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My phone doesnt take the best pictures, but I thought I would share how the Stroh is coming along. I got to tour it a week or so ago as part of my services marketing class. Big diference from Anderson: you walk in the front entrance, get your ticket scanned. Then you walk up a large flight of stairs. At the top, you will be overlooking the arena, higher than the highest seat. You will have to walk down stairs to get to every seat. My initial impression is that the arena itself seems small at first. But remember as you look at these pictures that there will be seats all the way down to the floor, they just weren't in yet. Except the student section, every ticket sold will have an assigned seat, which I think is a big plus, because instead of having to arrive an hour early to get a good seat, now it will be reserved for you! The official capacity will be around 4,700, but the really cool thing is that there is a huge concourse area behind the east basket, where easily 500-800 standing room only tickets could be sold for the bigger games. Its not a bad view either. Actually, there wont really be a bad seat in the house. Its a great venue all around. 4 concession areas with 1 full size kitchen will be awesome. They talked about having things like steak burgers pizza, etc on game days. They also mentioned that they would most likely have employees walking around the seats with food and drinks, so you dnt have to get up and walk up the stairs. That reminds me, a really cool design feature is that you never lose sight of the game as you go the the concession area. There is an unblocked view of the game all the way around the concourse. Very cool. Also, 2 mens, 4 womens, and 2 "family" restrooms.....just that makes it 100x better than Anderson. And fact that it is being build for $20 million is amazing, I have seen some $30 million arenas that couldnt touch this place. Although I will miss Anderson, I think the Stroh will be amazing and we will not loose ANY of the atmosphere. If this place is packed, I guarantee it will be just as loud as Anderson. Everything is so compact, yet roomy and comfortable. Enough ranting, I could go on but you get the idea. THIS PLACE WILL BE AMAZING!!!

Entrance


The Falcon


This is the $75,000 spa tub that was donated to BGSU by the head athletic trainer, I believe. It has a treadmill in it, much like the one out at Sebo.


View of the south side of the arena


Closer view of the south side. The center concourse area and chairs will be the new "Falcon Club"/suite area. Anyone can buy a ticket to this area. Alcohol will be served in THIS concourse area. Only people with tickets to this area will be able to buy. Alcohol will not be served anywhere else in the arena.


North side bleachers


View of where the student section, band, and cheerleaders will be, under the west basket. Seats arent in yet.


The "standing room only" area


View of the floor from the "standing room only" area






The next part of this post is a question: As part of our class we are developing a new fan experience for the Stroh center. I would love feedback from fans: What do you enjoy about Anderson that you would like to see kept? What is done poorly? What would make your experience more enjoyable? we are looking at this project from the prospective of both students and "townies" and their families. Anything will help. Thanks!

BgWa,
For a phone that you say doesn't take good pix, these aren't too shabby. I had a chance to speak with Kermit Stroh at the Akron women's game...he's very pleased with the progress, did mention that the "hardest" part of doing a building like this is all the fine, finishing touches that take a great deal of time.
He also recommended that anyone who's in the area should stop by when the gates are open and take a quick walk thru. Evidently, the work crews don't seem to mind, as long as we stay out of their way.

I'm looking forward to having a very creative "DJ/VJ" running the video board. Lots of opportunity to get the crowd pumped up with a well chosen highlight or movie clip, etc.

I heard someone say that Mr. Stroh had three "musts" for the building - the most important was he wants people smelling fresh popped popcorn as they enter the building.

transfer2BGSU wrote:I heard someone say that Mr. Stroh had three "musts" for the building - the most important was he wants people smelling fresh popped popcorn as they enter the building.

WOW! I hope you're right. I love fresh popcorn, but the stuff they sell now is inedible. I look forward to being able to get popcorn at the games again!

I agree, those are AWESOME pics for a phone!!! Thanks for posting! Can't wait to see it in person!!

The fan experiences I want in the Stroh are:

1. FRESH popcorn
2. COLLEGE basketball atmosphere (band, cheerleaders, dance team, Freddie & Freida, SicSic and 800 spontaneous rowdy students that exhibit a level of class) unique to BGSU.
3. An expansion of current traditions instead choreographed replacement traditions (we want to "roll out the barrel" when the game is over and we want to know "if you'll be my girl?" at some point in the afternoon but don't force these things because it takes years to create - note the PA doesn't need to announce to the fans what they need to do when these things occur). New songs/traditions will come and old ones will go for no particular reason and we'll accept that - don't force it!
4. Start every discussion with "WE ARE BG" - don't try to be someone else and do what we do well.

Dont put the students at one end

Globetrotter wrote:Dont put the students at one end

Unfortunately that is going to happen. It has already been decided that the students will sit under the west basket. If that becomes full, they will open the court level seats in the NW corner for students as well.

Hdog wrote:I'm looking forward to having a very creative "DJ/VJ" running the video board. Lots of opportunity to get the crowd pumped up with a well chosen highlight or movie clip, etc.

Did anyone catch the end of the Virginia Tech vs. Duke men's BB game last night? When they started playing "Enter Sandman" at the end of time outs during the last minute, the whole VA Tech crowd was jumping up and down during that song. THAT was an awesome sight. College Basketball environment at it's absolute best!

"Exit light, enter night, take my hand, we're off to never-never land"!!

BgWaRrIoR wrote: View of where the student section, band, and cheerleaders will be, under the west basket. Seats arent in yet.

Wait - that's going to be the student section AND where the dance team/band will be? Has anyone seen how large the band is / has been? Not sure that will work, but guess we'll wait and see!

PresBG wrote:

BgWaRrIoR wrote: View of where the student section, band, and cheerleaders will be, under the west basket. Seats arent in yet.

Wait - that's going to be the student section AND where the dance team/band will be? Has anyone seen how large the band is / has been? Not sure that will work, but guess we'll wait and see!

Has anyone seen how small the student section is/has been?

They have a plan for student seating beyond behind the basket and I'd love nothing more for the student body to make them use it!

Globetrotter wrote:Dont put the students at one end

Have students (in addition to the band, cheerleaders, and dance team) attend games.

Then we can worry about where they should sit.