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Joel Purchase?

JKW385 said:
Naming rights bullshit aside, any word on renovations in the works for the building? It is still a good facility but it's pushing it's 25th birthday. Off the top of my head, I'd think that it is probably one of the older facility in the conference without a major facelift. Clemson and GT have both done work to their respective gyms recently. MD, State and UVA all have newer arenas. Not sure about FSU, Miami, or BC. I don't think we can compete with the Dean Dome or Cameron Indoor, so I don't really count those.
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Miami's arena is less than 10 years old, more like 5-6 I think.
 
JKW385 said:
Naming rights bullshit aside, any word on renovations in the works for the building? It is still a good facility but it's pushing it's 25th birthday. Off the top of my head, I'd think that it is probably one of the older facility in the conference without a major facelift. Clemson and GT have both done work to their respective gyms recently. MD, State and UVA all have newer arenas. Not sure about FSU, Miami, or BC. I don't think we can compete with the Dean Dome or Cameron Indoor, so I don't really count those.
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It has undergone continual renovations to keep it up to date over the years. It is still a great building.
 
For those who don't know the Joel was built after being approved by the citizens of W-S. The fact is that without a coalition of those in favor of a new coliseum such as WF fans and the black community the new coliseum would not have been approved by the voters. The citizens of W-S had already rejected paying for a new coliseim at least twice. Naming the new coliseum after Joel was an honor to him and a political deal to get the vote.

Wake Froest contributed heavily financially and the black community got out the vote.

We actually had a group in W-S that opposed the funding of a new coliseum. The leader of the group, a Tar Heel guy, admitted to me that part of his opposition to the builkding of a new coliseum was hsi lack of desire to see Wake have a decent place to play basketball.

The old coliseum was a dump. I remember being told by a prominent Deqacon Club member that it was hard to recruit some kids becuase their high school arenas were better than the old coliseum.

Hopefully Wake will change the nameof the Joel to something more akin to a Wake Froest relationship, but remebering the veteran's including Mr. Joel should be a great thing for the city to do.
 
Dropping "Lawrence Joel" would be a horrible PR move for Wake. And with the bougieness that the school generally carries, I really can't see it going anywhere. Especially with the dependency that Wake shares with the local non-alumni fan base. "The Joel" is too ingrained with the local culture to simply dispel it.
 
BillBrasky said:
Dropping "Lawrence Joel" would be a horrible PR move for Wake. And with the bougieness that the school generally carries, I really can't see it going anywhere. Especially with the dependency that Wake shares with the local non-alumni fan base. "The Joel" is too ingrained with the local culture to simply dispel it.
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It will always be the Joel, Groves Stadium and Ernie Shore Field in my mind.
 
keeper said:
It will always be the Joel, Groves Stadium and Ernie Shore Field in my mind.
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Agreed.

I noticed during our game yesterday that Clemson has a memorial to veterans right outside their coliseum with names carved in rocks. I see no reason Wake can't do the same thing and keep it the way it is. Other than the money involved in naming rights.
 
I'm expecting Phase I of the transition to be renaming the building to Wake Forest Arena at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. They'll market the naming rights, but I'm guessing since BB&T is already in for the $2 mil per season on the football stadium, they won't pony up any more immediately and there aren't a ton of potential suitors that would pay the big bucks Wake would really want.

Assuming the naming rights don't sell big or quick, I see Wake selling the ad space on the floor (possibly to BB&T). I think their goal will be to sell arena and floor naming rights, but I'll be surprised if the perceived value for the full naming rights on the corporate end will be as strong as football. Floor logo space likely valuable.
 
tsywake said:
Wasn't the old building pre Joel just called Memorial Coliseum? That was before my time.
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I remember when they changed the name, and this was part of the rub. I know there were other issues that bothered people, but I know many vets didn't like the change from Memorial Coliseum to a specific person...Also, remember that there were alot more WWII vets living then, and I think they didn't always mesh well with the Vietnam vets for various reasons.

I imagine that there will be bidding for naming rights, and I think that's the way it should be. It is not Wake Forest's responsibility to maintain memorials for the city of Winston. I also disagree that this is much of a PR problem. The university is pretty will established in the community now, and they employee something like half of the residents. I think the university has alot of room to work with here without people being pissed off. If they are pissed at anyone, it should be with the city if they sell the property without building another memorial somewhere else.
 
Turd Ferguson said:
The university is pretty will established in the community now, and they employee something like half of the residents.
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Is this really close to being accurate? Winston seemed like too large of a city for this to possibly be the case, but what do I know?

Winston-Salem is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina, with a 2010 population of 229,617.
 
Between the hospital and the university, Wake Forest is definitely the largest employer in the county, but we certainly don't employ half the residents.
 
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