local economy. Everybody’s going into the stores and restaurants to spend some money and have dinner and in a small town like ours, that’s significant. And it’s also significant for the Outdoor Center. We make some money from registration fees and sometimes we are able to sell a little bit of merchandise too at these kinds of events.”

Hitting the Ice

While biathletes are competing outdoors in Maine, there will be plenty of collegiate hockey taking place to the south.

The NCAA Division I Women’s Ice Hockey Championship will be hosted for the fourth time at the Whittemore Center Arena in Durham from March 22–24 and 157 miles to the southeast, the NCAA Division III Men’s Ice Hockey Championship will take place at Koeppel Community Center on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford.

“The New England region itself is known for its hockey and many of the best teams are in our region when it comes to hockey,” said Fumi Kimura, deputy athletic director at the University of New Hampshire. “The city of Durham, Dover, the Seacoast community — they’re all huge hockey areas. I think that speaks a lot to the reasons why you continually see high level events such as the Women’s Frozen Four coming here.”

There’s also a love for hockey in Hartford, where many people in the community are still upset about the NHL’s Whalers relocating to Raleigh in 1997. But the Hartford Wolfpack AHL team, combined with the UConn hockey programs and Division III Trinity College, have been able to keep the sport alive.

“The UConn women’s ice hockey team made it to the NCAA Tournament this year and hockey in general is very popular here,” said Bob Murdock, president of the Connecticut Convention and Sports Bureau. “The Whalers still have a place in a lot of people’s hearts here in Connecticut, but we have a lot of good teams here.”

Both Durham and Hartford are expecting the local communities to show up to the games, as well as large numbers of fans traveling to support the teams that will compete in each city. Murdock says the estimated economic impact of the Division III men’s event will be $440,000 for Hartford. Kimura and UNH are aiming for the Division I women’s event to draw somewhere between 4,500 to 5,500 ticketed fans.

“When we are selling Connecticut, we really sell our demographics that we are in New England and it’s a very compact area,” Murdock said. “There’s a lot of people that live in this region and can travel to events, whether they’re coming from New York or Boston or any of the New England states. We can draw people that will spend money and boost the local economy. We do really well with attendance numbers, which the NCAA loves to see.”

Those attendance numbers will get a boost this year. Trinity College, the host school for the event, is one of the top programs in Division III this season and will play on home ice for a chance to win a national championship after receiving a first-round bye and winning a quarterfinal game.

“We always cheer on our local teams, but it definitely helps the ticket sales as well,” Murdock said. “Whenever any home team is in an event, it helps with the draw regardless of what sport you’re talking about.”

While the UNH women were on the bubble for a tournament bid and ultimately did not make the field, that has not dampened any of the excitement for the university to host the Frozen Four. Friday’s semifinals will see No. 1 Ohio State against No. 4 Clarkson in the opener, followed by No. 3 Colgate against No. 2 Wisconsin.

“Women’s hockey has grown so much in recent years and the fact that UNH has continued to win bids to host championship hockey events is indicative of the sport and how much it’s loved and followed here,” Kimura said. “I think we’re going to see a lot of fans travel to New Hampshire to support their student-athletes.”

Murdock has been with the CT Convention and Sports Bureau for nearly 10 years and has spent many more years in the New England region. Kimura has only been at UNH for a year, having previously worked for Pittsburgh University and UC-Irvine. However, both agree the region loves its winter sports.

“People are very passionate about it in New England,” Kimura said. “Having only been here for over a year and having an opportunity to go to Connecticut and go to see things in Maine, people — regardless of the cold — are pretty active. Whether that’s snowshoeing, skating or skiing when it’s cold, or hiking when it’s warmer, the outdoors is such a draw here in New Hampshire, including in Durham around the campus.”

“New England is a great spot for winter sports in general,” Murdock added. “Connecticut and the rest of New England are very proud of our winter sports, whether it’s ice hockey, basketball, skiing, figure skating … you name it.”