Cal Ice Hockey

We have extended our goal to $30K! Every donation goes a long way to helping us with our goal of making our first ever national playoff appearance!

The Cal Ice Hockey Team, founded in 1918 and officially recognized as a Varsity Team in 1928, has a distinguished history. After a hiatus during World War II, the program reemerged as a Club Sport and has been competing in the PAC-8 conference since 1996. Our program has consistently excelled, qualifying for the PAC-8 Playoffs and the ACHA Western Regional Tournament. With projected expenses nearing $150,000 for the 2024/25 season, contributions are crucial for our organization’s growth and sustainability. As the only group in our league without a salaried head coach, your charitable gift enables us to offer a competitive stipend and reduce our $4,000 per player dues, making the team more accessible to talented players.

The 1918 Cal Ice Hockey Team

Without on-campus ice training facilities, your backing helps cover the steep off-campus ice rental charges of nearly $600 per hour, allowing us to increase practice frequency, improve skill levels, and schedule ice slots that better support student academics. Additionally, your funding helps offset high travel costs for league away games and enables us to compete against higher-ranked ACHA teams, enhancing our regional and national standings. Your assistance covers broadcasting fees, ensuring that family, friends, and fans can watch our games remotely. Donations help us purchase essential equipment, update jerseys, and hire professionals for photography, videography, and marketing.

Goal celebration vs. SJSU (PC: Spencer Lee)

Based on previous budgets and our current plans, we expect to spend approximately 150k in the 2024-2025 season. The majority of our budget is dedicated to rink fees, which covers the costs of renting ice time for practices, games, and travel. Our budgeted expenditures are shown in the graph below.

Our project originates from our financial struggles that continually makes it difficult for our team to improve and succeed. Due to our lack of funding, our team has to be extremely frugal holding practice times at 6am. This puts an extreme strain on our players as we attempt to balance the workload of attending UC Berkeley while pursuing the sport we love. In addition, we only can afford to practice twice a week compared to our competitors who practice 4-5 times a week leaving us at an extreme disadvantage. Lastly, not only does our budget leave us with inconvenient practice times, but if we qualified for nationals, we would be unable to afford it.

The team celebrating a goal vs. SJSU (PC: Spencer Lee)

All things considered, the most important goal of this fundraising campaign is to expand our impact on the surrounding community. Specifically, our team hopes to invest time and money in hockey outreach events with projects like charity games, summer camps, and youth team mentoring. Another implementation our team strives to make is holding a “teddy bear toss” game, where after the first goal is scored fans will throw teddy bears onto the ice that will then be donated to an orphanage or sick children’s hospital. In closing, your donation will go a long way to help both the team and the communities of Berkeley and Oakland.