JMS Hockey

can we get some more upper level skates? EP on tuesday is always full and you have to book out months in advance it feels like. Friday at SLP is harder to do based on social calendars. Would love to have a wed or thursday night game on the schedule!

Upper level games on Sat or Sun in the AM? I would be all for that

If the East side of the twin cities won't work, please locate it the middle. EP and SLP are a long way to go for a late hockey game and there are zero upper levels over on the St Paul side.

Hey guys, I too wish there were more upper level options, especially on the east side. The bottom line is, we've had a number of additional upper level games in the last year or two, and they failed because guys just plain quit signing up for them. We have to contract our ice out many months in advance. Every time we cancelled those upper level and elite skates, we still had to pay for the ice. Eventually, after months of continuously begging our upper level skaters to play, we had to give that ice to other levels that would actually sign up. I wish this wasn't the case, but facts are facts, and we can't continue to run these games with 8-10 skaters signing up. I would certainly be all for trying another upper level at some point in the future, but it has to make sense and be supported by the data, for us to make that kind of financial commitment again.

How about any game upper level players in the east metro can play? Can you turn a wood or woog intermediate to all level? I was signing up for stia but it's either canceled or impossible to get in.

IMO changing the Monday St Thomas game from upper to Intermediate a while back was a huge mistake that had a trickle down effect ruining the Monday AND Saturday skates there. It forced a lot of the upper guys to just find other (Hockeyfinder / private skates) skates on those days which ended up being cheaper for them.

Like I said previously, I would love more upper level options as well. That said, we can't keep paying for sessions that folks aren't interested in playing. STIA Monday elite was a great session for quite a while, then slowly died. It started with guys not signing up during the summer, so we made it more of a spring, fall and winter game. Then during the busiest of hockey times (January and February) when every game is usually super successful, we went 5 weeks in a row with low, low numbers. As much as we want a game to be successful, we can't force guys to sign up. It wasn't a goalie problem, we always had two goalies, it was clearly a problem with lack of skaters. Every time we cancel a game, it takes another month of that game being full to pay for that one missed week. That elite game never filled towards the end, so as I'm sure you can imagine, the financial strain it created just snowballed. It was at that point that we put out sign-ups for novice, lower level, all level and upper level games for that Monday time slot, and we did this for 3 weeks. Whatever game got the most sign-ups would get that time slot. Intermediate skaters overwhelmingly one that vote, with the upper level guys having three skaters week 1, zero skaters week 2 and one skater for week 3. It's always a difficult decision to end a session, but those are the facts. I wish upper level guys would have continued to sign up and keep that game going, but it just didn't happen. I played JMS for many years before becoming an admin, and I had very similar thoughts when my favorite game or location changed. Now that I'm on the other side, the side that has to actually pay all of the bills, I have a whole new appreciation for why these difficult decisions are made.

Maybe upper level guys could get into all level games? Open spots at Roseville last sun but quota was met. Same thing happens a lot at stia.

That's a great question. The reason quotas aren't changed last minute is because the players that signed up earlier did so with a certain expectation for the speed of that game. For instance, the all level STIA game allows 8 level 5 players. When a level 2 player signs up, their expectation is to have no more than the quota for level 5's, essentially planning on the game to be a certain speed. Lets say the level 5 quota is full that night and there happens to be 4 open player spots. If we relaxed the quota and allowed 4 more level 5's just to fill the roster, it would make a very large impact on the speed of that game. Some guys might not care, but some absolutely will. We have to deliver on the parity we are promising when players sign up for a game. We understand that parity based hockey isn't for everyone, but it's the model JMS was built on and one we are going to stick with. Personally, I think we offer an incredible product with unmatched parity, one that no other program in the metro can provide!