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Facilities
Joyce Center Rink
Notre Dame's Joyce Center, which celebrates its 43rd year of service to the University in 2009-2010, serves as a multi-purpose sports complex a theatre and concert hall, a convention center and an office building- and as the home of the defending CCHA regular-season and tournament champions- the Notre Dame Fighting Irish Hockey team. The building was renamed in 1987 to honor the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C, Notre Dame's executive vice president from 1952 until his retirement in 1987. Formerly known as the Athletic and Convocation Center (ACC), the structure is now referred to as the Joyce Center. Designed by Ellerbe Architects of St. Paul, Minn., the Joyce Center was conceived by persons in the Michiana area. The Center's distinctive domes, covered with a white vinyl roofing material stretched over steel ribbing, rise just east of Notre Dame's football stadium. The building is both wider and longer than the famous stadium and encloses more area than Houston's Astrodome. In all, the $8.6-million structure covers 10 acres of ground. Campus officials draw the comparison with Stepan Center, a student activities building which once held the campus seating record of 3,800, by pointing out that Stepan can be placed within the circumference of the north dome's field house running track without touching the adjacent ice rink. The field house, and in particular the hockey facility, has undergone a series of improvements that make the Joyce Center one of the finest facilities in college hockey. Renovations to coach's offices and the locker rooms along with the addition of a dividing curtain have given the hockey rink and the Irish more of a "home-ice advantage." Fans also have benefited from Notre Dame's commitment to hockey, with theatre-style seating that replaced metal bleachers on the north side of the arena. City officials are equally fond of the figure of 464,800 square feet of usable floor area, a statistic which makes the Joyce Center the largest exhibition hall between Detroit and Chicago. The south arena's design makes it capable of doubling as a basketball court and an 11,000-seat auditorium into a more intimate setting, suitable for lectures, plays or musicals. The north arena is the home of Irish hockey and can be set up to hold 2,713 fans at normal seating and 2,763 with standing room. Virtually every sport at Notre Dame-varsity, club or intramural- can play or practice in either the field house, the arena, the five auxiliary gymnasiums or the several work areas provided throughout the spacious building. In 1985, the Rolfs Aquatic Center opened on the eastside of the Joyce Center. The 4.5-million-dollar facility houses a 50-meter Olympic-size pool (25 yards in width) and spectator seating for 400. In addition to these areas, the Joyce Center also contains the administrative and business side of the increasingly complex collegiate sports operation. Ticket offices, with mobile booths that can be wheeled to locations, are lodged inside, along with offices for coaches, athletic administrators, and sports information press facilities. These offices and facilities are located in a central complex that joins the two arenas and, in general, houses the people and machinery common to both. A spacious concourse also is contained in this core area, as is a tastefully appointed Monogram Room and the Sports Heritage Hall, surrounded by small meeting rooms. On the lower level of the concourse, there are several thousand lockers, a faculty exercise room, a golf driving range, squash, racquetball and handball courts and a central kitchen for catering. The Joyce Center played host to its 300th all-time win at the Joyce Center no Feb. 13, 2004 when the Irish defeated Ferris State, 4-2. The hockey team's all-time home record now stands at 328-271-49 (.544) in 39 seasons on the Joyce Center ice. During the 2006-07 season, Notre Dame was 13-2-2 at the Joyce Center for a .824 winning percentage, the fourth-best percentage in the building's history. The Irish equaled a school record in 2003-04 when they went 15 games (13-0-2) without a loss at home on the way to a 14-2-2 mark. The 14 wins were the second-best win total (surpassed only by the 18 wins the 1987-88 team recorded) in the program's history. Over the past nine campaigns, the Joyce Center has been home to several huge wins for the Irish hockey program. Last season, the Irish were 5-0-1 versus ranked teams at home, taking two wins from 14th-ranked Alaska and one each from fourth-ranked Michigan State, seventh ranked Michigan and ninth-ranked Miami (the Irish also gained a tie versus the Redhawks). Notre Dame also swept a second-round CCHA playoff series from Alaska on the way to the CCHA championship. During 2006-07, the Irish played in front of 11 sellout crowds (2,763), including the last eight and 10 of the final 11 home games of the year. On Oct. 22, 2004, the Irish stunned No. 1 ranked Boston College, 3-2, in front of a standing room only crown of 2,763. The win marked the first Notre Dame win over a top-ranked team since Jan. 13, 1978 when the Irish defeated then No. 1 Denver, 5-3, at the Joyce Center. During the 2003-04 season, Notre Dame hosted their first home playoff series since 1999-2000, defeating Western Michigan, two games to one. The Irish also swept fourth-ranked Michigan in a home series for the first time since the 1981-82 campaign. Both games were played in front of sellout crowds of 2,763. The 2002-03 season saw the Irish win seven games at home with six played in front of sellout crowds. Four of those sellouts were standing room-only crowds of 2,763 the largest crowds to see Notre Dame hockey since March 3, 1995, when 3,310 saw Notre Dame defeat Illinois-Chicago, 5-2, before new seating was installed following that season. Since the new seating configuration for the 1995-96 season, the Irish have hosted 103 sellout crowds for hockey at the Joyce Center. |
    
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