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Shame on Deacon fans

Maybe Wake should sell a weekend season ticket package to try to capture that momentum.

I don’t think it’s realistic to consistently get 10k for weekday games except UNC and Duke. But maybe on the weekends.
 
JohnToms said:
I actually agree with DR except that it is just not feasible or realistic. The best we can hope for is to convert the Joel into a 12k arena. I think Duke’s success is circular - team good, demand for tickets go up, team gets better, and so forth. If you replaced Cameron with the Joel, the team would not be as good. I do think UNC, State, and Wake made mistakes going away from Carmichael, Reynolds, and Memorial. When I was a kid and wake played in Greensboro, wake would play one ACC game at memorial (Georgia Tech). It was awesome and crazy loud. So, DR, you are right that the Joel was a mistake but unless you want to be the Bob Mcreary of basketball, wake us stuck with it.
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I saw a bunch of games at the old memorial coliseum including some really bad teams. Duke's success is 100% due to coach K winning at the highest level and routinely recruiting elite top 25 talent.

We had a lot more basketball success post joel to pre joel. But that wasn't due to the Colosseum it was due to Odom having a pretty good run as our basketball coach followed by skip.
 
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Was Memorial on the same exact spot as the Joel or was the Joel built in the parking lot?
 
No, a little South and West of the Joel, nearer Cherry St. I'd bet there is a photo somewhere.
 
TheAbster said:
Funny that we sold out both Duke and NCSU at 30K+ for football this season but can't enough people for a good bridge game for basketball.

My how things have changed at Wake. Football is king.
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6 games vs. 16, Outdoor vs. Indoor, sucking for 10 years vs building for 6-8 yrs. Apples vs oranges
 
PhDeac said:
This is a good point. College basketball may be even more of a niche sport in 10 years with IGNITE and other alternatives popping up. I can’t bring myself to actually watch college basketball games that don’t involve Wake. I may try to watch PSU-LSU tonight.
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I am not convinced Ignite or OE will be a successful model once NIL gets more integrated. A few years of 16-17 yr old making 6 figures but then no one watching or they never develop to their potential will change the narrative.
 
There are at least three national or international companies that specialize in downsizing arenas. These proficient entities can turn the Joel into something we would not recognize upon completion. It won't be "On Campus", but neither are major portions of The University as it is spread throughout Winson Salem. We can solve this problem without starting from scratch on a new facility. A compromise.
 
ChrisL68 said:
There's no pointing out logic to drew here he is a true believer.
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He is passionate, for sure, but misguided. He exaggerates the impact of an arena on a program's success by an order of magnitude. There are much, much more financially efficient ways of vastly improving the environment at our games. Unfortunately, the first step is the hardest - getting the team to being exciting, competitive and relevant so that people, including students, want to come watch them.
Beyond that, reconfigure the place to add boxes and lose seats upstairs, maybe lower the ceiling to improve acoustics, give more prime seating to students (assuming we can get them to come), add more Wake Forest flavor to the place, etc. etc. Get it down to 10k seats, if you want. All of that would cost way less than the $400M or whatever to build a new place...

Nobody gave two shits about Cameron until K made it the place to be. Plenty of other uber-successful programs play in large, modern arenas.
 
Based on a quick check, the most recent major college basketball arena is Wintrust Arena, host of DePaul and the Chicago Sky. Seats 10,387 and cost $137M. That’s much less than I thought for a brand new arena especially in Chicago.

The Joel turns 40 this decade. Currie should have a long term plan in place for where the Deacs will play basketball by 2040.
 
I think it's easy enough to get to the Joel for students with the free shuttles. Obviously having it where the church is would be great but that's all utilized daily as parking for off campus students already. The good thing about a two tiered arena like the Joel is we could fairly easy block off part or all of the upper deck to make it feel more full when needed, and I do believe that we can get to the point of consistent 9,000+ crowds for weekend home games and marquee weeknight games. I would perhaps replace the upper deck on one side with luxury boxes or a hall of fame or something to lower the capacity but it's not a bad arena. Just going to come down to winning over more local fans. I expect a decent atmosphere for the Northwestern game especially if we can win tonight and tomorrow. No home football game this weekend to be the main focus for students and fans as far as attendance so that along with a P6 opponent and us being a good team will draw in more fans.
 
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PhDeac said:
Based on a quick check, the most recent major college basketball arena is Wintrust Arena, host of DePaul and the Chicago Sky. Seats 10,387 and cost $137M. That’s much less than I thought for a brand new arena especially in Chicago.

The Joel turns 40 this decade. Currie should have a long term plan in place for where the Deacs will play basketball by 2040.
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Imagine it will be a refurbishing of the joel and will play in greensboro for a year.
 
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sportsmed86 said:
6 games vs. 16, Outdoor vs. Indoor, sucking for 10 years vs building for 6-8 yrs. Apples vs oranges
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I don't think it's apples and oranges. Football has clearly become the primary revenue sport in college athletics. Overwhelmingly.
 
Let the ACC tournament be the gauge of where college bb is now. When I graduated in the 70's, the only chance you had to get a ticket to the tournament was to stand outside the coliseum and try to buy a ticket from a fan of a just-eliminated team. Now anybody with a credit card can get a seat in Greensboro, DC or Brooklyn. While I watch/attend and follow what goes on with our football program on a regular basis, basketball is no longer a passion of mine. I keep up with the scores, and like our other sports, I'll get semi-engaged if we make a run in the ACC tournament and/or the NCAA's.
 
TheAbster said:
I don't think it's apples and oranges. Football has clearly become the primary revenue sport in college athletics. Overwhelmingly.
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Well since the OP is about our inability this year to yet put butts in the basketball seats, I don’t know what football’s crazy TV contracts has to do with it. I made 3 points. Number of games almost exclusively weekends when people have, you know free time. Outdoor events vs indoor in a pandemic. And putrid hoops for a decade vs building a football foundation.
 
sportsmed86 said:
Well since the OP is about our inability this year to yet put butts in the basketball seats, I don’t know what football’s crazy TV contracts has to do with it. I made 3 points. Number of games almost exclusively weekends when people have, you know free time. Outdoor events vs indoor in a pandemic. And putrid hoops for a decade vs building a football foundation.
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You obviously are passionate to prove you are correct on this topic. Relax and enjoy the long weekend.
 
Well I think tonight proves that the size of our arena isn’t the problem
 
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