• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Updates to the Joel?

BiffTannen said:
You think Ron Wellman negotiated the purchase of The Joel ?
Click to expand...

Do I think he was part of it? Absolutely he was. Was he the only one? Of course not. Then again, it took a group to contractually give away $18 million to an incompetent coach.
Takes a village ..... of idiots.
 
Arsene Wenger said:
How did we get 14,200 for a Wednesday night game with Dook and 11,900 for a Saturday night game against UNC, a week and a half later?
Click to expand...

Duke fans were trying to see coach K's last game in Winston, and UNC fans were not very excited about their team.
 
before we build another arena we need to lock in Forbes to a lifetime contract that he can never get out of.
 
saus21 said:
before we build another arena we need to lock in Forbes to a lifetime contract that he can never get out of.
Click to expand...

Unlike the previous regime, I trust Currie to make the right moves. Firing a horrible coach during the worst national health crisis in 100+ years was badass and ballsy.
 
I was at Mackey last weekend for Michigan-Purdue. Crazy to think that Purdue has ~50K students and we have ~5K, but the Joel is ~500 seats bigger than Mackey.
 
How much was the university involved when the Joel was built vs the city saying we’re building this venue and you can play there?
 
Deac65 said:
Good points Paddy, I guess I'm just optimistic that with Forbes we may be able to attract more WF fans.
Click to expand...

I definitely think we will 65! Just not seeing the need to accommodate 14,000 seats every home game. Having it packed every night with a arena built for the size of the school would be great.
 
PaddyWF said:
I definitely think we will 65! Just not seeing the need to accommodate 14,000 seats every home game. Having it packed every night with a arena built for the size of the school would be great.
Click to expand...

This is an interesting philosophy. However, what metrics are the best ones to use to implement that? Alabama's new arena is about 1/4 the size if the student body. They will have student seating for about 5.5% of the student body. Proportionally, that would put a new Wake venue at just over 1000 seats with about 260 for students. That wouldn't work.
 
Prior to Covid, non-fair events at the city, plus overhead, lost about $1 million per year.

The Fairgrounds/Annex did well because the Fair makes up for the loss.

FY 19 the net gain (for fair and non-fair) was about $50K
 
I think there's a certain subset of Wake fans who like the easy, cheap tickets more than they like/want the advantage of a packed arena and tough ticket. Lots of overlap with the LOWF "rankings are bad, Wake just needs to keep playing as the underground" crowd most likely.
 
Deaconblue said:
This is an interesting philosophy. However, what metrics are the best ones to use to implement that? Alabama's new arena is about 1/4 the size if the student body. They will have student seating for about 5.5% of the student body. Proportionally, that would put a new Wake venue at just over 1000 seats with about 260 for students. That wouldn't work.
Click to expand...

I was replying based on my previous post about attendance and other ACC arenas. I should have said fanbase, and I don't believe it should be exactly proportional.

Between 7500-9000 seats is a good range to explore. That is comparable with Miami, GT, Duke, ND, BC, Clemson.

The Palestra and Hinkle Fieldhouse are two of my favorite aesthic examples, they both are in this capacity range.
 
The aesthetic of a new arena should fit the campus especially if it’s going to be right on campus or the god dome.
 
1976Deac said:
And a good business deal at the time for Wake.
Click to expand...

We paid 5 million to play in someone else’s venue that was all wrong for us. Now we have paid 6 million more for the land when no one else would pay $1. And duke has sold 300 million in shirts since 1990 and we haven’t.

This might have been the single “worst” business deal I have ever witnessed.
 
PaddyWF said:
8,000 is a good starting point. See no reason to be over 9,000. Here are some ACC comparisons. All of these schools have more students than WF. Of this list, would bet only Miami and BC have less non-student fans than us, though I imagine that changes as we emerge from the lost decade.
- Duke 9,314
- Notre Dame 9,149
- Clemson 9,000
- BC 8,606
- GT 8,600
- Miami 7,972
Click to expand...

Over 9k barely, but for further comparison, VT’s arena seats 9,275. Undergrad enrollment of @30k.
 
I’d like a new, fit for purpose, aesthetically pleasing, well designed, etc etc arena as much as anyone. But you’re probably looking at $150 - $200M to tear down and rebuild. That’s A LOT of scratch for a school with a small donor base.

I’d almost rather do a solid renovation - whatever that costs it won’t be close to building new - and invest in coaches and other elements of the program - rather than a venue that’s used 20 times per year.

As others have said, a great coach is more important than the arena.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top