Facing construction delays, Northeastern hockey fans grapple with a life without a home rink

Facing construction delays, Northeastern hockey fans grapple with a life without a home rink Facing construction delays, Northeastern hockey fans grapple with a life without a home rink Alex Payá, news staff October 12, 2026 Fans cheer for the Northeastern men’s hockey team from the balcony in Matthews Arena Oct. 7, 2023. The demolition of the rink began in February. File photo by Sofia Sawchuck. For many freshmen arriving at Northeastern, the promise of spectating a Husky hockey season is part of the university’s allure. Students pass down traditions like playing Stacy’s Mom or the “One Minute Remaining” call-and-response.  But the new arena is now slated to open nine months later in the spring or summer of 2029 due to the discovery of asbestos. Fans and teams alike will now have to wait longer than expected for a home rink. “I’m very sad at how, as first years, [we] don’t have an environment like other colleges,” said Jonathan Louis, a first-year mechanical engineering major. “Other colleges have a hockey environment where students can sit down and experience the sports culture.” By the time the university demolished it, Matthews Arena, a monumental piece of Boston sports history, was on its last legs. The arena was riddled with structural stability issues that required the addition of steel supports along the building’s west side. The new facility is designed to seat 4,050 people, around 500 fewer seats than Matthews Arena.  The delays have left many fans, especially those who regularly attended games at Matthews, frustrated, with some confused as to how the presence of asbestos was not taken into account when setting the project’s completion date.  “I was very much pissed and annoyed. You have to expect delays, but everyone should have seen that coming,” said Tom d’Esperies, a third-year criminal justice and political science combined major and co-president of the DogHouse, a student-led hockey fan base and a consistent presence in the upper balcony of Matthews. This season, the men’s hockey team has one home game listed for March 6, 2027, against Boston College, with the venue yet to be announced. Conversely, the women’s hockey team will play nine home games using arenas at Boston University and Bentley University as its home venues. “I kept thinking over the summer what DogHouse was going to look like this semester. It’s weird to think about how we won’t have a home rink. I don’t think I fully wrapped my head around it,” said Elena Davis, a fourth-year marine biology major and the other co-president of the DogHouse.  Unlike other Massachusetts universities like Boston College or UMass Amherst, Northeastern doesn’t have a football program and hosts few sports games on its main campus, with baseball playing home games in Brookline and field hockey in Dedham. For some students, attending hockey games at Matthews proved to be one of the best ways to build friendships and show school spirit. The partially-demolished entrance of Matthews Arena stands on St. Botolph Street March 4. The arena was used for 115 years. “It makes me feel sad and bad for those who want to be involved in this school and embrace that school spirit,” Rasil Sheikh, a first-year chemical engineering major, said. Commuting to different rinks may pose a challenge for fans due to the travel time and added financial burden, d’Esperies said. Traditionally, home games at Matthews were free for all Huskies. In this atypical season, tickets to home games at Bentley Arena and Walter Brown Arena will be free for students, a sports information director told The Huntington News.  To help address the transportation challenge, the DogHouse offered a free fan bus to and from Bentley Arena for the season opener Oct. 10, in partnership with Northeastern’s Student Government Association and Northeastern Athletics.  “The lack of a home stadium definitely strips away that ability to embrace and feel proud of the school,” Sheikh said. The club’s efforts to maintain an active presence, especially among Northeastern’s more than 16,000 undergraduate student body will be key to sustaining attendance at DogHouse events and hockey games, both now and once the new facility is completed.  Students like Tiala Vasquez, a first-year cybersecurity and business administration combined major, said that the farther fans have to travel, the harder it will be to attract new students to the DogHouse.  “If we have to go too far out of our way to show support and make friends, people will start to focus on joining other things,” she said.  Both hockey teams have consistently drawn large crowds, thanks to the players’ talent and New England’s strong hockey tradition. Fans packed into TD Garden for the men’s Beanpot final in 2024, where the Huskies faced off against the Boston University Terriers. Last season, the final games played in Matthews Arena also drew big crowds, Davis recalled.   What will happen to attendance at hockey games when the time comes to play in the new facility remains “to be determined,” Davis said.  Fans like d’Esperies expect a substantially smaller turnout if the school doesn’t provide tickets or transportation to students who support the teams. To d’Esperies, the livelihood of the fanbase depends on making games as affordable and accessible as possible. But he worries that if free tickets aren’t consistently provided, the fanbase won’t be there. “We’re going to do all we can, [but] we’re gonna come back to a new arena with no fans,” he said.  0 Like This Story Share on Facebook Share on X Email this Story Print this Story About the Contributor Alex Payá, News Staff Alex Payá is a second-year journalism major and Italian minor and member of The News’ staff. He mainly writes feature stories about Northeastern’s club sports, highlighting the teams’ numerous accolades and financial needs. You can follow him on X @alex_paya_, where he comments on the latest news from European sports teams. 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