What OU-Akron Should Teach Us

[Cap City 7]

Several weeks ago I started a topic that questioned why BG's beautiful new basketball arena seats only around 4700 fans. My thinking was an arena should be functional for at least 40-50 years which was the case with Anderson Arena. Why then did we settle for one actually smaller than the one it replaced. Shouldn't we hope and expect a product on the court that can command crowds of 7 to 8 thousand? Is that unrealistic? Every one who commented on my post seemed to feel the size of the Stroh was exactly what BG needed for today and apparently for 40 years from now. I just watched the Akron-OU game and it appears to me the arena in Athens was pretty well filled and the Convocation Center holds more than 14,000. I know they had more than 14,000 fans for a OU-BG game a few years ago. Someone explain to me how Athens, Ohio can, for special games, draw well over 10,000 fans to a town in the middle of nowhere and BG figures 4700 is the most they can hope for today and for the next 40 years.
It is that lack of vision that I cannot understand when facilities are planned at Bowling Green. BG should have built an arena that could seat at least 7 to 8,000 fans regardless if it was filled every game. Just like Ohio U demonstrated if you put a competitive and exciting product on the court and you have a facility large enough to hold them you can draw big crowds to small towns like Athens and Bowling Green. Just because they have not done so recently does not mean they should assume they never will. That is a defeatist attitude. I fully understand the men's basketball team has not been very good for some time and as things presently stand there is little reason for most people to go to the games or expect any improvement. But things don't have to remain like they are now. Bring in a coaching staff that can effectively evaluate talent and can recruit players that can elevate the program to the level that Ohio U and Akron are now. Having an arena that is larger than a high school gym would have helped this process along. Hopefully for the next 40 years when Bowling Green has a huge home game that matters we will rue the day the powers-that-be could only envision crowds smaller than what the designers of Anderson Arena envisioned back in 1960. What an opportunity lost.

[falconfan1]

cap, we can win in the Stroh. Period. Players/student athletes like the arena and the setting. Fans are close to the court. You can see from all around the arena. It's fine. We don't need 8000 seats to win. We have won the majority of our games there albeit sometimes in an unexciting way. An 8000 seat arena adds approx $5million for one thing. The Stroh Center is fine. Convo Ctr draws well this year. And should. With a super team that played into almost April last year w every single kid back. No one can get out of Athens. Some lesser games do not draw nearly as well as in 1/3 capacity or less of the building. I enjoy games there and love to see the excellent support when it is there for the Bobcats. But the 14,000 seat building does not cause the support nor provide the exciting and winning product. That is recruiting and coaching. Completely. The Convo helps and, on an exciting night like OU-Akron, it is great. But first you better have some great and many good players, commitment to winning by the players and great coaching.

You post that what we do need is an exciting and winning product on the court. You are absolutely right. That is exactly what we need. Then we can draw our crowd, sell 4700 seats, have people camp outside and all the other stuff I hope for/dream about.

We don't need 8000 seats to get the paragraph immediately above done. No way. We have all we need academically, facilities and etc.

We have to do it.

My number one example right now would be BG hockey. Some great players or "to be" great players, several good ones, commitment to winning by the players and great coaching. The product has doubled to tripled attendance. We don't win anywhere near every home game- in fact our home winning percentage is worse than men's basketball- but the fan base reacts to the entire team's effort, rising talent level and whole program on the upswing. Example B- Akron basketball's record and Akron basketball's gym. It's players and coaching.

Go Falcons!

[TG1996]

OU has 22,000 students. Athens alone has that many residents, plus surrounding population (although limited). There's virtually nothing to do within 1-1.5 hours. Having a consistently competitive team also helps.

Ball State has a 10,000+ seat arena and it's almost depressing to sit in. (Though nice to pay GA prices to only have to walk up as high as your legs feel like climbing to grab a seat.) 4,500 may prove to be too small down the road. 14,000 would be a detriment far more often than it would be an asset, IMO.

[TG1996]

And while OU grads would like you to think their university is even better than sliced bread, the Internet doesn't even think it's the most interesting thing in Athens.

[factman]

Hey.......we can always make it the home of only Falcon volleyball in a few years and leave the "fundraising" to the next guy for a new arena!

I don't think Cap ever said we needed a 14,000 seat arena.

[Falcon137]

Gonzaga's arena seats 6,000. They are ranked #2 in the country.

[guest44]

Akron, OU, and last nights crowd should teach us that we need a new coach. Akron and OU should teach us we need better talent. Losing to IUPUI and IPFW in the same season should teach us fans to stay home.

[zete]

BGSU basketball has not been to the NCAAs for over 40 years - - we suck, and most realize we always will. I think they should have built it smaller -- say 1500-2000 range.

[manager]

I envy having a competitive team. If I have to fight for a ticket for the Stroh, that would be a welcome change.

[guest44]

I'm not sure we will always suck, but the Mr. Fundraiser sure has set the standards low. Lou Orr has made close to 1 million dollars over 6 years to just hammer the program into the ground. Orr preaches his faith, yet the loudest mouth in the stands yelling at the refs is his wife. Huh? Since Fundraiser brought in his new assistant AD, BG has gotten more pub for behind the scene "love stories", than anything of substance. It was time to clean house a year ago, it's still time to clean house.

[Flipper]

I think it is unrealistic to expect crowds of 7-8,000 here. UT sits squarely in the middle of a metro area with a population greater than 10x that of BG. Centennial Hall (I'm old school) seats around 7,000. They drew less than 4,000 last night playing for the division lead. Hell...OU had a few thousand empty seats last night playing the #24 team in the country. The Stroh Center is fine...it is by far the least of our worries right now....it will be the least of our worries 10, 15 and 20 years from now too.

[Lord_Byron]

I think it is unrealistic to expect crowds of 7-8,000 here. UT sits squarely in the middle of a metro area with a population greater than 10x that of BG. Centennial Hall (I'm old school) seats around 7,000. They drew less than 4,000 last night playing for the division lead. Hell...OU had a few thousand empty seats last night playing the #24 team in the country. The Stroh Center is fine...it is by far the least of our worries right now....it will be the least of our worries 10, 15 and 20 years from now too.

This is correct. The main ingredient in drawing successfully is starting to hang sell-out signs. A team most easily accomplishes this by slightly underbuilding their facility.

It's counter-intuitive, but the reason that Toledo only drew 4000 last night was because they have 7000 seats. Fans know that they can always get a seat in a walk-up sale, so there is no reason to purchase season tickets or advance individual game tickets.

For a team like ours, 4500 seats is perfect. When we become competitive on a larger scale, the tickets become scarce. Scarce tickets mean advance purchases and consistent sold out houses.

A classic example is the 455 game Jacobs Field sell out streak. People bought tickets in advance because that was the only way to get seats. Now, with all-you-can-eat walk ups, why bother? Then, come game day, there's always something more pressing -- the weather is bad; Real Housewives is on TV; they don't allow Milk-duds in the arena; etc.

4500 is the perfect size for our University and the BG community. The athletic department showed an understanding of supply/demand and foresight in planning and building the Stroh Center. One can blame them for doing a lot of things wrong, but this isn't one of them.

[BGorDeath]

My favorite episodes of Mr. Ed are when Wilbur's wife takes a club and beats the living sh*t out of Mr. Ed killing him and the following four episodes where she just continues to beat the crap out of him, even though he is dead. She changes the tool for beating every episode. In all, she uses a club, shovel, Wilbur's chair and the surf board and telephone. Mr. Ed used.

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Gonzaga's arena seats 6,000. They are ranked #2 in the country.

winner, and come Monday they'll be the #1 team in the country as long as they win at BYU tonight

[BleedOrange]

Several weeks ago I started a topic that questioned why BG's beautiful new basketball arena seats only around 4700 fans. My thinking was an arena should be functional for at least 40-50 years which was the case with Anderson Arena. Why then did we settle for one actually smaller than the one it replaced. Shouldn't we hope and expect a product on the court that can command crowds of 7 to 8 thousand? Is that unrealistic? Every one who commented on my post seemed to feel the size of the Stroh was exactly what BG needed for today and apparently for 40 years from now. I just watched the Akron-OU game and it appears to me the arena in Athens was pretty well filled and the Convocation Center holds more than 14,000. I know they had more than 14,000 fans for a OU-BG game a few years ago. Someone explain to me how Athens, Ohio can, for special games, draw well over 10,000 fans to a town in the middle of nowhere and BG figures 4700 is the most they can hope for today and for the next 40 years.
It is that lack of vision that I cannot understand when facilities are planned at Bowling Green. BG should have built an arena that could seat at least 7 to 8,000 fans regardless if it was filled every game. Just like Ohio U demonstrated if you put a competitive and exciting product on the court and you have a facility large enough to hold them you can draw big crowds to small towns like Athens and Bowling Green. Just because they have not done so recently does not mean they should assume they never will. That is a defeatist attitude. I fully understand the men's basketball team has not been very good for some time and as things presently stand there is little reason for most people to go to the games or expect any improvement. But things don't have to remain like they are now. Bring in a coaching staff that can effectively evaluate talent and can recruit players that can elevate the program to the level that Ohio U and Akron are now. Having an arena that is larger than a high school gym would have helped this process along. Hopefully for the next 40 years when Bowling Green has a huge home game that matters we will rue the day the powers-that-be could only envision crowds smaller than what the designers of Anderson Arena envisioned back in 1960. What an opportunity lost.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I've been saying this from the beginning.

BG has in its DNA an apathetic, defeatist, loser mindset. It was present on campus when I was there and it still exists today. This defeatist, loser mindset shows up in spades on this forum when we discuss the Stroh's capacity. "We're losers and always will be. We're insignificant - nobody will ever be interested. 4K is all that we'll need for the next 50 years."

I've been a BG basketball fan all of my life. I have ALWAYS held out far higher hope and aspirations than many BG fans.