vs. NIU

[Diemilkweed]

I went to the UT/BG game and the fan experience was so much better - i sat in their premium seats. Their production, the way they run their facility and everything is so much better than BG. I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

I've been a season ticket holder now for 12 years and went to games when I was younger. This year is easily the most depressing. I hope they revamp the program for next year regardless of how this one ends up and they also work on the little things like the fan experience to keep people coming back. We have such an awesome facility and opportunity to make this program incredible, its just sad to see it in its current state.

Moved out of town long before the Stroh was built. Have only been to a couple games.

And frankly, I am not impressed. I was in better MAC arenas in the 80's - 90'a in Miami, EMU, Ball State, and OU. And in those, you didn't HAVE to walk to the top of the seats just to walk back DOWN to your seats.

Who the hell decided that was a good idea?

The Stroh beats hell out of KSU's place in the 80's or WMU's place now. But, so do some HS gyms.

I assume that was budgeting to not have to dig down. The open concourse is wonderful so I LOVE having the seats below the concourse, but if you're not going to dig it down so the court sits well below ground level the only option is to go up to go down. IT does suck, it's why my grandmother no longer attends (with only 1 elevator), but it really doesn't bother me. I'd much rather go up to go down than give up the open concourses.

I do wish they'd built the seating steeper and put cupholders in all the seats. I wish they would move the media to the concourse and put seats on the sideline again. But overall it's a great place to watch a game. It certainly can be loud when the team/opponent draws people in, but that's happened less than 10x in the decade of the Stroh. That's not the arena's fault.

Anderson didn't go down either. But if you were sitting on the first level, you did not have to go up to the top first.

It's insane. And there is not a single reasonable excuse for it.

[pdt1081]

This could be wrong, but I would believe it:

I heard they went up instead of digging down when building the Stroh because of the way some of the piping in the locker room had to go. The hot tubs in there require piping to be done a certain way, and it caused them to be unable to dig down. So they had to build the entire arena around that issue.

No idea if it’s true or not, but like I said, it wouldn’t shock me.

Bedrock is extremely shallow in BG.

[pdt1081]

I went to the UT/BG game and the fan experience was so much better - i sat in their premium seats. Their production, the way they run their facility and everything is so much better than BG. I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

I've been a season ticket holder now for 12 years and went to games when I was younger. This year is easily the most depressing. I hope they revamp the program for next year regardless of how this one ends up and they also work on the little things like the fan experience to keep people coming back. We have such an awesome facility and opportunity to make this program incredible, its just sad to see it in its current state.

Moved out of town long before the Stroh was built. Have only been to a couple games.

And frankly, I am not impressed. I was in better MAC arenas in the 80's - 90'a in Miami, EMU, Ball State, and OU. And in those, you didn't HAVE to walk to the top of the seats just to walk back DOWN to your seats.

Who the hell decided that was a good idea?

The Stroh beats hell out of KSU's place in the 80's or WMU's place now. But, so do some HS gyms.

I assume that was budgeting to not have to dig down. The open concourse is wonderful so I LOVE having the seats below the concourse, but if you're not going to dig it down so the court sits well below ground level the only option is to go up to go down. IT does suck, it's why my grandmother no longer attends (with only 1 elevator), but it really doesn't bother me. I'd much rather go up to go down than give up the open concourses.

I do wish they'd built the seating steeper and put cupholders in all the seats. I wish they would move the media to the concourse and put seats on the sideline again. But overall it's a great place to watch a game. It certainly can be loud when the team/opponent draws people in, but that's happened less than 10x in the decade of the Stroh. That's not the arena's fault.

Anderson didn't go down either. But if you were sitting on the first level, you did not have to go up to the top first.

It's insane. And there is not a single reasonable excuse for it.

Almost every arena I can think of is built very similar inside (Huntington Center for example). Difference is the grading outside makes it so you can enter on the concourse level instead of ground level. Some are quite obvious, others are not. Dirt is expensive if it's not already on site. The amount that would have been needed for the Stroh would have been astronomical, and the end result would not have been aesthetically pleasing in that location. 1

[hammb]

I went to the UT/BG game and the fan experience was so much better - i sat in their premium seats. Their production, the way they run their facility and everything is so much better than BG. I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

I've been a season ticket holder now for 12 years and went to games when I was younger. This year is easily the most depressing. I hope they revamp the program for next year regardless of how this one ends up and they also work on the little things like the fan experience to keep people coming back. We have such an awesome facility and opportunity to make this program incredible, its just sad to see it in its current state.

Moved out of town long before the Stroh was built. Have only been to a couple games.

And frankly, I am not impressed. I was in better MAC arenas in the 80's - 90'a in Miami, EMU, Ball State, and OU. And in those, you didn't HAVE to walk to the top of the seats just to walk back DOWN to your seats.

Who the hell decided that was a good idea?

The Stroh beats hell out of KSU's place in the 80's or WMU's place now. But, so do some HS gyms.

I assume that was budgeting to not have to dig down. The open concourse is wonderful so I LOVE having the seats below the concourse, but if you're not going to dig it down so the court sits well below ground level the only option is to go up to go down. IT does suck, it's why my grandmother no longer attends (with only 1 elevator), but it really doesn't bother me. I'd much rather go up to go down than give up the open concourses.

I do wish they'd built the seating steeper and put cupholders in all the seats. I wish they would move the media to the concourse and put seats on the sideline again. But overall it's a great place to watch a game. It certainly can be loud when the team/opponent draws people in, but that's happened less than 10x in the decade of the Stroh. That's not the arena's fault.

Anderson didn't go down either. But if you were sitting on the first level, you did not have to go up to the top first.

It's insane. And there is not a single reasonable excuse for it.

Almost every arena I can think of is built very similar inside (Huntington Center for example). Difference is the grading outside makes it so you can enter on the concourse level instead of ground level. Some are quite obvious, others are not. Dirt is expensive if it's not already on site. The amount that would have been needed for the Stroh would have been astronomical, and the end result would not have been aesthetically pleasing in that location. 1

Yeah I don't understand the point. Yeah you didn't go up at Anderson but there were no open concourses. And whether you like the reasoning or not there absolutely is a "reasonable excuse".

If you want open concourses, which I sure as heck love, you only have a handful of options. You either dig down and put the floor below ground level, you build up the ground so you enter at concourse level but you walked up a graded sidewalk instead of stairs, or you go up to go down...

It's been awhile since I've been to the Huntington but my recollection is it only has an open concourses on the upper level of one end...and you have to immediately go up stairs upon entering to reach that open concourses.

And while I've been to 100+ events at stroh I've only been to the Huntington center 5-10 times. I greatly dislike a number of the design choices in that building and would MUCH rather be at the Stroh.

[hammb]

I suppose I'm wrong. You could have a ground level closed concourse as well. Like a tunnel entrance where the memorabilia stuff is that would dump out behind the East basket then you could go up to those seats. You could similarly have public accessible walk ways to the other sections as well, I suppose. There are absolutely ground level entrances in each of the 4 corners so it is doable, guess I wasn't thinking about that.

If that's something that is a huge deal it wouldn't really be a big deal to just make those existing hallways accessible. But it doesn't have restrooms/concessions, etc. I don't think the arena is big enough to justify multiple levels of concourses and I greatly prefer having the open concourses vs something like savage where you leave the game to get concessions.

[pdt1081]

Yeah I don't understand the point. Yeah you didn't go up at Anderson but there were no open concourses. And whether you like the reasoning or not there absolutely is a "reasonable excuse".

If you want open concourses, which I sure as heck love, you only have a handful of options. You either dig down and put the floor below ground level, you build up the ground so you enter at concourse level but you walked up a graded sidewalk instead of stairs, or you go up to go down...

It's been awhile since I've been to the Huntington but my recollection is it only has an open concourses on the upper level of one end...and you have to immediately go up stairs upon entering to reach that open concourses.

And while I've been to 100+ events at stroh I've only been to the Huntington center 5-10 times. I greatly dislike a number of the design choices in that building and would MUCH rather be at the Stroh.

Huntington is open all the way around, after you go up the stairs/escalators. Point being the design isn't exclusive to the Stroh. Even the Ice Arena, built in the 60's, for most seats you go up steps then down to the lower seats.

Bowling Green in general is not conducive to building lower in the ground.

[Flipper]

Because it's built on a swamp?

[pdt1081]

Because it's built on a swamp?

Bedrock

[TommyG]

For the life of me I can’t figure out why they didn’t put in an escalator by the main entrance. I know Greg Christopher really struggled to finish the fundraising needed to finish the project. Wonder what exactly was cut to make up for it?
I’m not sure what if any renovations have been made to the lockerroom and coaches offices in the last decade, but I know Orr’s staff was really frustrated with the lack of input they had into the design of the athletes area. One of the assistants told me their setup was better at Anderson than at Stroh and they actually had more space over there.

[Falcon Fryed]

I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

If you plan on going to the BG/UT game next Saturday get there early. I don't know if it will be 75% - 100% full but the line will be backed up all the way to Wooster. It will take a decent amount of time to get through.

We almost missed the tip off last year while waiting in the line and we went early.

[footballguy51]

I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

If you plan on going to the BG/UT game next Saturday get there early. I don't know if it will be 75% - 100% full but the line will be backed up all the way to Wooster. It will take a decent amount of time to get through.

We almost missed the tip off last year while waiting in the line and we went early.

Unless they changed things, they allow two lanes of traffic to go down the road because it becomes one way on game days. What happens is most people only drive on the right and then try to block you if you go down the left lane. Now, perhaps they changed this policy in the past year or two, but that's how it was a few years ago.

[fanatic13]

I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

If you plan on going to the BG/UT game next Saturday get there early. I don't know if it will be 75% - 100% full but the line will be backed up all the way to Wooster. It will take a decent amount of time to get through.

We almost missed the tip off last year while waiting in the line and we went early.

Unless they changed things, they allow two lanes of traffic to go down the road because it becomes one way on game days. What happens is most people only drive on the right and then try to block you if you go down the left lane. Now, perhaps they changed this policy in the past year or two, but that's how it was a few years ago.

Usually not the case anymore with the parking staff in a single line. If you're lucky you'll have two in the front taking money and checking passes. Cutting up you'll still be stuck in the line turning into paid parking. Get there plenty early for the toledo game.

Before covid you used to be able to enter the chairback reserve tickets while staying in the lower section and entering by the ticket office doors. You can still exit that way after games but they don't open the doors beforehand. Was a nice perk for bigger games when they had lines to scan tickets. I like the open floor plan but these small things add up (or subtract now)

I can say the player hangout area is extremely nice and I think that would stand compared to mac schools. However it is a bit small. Can't speak on the locker room although I know the code

[Flipper]

Because it's built on a swamp?

Bedrock

Thanks...good to know

[nickm0110]

I'm so annoyed why there is a single line / single point of entry to get into the parking lot for the BB/CC lot - there is always a slow line and there's hardly any attendance. What would happen if the place was 75-100% full? I feel like you'd miss the whole game waiting in line. You'd think they would figure out a more fluid way to separate parking pass & pay for parking people with all the entrances an exits.

If you plan on going to the BG/UT game next Saturday get there early. I don't know if it will be 75% - 100% full but the line will be backed up all the way to Wooster. It will take a decent amount of time to get through.

We almost missed the tip off last year while waiting in the line and we went early.

Unless they changed things, they allow two lanes of traffic to go down the road because it becomes one way on game days. What happens is most people only drive on the right and then try to block you if you go down the left lane. Now, perhaps they changed this policy in the past year or two, but that's how it was a few years ago.

Usually not the case anymore with the parking staff in a single line. If you're lucky you'll have two in the front taking money and checking passes. Cutting up you'll still be stuck in the line turning into paid parking. Get there plenty early for the toledo game.

Before covid you used to be able to enter the chairback reserve tickets while staying in the lower section and entering by the ticket office doors. You can still exit that way after games but they don't open the doors beforehand. Was a nice perk for bigger games when they had lines to scan tickets. I like the open floor plan but these small things add up (or subtract now)

I can say the player hangout area is extremely nice and I think that would stand compared to mac schools. However it is a bit small. Can't speak on the locker room although I know the code

Yeah all of the games this year have been a single line getting in and it's sloowwwww with hardly anyone attending lol