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The size of our home basketball stadium

I call BS about the Joel not being full for at least Duke and UNC in the "glory days". There were many times I sat on the top row and in the aisle. Hell, when I was there (mid-90s) it was full against GT and Maryland. While I agree that with our current program there are no sell outs, there have been quite a few in the past. UNC tomorrow will be half empty upstairs. Especially charging $50 for upstairs tickets.
 
donaldross said:
The bottom line is we have the largest arena relative to our fan base in the country.
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Holy hyperbole, Batman. UNCG down the street says whatup.

But aside from picking nits, I really can't argue with your main point.
 
Deac1966 said:
The Joel is not just a basketball arena. It is a business arena that will be hosting multiple non basketball events and seating must me designed to fit those events too. A wall of 40 - 45 suites may not be a fit for all events.
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Exactly. The Joel hosts more events that just WFU basketball.
 
I think black walls or drapes in portions of the upper deck, with a large gold WF on them, would be a great solution. It would right-size the joel for most games, but allow flexibility to open it up for the biggest games (and make $). It could reflect and focus sound towards the court, and if done well it could look pretty cool. Plus, compared to other options it wouldn't be very expensive and wouldn't alter things for other ljvm events.
 
What are all these other events that the owner and primary tenant of LJVM need to plan around, exactly?
 
Lower the ceiling. Realistic? No. Smaller and louder? Yes. Curtains look small time, so maybe upstairs suites would work, I don't know.

Or, the OP could pull a string of 8-figure verdicts John Edwards-style, buy and plow the God Dome, and build our dream BzDome on Polo Road.
 
deacz said:
Lower the ceiling. Realistic? No. Smaller and louder? Yes. Curtains look small time, so maybe upstairs suites would work, I don't know.

Or, the OP could pull a string of 8-figure verdicts John Edwards-style, buy and plow the God Dome, and build our dream BzDome on Polo Road.
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I like this idea.
 
I like the idea of upstairs suites. It gives more room to make them nice and it physically separates the hoity toities from the riff raff. And it puts the fans who are more likely to be loud ( once we have something to cheer about again) closer to the floor. And you could take up as much or as little of the upper deck as you want.

Maybe a bar in one end of the upper deck with tables overlooking the floor? Will never happen but I can dream.
 
donaldross said:
The Joel has never been good on a consistent basis. So getting rid of Buzz is not the answer to that. Although it may be the answer to everything else in this world. The bottom line is we have the largest arena relative to our fan base in the country. We need to make drastic changes to reduce number of seats. Now is the perfect time to do that. We have invested over 100 million in recent years in our football stadium. Why can't we give our signature sport 25.

turf, had not gone out until after I started this thread, but it was a good night after that. Cheers friend.
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Donald should be on the search committee for the new coach.

Maybe his buddy Wes Miller can be our new Assistant Head Coach if we pay him enough.
 
Rafi said:
The McKale Center at Arizona installed curtains in 2008. The cost was $650,000 and with all the curtains used it decreases the size of the arena from 14,545 to 4,181. Something similar, but less extensive, could be a good solution at LJVM.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/files/2008/07/l91313-1.jpg
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What's the new capacity? I think you have a typo. If it's supposed to be 14,181, that's a lot of expense to cut out ~350 seats.

I'm not a huge fan if curtains because I suspect they have a sound-absorbing effect. I'd rather honestly just have black walls, although that jacks up expenses.

Eta oh the 4k makes sense if they are retractable curtains for women's games. But I don't think we need retractable. And honestly IDGAF if our womens games have a lot of exposed empty seats.
 
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Rafi said:
The McKale Center at Arizona installed curtains in 2008. The cost was $650,000 and with all the curtains used it decreases the size of the arena from 14,545 to 4,181. Something similar, but less extensive, could be a good solution at LJVM.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/files/2008/07/l91313-1.jpg
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For women's games, correct? That still looks amateur hour to me. It screams "we can't fill our arena." I'm sure Ron and Randy will figure out the best possible solution though.
 
Do we have an away basketball stadium? :)
 
Put this in perspective: At WF, we are able to sell to our donors Club level seats for football at $350/game. People are standing in line to buy these. This is true, even when the street value of quality seats much lower is $15-$20.

I did forget about the UNCG stadium & I was wrong about that change. When we ran then numbers a few years ago, we were the largest per capita. My fault, you would think I would know as a UNCG donor! FWIW, I do think they have made a mistake moving the Spartans from Fleming over to the Coliseum. But I will say selfishly being able to get a beer & spread out a little makes it more enjoyable to go to UNCG games. Fleming was never a real home crowd advantage anyway but it is no advantage at all for the Spartans to play at Greensboro Coliseum. That was a mistake.

For those of you going up to Pitt next Saturday, take a look at their Club setup. That is kind of what I am talking about only I'd stick that Club section slightly above, rather than below, a few student seats. We have plenty of empty space in our lower level to create all kinds of seating opportunities to meet the demands of what we have left in terms of fans.

Creating those opportunities now I think will also pay off if and when our program gets back on track.
 
I just don't see why you take away lower level seats to build suites. Those seats are actually selling. Plus, if you go from Sect. 123 to Sect 115, which is actually corner to corner, and put in two suites per section, which is the max IMO, that's only 18 suites. Does that make financial sense?
If you take one side of upper deck seats and put suites there, you keep the rowdies and students downstairs, eliminate seats that aren't being used most of the time, have access to more sections, and build more suites. You might even be able to do double decker suites in the upper deck, though idk if that's compatible with lowering the ceiling.
 
donaldross said:
Put this in perspective: At WF, we are able to sell to our donors Club level seats for football at $350/game. People are standing in line to buy these. This is true, even when the street value of quality seats much lower is $15-$20.

I did forget about the UNCG stadium & I was wrong about that change. When we ran then numbers a few years ago, we were the largest per capita. My fault, you would think I would know as a UNCG donor! FWIW, I do think they have made a mistake moving the Spartans from Fleming over to the Coliseum. But I will say selfishly being able to get a beer & spread out a little makes it more enjoyable to go to UNCG games. Fleming was never a real home crowd advantage anyway but it is no advantage at all for the Spartans to play at Greensboro Coliseum. That was a mistake.

For those of you going up to Pitt next Saturday, take a look at their Club setup. That is kind of what I am talking about only I'd stick that Club section slightly above, rather than below, a few student seats. We have plenty of empty space in our lower level to create all kinds of seating opportunities to meet the demands of what we have left in terms of fans.

Creating those opportunities now I think will also pay off if and when our program gets back on track.
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DR, you're slipping. First you forget to consider UNCG. Second, when confronted with UNCG you concede the point without checking. LJVM seats 14,407 and Wake has 5,000 undergrads for a ratio of 2.88 seats/student. Greensboro Coliseum seats 23,500 and UNCG has 14,000 traditional undergraduate students for a ratio of 1.67 seats/student.

On a side note I'm also a long time poster who was here (there?) for some of the on-campus arena discussions with DR, but I also don't know what "hide your keys" means. Someone please explain. I suspect Ph doesn't know either because he passed on the opportunity to display his superior knowledge earlier in the thread.
 
VaDeac said:
Holy hyperbole, Batman. UNCG down the street says whatup.

But aside from picking nits, I really can't argue with your main point.
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Isn't UNCG about 3X the size of MSD? 14k undergrad vs 4500?

Hard to argue our Arena is too big. 10k would be about perfect.
 
Neurodeac said:
DR, you're slipping. First you forget to consider UNCG. Second, when confronted with UNCG you concede the point without checking. LJVM seats 14,407 and Wake has 5,000 undergrads for a ratio of 2.88 seats/student. Greensboro Coliseum seats 23,500 and UNCG has 14,000 traditional undergraduate students for a ratio of 1.67 seats/student.

On a side note I'm also a long time poster who was here (there?) for some of the on-campus arena discussions with DR, but I also don't know what "hide your keys" means. Someone please explain. I suspect Ph doesn't know either because he passed on the opportunity to display his superior knowledge earlier in the thread.
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DR can probably explain it best, but he used to write "hide your keys" at the end of every post he made regarding the need for an on campus arena. At that time he was Homegamesinharmsway, not DR, and I think his point was that the younger crowd was coming to create a better home atmosphere and they were going to take the keys from the old guard.
 
Bob Niedbala said:
Isn't UNCG about 3X the size of MSD? 14k undergrad vs 4500?

Hard to argue our Arena is too big. 10k would be about perfect.
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He said "fan base," not enrollment. I don't know UNCG's typical attendance and don't care to look it up, but I'm sure it doesn't look good next to its enrollment.
 
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