Great news for Irish hockey fans and fans of ND athletics.  The University announced plans on Thursday to construct a new hockey facility on campus.  This new plan supercedes the old one that would have renovated part of the JACC North Dome to become slightly less-crappy, but still far away from where they should be.  Here's a snipet from the university's press release:

The University of Notre Dame will begin construction next year on a new, freestanding, on-campus ice arena designed to meet the needs of both the nationally ranked Irish hockey team and the local community, Notre Dame executive vice president John Affleck-Graves and athletics director Jack Swarbrick announced jointly today.

Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2010 on a projected 5,000-seat arena - with the venue ready for play to start the 2011-12 season.

The University's Board of Trustees approved the project at its meetings last week on campus.

"We're thrilled about the plans for a new ice arena on our campus, particularly based on the superb job Jeff Jackson and our hockey team have done to position our program as one of the best in the nation," said Swarbrick.

Obviously a lot of the thanks has to go to Jackson for producing some terrific hockey teams over the past few seasons, but Irish fans should really be thanking new AD Jack Swarbrick for his contributions to this project.  Here's a great quote from Coach Jackson about Swarbrick's involvement over the past 6 months:

"I give Jack Swarbrick a lot of credit for having the vision to see that it was something that was probably necessary," Jackson said. "I wish he would've been here three years ago to push this idea because we might be so much further ahead".

And even more, from a great interview with Coach Jackson in College Hockey News.

Jackson: He (Jack) started in August. And he came to me and asked what we had to do to make the program as great as it can be. And I think he did that with all the programs, not just ours. I think he saw an opportunity to go beyond what was planned before. ... There is still more fund raising they're going to do, but the commitment is there. It was time to make it public that this was a committed project.

He asked if I was willing to wait another year in order to have a facility on campus. I said absolutely. The only thing is, I feel bad for the kids who I told were going to have a new place in 2010.

If that's not a shot at former athletic director Kevin White, I don't know what is.  Still, this is a great success for the Irish hockey program as a whole and for Jack Swarbrick, who has shown his willingness to give Notre Dame athletics what it needs to succeed.  He'll be making a lot of big time decisions in the next year or so and it is refreshing to see that he's not afraid to make a statement with his decisions.  Congrats to the hockey team and coach Jackson and AD Jack Swarbrick.