I don't know if this would work or not, so I' asking, when Akron gets a new basketball arena, could the JAR be converted to a full-floor facility? Remove some or all of the lower bowl seats, and put in a rink-sized floor.
Here's my thoughts. A separate full-floor facility wouldn't need all the seats, the capacity of the upper level would be fine.
Being separate from the main arena, it would be open to all students. I would put the floor (plywood covered with artificial turf) down 4-5 days a week and open it up for indoor soccer, indoor lacrosse, and arena football. Pick-up and intramural. Then the rest of the week pull the floor and schedule your hockey games, high school hockey, (junior league?), and student open skates. The program gets to set it's own schedule (they have a lot of 10:05 starts now), the fans and students get better seats, and the campus atmosphere improves.
What if Canton's soccer team moved to the JAR? More soccer players would take advantage of being able to play competitively year round. More dates with people coming onto campus.
Just a thought. I remember the pick-up indoor soccer games at the old "arena" on Jacoby and how popular they were, I see hundreds of people at public skates at Center Ice, Alice Noble (Wooster), and North Park (Elyria). And how the CLUB team has grown over the past two years. I think it would all be a big plus for the campus.
Just thinking out loud.