What OU-Akron Should Teach Us

[Flipper]

I aspire to jump to the moon.... no matter how much evidence you supply that conclusively shows such a thing to be ludcirous....I will continue to aspire to jump to the moon....

[Lord_Byron]

[hammb]

The notion that we should build an arena with nearly double the seating capacity as what we did in the hope that one day 30 years from now we'll fill it seems absolutely ludicrous to me. I can't for the life of me figure out how this topic keeps coming back to the forefront.

The simple truth is look at our history. No matter how successful we've been, no matter if we had a top 5 NBA pick playing for us, no matter how exciting we were to watch, we have NEVER EVER needed an arena that had a capacity of greater than 4500.

The logic that some of you are using is just absurd. Building something gigantic in the hope of someday filling it despite all evidence saying that it's unnecessary just seems like a foolish waste of money to me. We have never had a need for a larger arena than the Stroh, that is undeniable FACT. We also know for a FACT that increasing size/capacity means a big increase in building costs. We also know for a FACT that low attendance numbers in a large arena really hurts the gameday experience (check out a game at NIU, Ball State, or EMU if you don't buy that...it sucks).

Those that propose the Stroh should have been 3-4k seats larger seem willing to ignore all of these facts on the conjecture that we could be good enough 20 years from now to have a larger demand than we've ever had in the history of the program. That's absurd to me, and if they would have built the arena that large you can bet I would've been bitching to holy hell about it as it sits with 1500 people nowadays.

What we got was a great arena. It's a fun place to watch a game. Sight lines in most of the arena are good (a couple poor sections). I love the open concourse feel of the place...so much nicer than many modern arenas. And it's at a size that doesn't make you feel as though you're playing in Madison Square Garden when nobody shows up, while at the same time probably being large enough to accommodate even the largest crowds we'll draw in the foreseeable future. And if we ever do get to the point where a 7000 seat arena would be reasonable? Then we'll see unprecedented demand for tickets, a huge upswing in season/advanced ticket sales, and finally some demand for the product.

This isn't field of dreams...if we build it doesn't mean they'll come.

[Falcon137]

When is the 80,000 seat football stadium being built?

[BGFalconfromCincy]

When is the 80,000 seat football stadium being built?

Same for the 35,000 seat baseball stadium, and the 20,000 seat hockey arena. 30 years from now we may need those seats

[zete]

Are we the only MAC not going to NCAAs in last 35 years?

[jg4242]

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.

Here are the reasons we don't need a bigger gym:

We haven't averaged more than 4,700 fans EVER.

OU fills their arena a couple of times a year. Miami, NIU, BSU, Toledo, and EMU all have large arenas that NEVER fill up.

Rather than spending $25 million on an 8,000 seat gym (of which there are already 2 within 20 miles) with a pipe dream of filling it someday, we spent half of the money and can now spend the rest on things like dorms, classrooms, parking, performing arts, faculty, and students. If we base our self-image of the University on how big our basketball arena is, aren't we missing the point of having a University at all?

[BGFalconfromCincy]

Are we the only MAC not going to NCAAs in last 35 years?

Yes

Buffalo has never made the NCAA tournament, but they haven't been D1 the entire time