Release of Study on Anderson Arena/Convocation Center

[OSUFALCON]

Well said BGSU33 and Salsa! A new arena isn't going to be the sole answer but it is the start for building a better basketball program. Can we get 8-10K every night, no. I do think we could draw 5k-6k with a good team most nights. Drawing alumni from Toledo and Findlay for games makes its possible to draw those numbers. We have 17K students! Can we get 1500 a night? I think so. Many local fans have both hockey and BB season tickets. When N. IL build their new arena they increase attendance by 25% with a team that wasn't any better. Eastern hasn't had the same luck. Ball St. has Indiana (top 20) coming to there place on New Years Eve! They have a 11,500 seat arena that's half full most nights but it's a great place to watch a game. When Ball St. is good they get 7-8k when they are bad they get 5-6k for league games.

[DrDesert]

BG students have to start attending basketball and football games before a larger arena should be considered. We also need to have more scholarship basketball players attending the games.

I think they should give Anderson Arena a facelift, put seating, a decent lobby and restrooms on the north side and make it a mini-arena that seats about 6,500-7,000. It would stay on campus and would retain it's homecourt advanatage with the noise level, even if we didn't fill it up.

[manager]

Using the Dec. 2 Finance/Facilities Committee of the BGSU Trustees for my opinions:
1) Ice is highly unlikely (unless it's on the roof in January).
2) While a new facility might be preferred, a two-stage rebuild of Memorial Hall is more likely. This would add seats, meet ADA requirements and other issues. Focus groups have made it clear a huge seating capacity is not needed or a good idea. 8,000 is the likely max.
3) It all comes down to finances. It will take a significant donor for a new center (which some claim is waiting in the wings, but which I'll believe when I see), and a large bond issue. The problems raising the bucks to complete SEBO make me doubt the powers that be will buy into a mega project. That bond issue, much like the Union, will fall on the backs of students.
I know many doubted the union project, but in my mind that was a lot more important than a convo center.
Waiting much longer for a bond issue (read rising interest rates) will also affect what can be done. I don't look for a functional building before 2012, given the pace on the SEBO project. There are several other facilities on the drawing board that have (and should have priority) such as the science building, the admissions building and the performing arts building.

[OptionQB]

90% of the Union or more was paid for through private funds ie . . . alum donations. So I don't see how this created any hardship for the current students.

[Flipper]

I don't think we're going to see interest rates rise a whole heck of a lot.

The Sebo may not be the best template for fundraising prospects. People may have viewed that project as more of an extravagance. A new arena (or a completely renovated Anderson Arena) is an obvious necessity.

[OptionQB]

If only we could find ProfessorJackson again, he would gladly tell us that Flipper is 100% correct in the U or public view of the Sebo. Many of the U faculty are convinced and hoping/praying everyday that we become a D-1AA football program, b/c of the money they feel it pulls from their academic programs. What they don't understand is that for the last 3-4 years, in particular, we are able to have Humanities and Performing Arts colleges b/c of football not in spite of football. The football program has more than covered itself financially in the past several years unless we are just that bad at handling money.

[RobbyFalcon]

I would suggest the designers of this new facility visit Millet Hall in Oxford and the US Bank Arena (formerly Riverfront Coliseum) in Cincy to find out what NOT to do.

I would also suggest they sell beer at the basketball games in the new place. I went to the Miami-UC game last night at the US Bank Arena and beer was being sold and there were no problems. Granted it was an off-campus site during Christmas break, but hey, I like beer, it makes me a jolly good fellow.

I would also suggest that much of the courtside seating be reserved for manic students instead of sedate alumni. Furthermore the seats should be right on top of the court.

Another thing I don't like is a facility having multiple sponsor names like, The Mr. Spot's Court inside Myle's Arena in the Madhatter Record's Convocation Center. But since multiple sponsor names brings multiple donations, why fight it?

Go Falcons!!

[Salsa]

From everything I can tell, the morale at the University now is the highest it has been in a long, long time.

I believe most people have a very positive view of President Ribeau and the rest of the administration.

Thje quality and innovation of our academic programs has been steadily improving.

The enrollment, both quality and quantity, is improving also.

Private donations are at an all time high and the Building Dreams Campaign looks to be a solid success.

We are entering a phase where several important new buildings will soon be constructed.

Scholarship donations are continuing to increase dramatically.

The public perception of BG appears to be very good.

I would say that BG is on a roll that will enhance just about everything a University hopes for.

The soft spot in my mind is the increasingly embarrassing level of state support.

[hammb]

When a Top-5 Michigan State came to BG, or a Gary Trent-led Ohio team came to BG, or a lot of the Toledo games that were at BG, or when Michigan came to our place, or even many of the games as recent as the 1997, 2000 and 2002 seasons came along, we had to turn away tons of people because our arena was too small. It was awesome to pack the place, but it was sad we couldn't get everyone who wanted to come into the building to see us play.

The only one of these seasons that I can find attendance info for is the 2002 & 2000 seasons. In 2002 we averaged about 3500 & it was about 3300 for 2000 (although I couldn't find attendance figures for the Marshall game). In those 2 seasons combined we had 7 games with a listed attendance of > 4500 & 3 of those were > 4700. I find it real hard to believe that we turned down that many people.

People talk about 10,000 seat arenas, and I WILL be overly negative and I'll continue to say that we will NEVER sell out a 10,000 seat arena for a BG hoops game. That would require more than double the largest capacity we've ever had. I was at many of these 7 games that were so well attended and I can assure you I never saw anything close to 5300 people being turned away. I would be shocked if we had an additional 2300 people that wanted to see those games that we couldn't accomodate.

A town/school that struggles to average 20,000 people at football games with a nationally ranked program is not going to put 10,000 people in a basketball arena. I may be thinking solely of the past & present, but it seems ludicrous to me to think of the future as doubling our current basketball support.

I fully support a new arena, but 6-7k seats is plenty, 8k at the most. And you better be willing to accept that the arena will still be 1/4 full on most nights. Because I just ran through those attendance numbers from our 2 most successful seasons in the past 5 years and there were STILL a good deal of sub 3000 attendance nights, and at least a couple each year of < 2000. Like it or not BG is not Lawrence, Bloomington, or Durham.

[Falconboy]

I’ve read a few posts concerning the capacity for basketball if we build a new arena. One thing we must keep in mind and remember if we do build a new facility, what we have done in the past and what we do now isn't what we should limit ourselves to in the future as far as a new building is concerned. Just because a capacity of 4,700 is okay for us now and has been for awhile, we can't build a small capacity arena for the future. Now I’m not saying we need 15,000, but we must think outside the box when we build a new building. I believe this has already been implemented in the planning stages of this building.

BG hasn’t played in the NCAA Tournament since 1968, doesn’t host NIT home games, normally doesn’t sellout a 4,700 arena that often, and has had trouble getting big-named schools to play us at home. But that doesn’t mean we can’t improve in some of these areas in the future with the aid of a new building. That is why if we are going to build a new facility, we need to make sure we are thinking of the bigger picture. We need to think about “What If” as we build this building……..What if we can build a strong program at BG. What if we can attract better recruits with the help of having a better facility. What if we can get bigger named schools to come more often, or host NIT games instead of playing them on the road. And aside from the building, what if we can start retaining players and keep them from transferring to build a better program, or what if we have (or can get) a coach who can lift us to the top of the MAC and we can start building a better and stronger fan base. We need a facility that can accommodate these possibilities.

I believe and know BG can be so much more than it has been in the recent past in hoops. Many people do not know or realize just how much of a basketball power BG used to be not too long ago. While we may not ever get back to that level, we can be so much more than what we are now or have recently become. How many people 10 years ago could have imaged BG football being in the Top-25, having Heisman Trophy candidates, or better yet, hosting College Gameday? Many people would have thought it was a crazy thought then, and as much as I would have liked to see it, it was nearly impossible to envision then. But it happened. That is what we must keep in mind for this new arena as well. Things can certainly get a lot better with BG basketball, and we must keep that in mind when building this facility. We can be so much more than what we are now, and we must account for the possibility of that in the near future with this building, not to mention the other functions this facility could provide for and serve.

Excellent thinking BGSU33! Just my thoughts exactly.

[BGSU33]

When a Top-5 Michigan State came to BG, or a Gary Trent-led Ohio team came to BG, or a lot of the Toledo games that were at BG, or when Michigan came to our place, or even many of the games as recent as the 1997, 2000 and 2002 seasons came along, we had to turn away tons of people because our arena was too small. It was awesome to pack the place, but it was sad we couldn't get everyone who wanted to come into the building to see us play.

The only one of these seasons that I can find attendance info for is the 2002 & 2000 seasons. In 2002 we averaged about 3500 & it was about 3300 for 2000 (although I couldn't find attendance figures for the Marshall game). In those 2 seasons combined we had 7 games with a listed attendance of > 4500 & 3 of those were > 4700. I find it real hard to believe that we turned down that many people.

People talk about 10,000 seat arenas, and I WILL be overly negative and I'll continue to say that we will NEVER sell out a 10,000 seat arena for a BG hoops game. That would require more than double the largest capacity we've ever had. I was at many of these 7 games that were so well attended and I can assure you I never saw anything close to 5300 people being turned away. I would be shocked if we had an additional 2300 people that wanted to see those games that we couldn't accomodate.

A town/school that struggles to average 20,000 people at football games with a nationally ranked program is not going to put 10,000 people in a basketball arena. I may be thinking solely of the past & present, but it seems ludicrous to me to think of the future as doubling our current basketball support.

I fully support a new arena, but 6-7k seats is plenty, 8k at the most. And you better be willing to accept that the arena will still be 1/4 full on most nights. Because I just ran through those attendance numbers from our 2 most successful seasons in the past 5 years and there were STILL a good deal of sub 3000 attendance nights, and at least a couple each year of < 2000. Like it or not BG is not Lawrence, Bloomington, or Durham.

Like I said, you can say what you want, but if we built a new arena and it has 10,000 seats and scheduled a game with a Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio State or Michigan State (which have all played at MAC schools before), I believe 100 percent we'd fill it. If not for the chance for people to see these other schools play, or for students to see these teams, or for visiting fans that would travel. I fully believe they would come, just like 13,000 people did to see a 5-win Ohio team (that's right, five wins all season) against Kentucky in The Convo a few years ago. There was a lot of blue in there, but people packed the place.

As for looking at the attendance of 2000 and 2002, you said you could only find seven games of more than 4,500, but that's seven more games in just those two seasons that we had to turn people away. Because what was happening in those years with attedance and capacity was then, they were cutting people off when the arena "became full." Our capacity then was listed at 5,000, but after examining those figures with a packed arena with 4,500 or so, they realized our arena was actually smaller than 5,000, hence, our capacity now of 4,700. It used to be 5,200 before the chairbacks were installed on the lower west side. Same can be said for 1997 several times and many other times for games with UT. We turned people away. I don't care if you don't believe it or not. Ask the people who were lucky to cram in there and were sitting in the stairs for the BG/EMU game at AA when Boykins and Dial were there. Or better yet, ask the people that were turned away if they enjoyed the game. A lot of people were pissed. In 1993-94, some friends and I camped out overnight to get in line for student tickets pick-up for the Ohio game. At sunrise, the line went around Memorial Hall and way down the sidewalk towards the SS building. And this wasn't just to see Trent and OU, it was to see BG because we were good that year too.

And true, BG is not a Lawrence, Bloomington or Durham, and likely never will be close to that, but those places got a start at one time too. It's not like God decided one day, this shall be a basketball school and people flocked there. They "built" what they have, just like schools all across the country have done and are doing. BG was a national basketball power...not regional - national - years ago. We aren't even a bleep on the radar now. We can only go up from where we are and it starts by winning, building and developing a fan base. But if the majority of people have a "never" and "can't" attitude, you'll never get that process underway. But feel free to think what you want.......just remember, we had people right here on this board saying College Gameday would "never" come to BG and it "can't" happen at a MAC school.

[Flipper]

I would prefer bulding a better 8,000 seat arena than putting the extra $$ into a 10,000 seat arena.

[hammb]

Those other teams built their tradition in a time when money didn't rule all. More importantly there wasn't so much money tied up with the haves to ensure that the have nots would never become the haves.

I was at every single one of those 4500+ games in 2000 & 2002, and I would bet that we didn't turn away 5000 people total in all those games combined let alone all of them at one time that it would take to fill the arena. If tickets were really in that sort of demand there would've been scalpers selling them, and they would've been worth something.

If BG even contemplates building a 10,000 or greater seat arena for basketball they need to have their head's examined. Even with all those capacity crowds in those season we STILL only averaged 3,300 & 3,500 for those years. Averages like that with a whopping 7 games at capacity hardly justifies an arena seating over double what we currently have.

Give me a 6,000 to 8,000 seat arena. I'd much rather see them spend the extra cash on a scoreboard or videoboard for the arena than an additional 2-4k seats that will sit empty until we get Duke to come play here.

Edited to add that OSU hasn't played an instate basketball team in like 50 years. THey're playing (or already did) Cincy this year, but it's a neutral court game in Indiana. You won't see them coming up here.

[Flipper]

You might want to research that OSU point a bit...

[hammb]

You might want to research that OSU point a bit...

Oops...I remembered wrong. It was specifically Cincy that they haven't played since '62.

I don't think they've played an instate road game in forever though. I'll see if I can find anything. Although I don't think they've played an instate team period in a number of years. Their previous AD was dead set AGAINST playing instate opponents in basketball.