Media Tour of New Arena

[ph]

Bufanatic, yes, the Fieldhouse had to go.
I love historical architecture, and restoring as much as possible, as I'm doing on my 3rd home. I subscribe more to the This Old House theory of maintaining as much of yesterdays character as long as it works in today's lifestyle. If yesterday no longer works, then you need to build new.

The Fieldhouse needed all new mechanicals and more insulation to hold a comfortable temperature(can you say no air conditioning and a less than ideal heating system.) It needed all new bleachers and supports for today's seating needs. New electrical for today's multimedia, new plumbing for rest rooms and food... And after all that, the structure would still not accommodate a decent seating layout, and would not work well for its teams.
Yes, the Fieldhouse held a lot of great games, and was built with an innovative use of materials, but it was not known for great architecture (in a sense, like the Sears tower, innovative engineering and memorable as tallest building, but in no critics list of great aesthetic works of architecture in Chicago. And it worked so good as an office building, its primary tenant left) The fieldhouse was nowhere close to Hinkle in beauty. All the Fieldhouse could boast was the teams and fans that were kinnd enough to visit.
Bradley could of paid more to renovate the Fieldhouse into an inferior product. I'm very glad they made the right choice.

[Beninator]

Why do people keep saying this?? It wasn't politics, it WAS BUSINESS. How often would an extra 1500 seats be used? MAYBE one to two times a year, MAX. BU can't even really support a 4500 seat arena with parking etc. Worrying about playing men's games on any sort of regular basis in this arena is a waste of time, it will be a novelty not a regular occurrence, and with good reason.

I'll admit ahead of time that this is only my perception. But, if we had an extra 1,500 seats, we could be a competitor to the PCC for certain events (not basketball) and I think that certain political leaders in the community would be against this. Yes parking would be a problem, but it was a problem in the Fieldhouse days.

[ph]

what's the concert seating capacity with the floor?

[Future Walk-On]

what's the concert seating capacity with the floor?

333,125

[BradleyBrave]

Worrying about playing men's games on any sort of regular basis in this arena is a waste of time, it will be a novelty not a regular occurrence, and with good reason.

Then why does BU keep saying they're going to play a few regular season and all postseason games there? Look at the lowest attendance figures at any game over the past few seasons versus the capacity of that arena, and you'll see why it's not a waste of time...if the university means what they say about playing there. If the university doesn't mean what they say, then it's just posturing with the PCC to try and get a better contract. With the attendance figures, it doesn't look like BU has much leverage with an arena so small. If the university does mean what it says, then they're throwing away attendance revenue and the design was very short-sighted.

This isn't even considering the arena being a multi-purpose venue...an extra 1,000-1,500 seats could easily be filled for events besides basketball games.

[jeffsu]

Have you seen the gyms? Aren't there several baskets on each court? I am positive there are at least 6 in the Men's practice facility. I'm not saying it won't ever happen, but it won't be the usual case/

Agreed. I think I even heard that the # of baskets is actually 10 for the Men's Practice facility...


But really... WHO CARES where they practice? So long as we can offer top notch facilities, why are we worried about the logistics about who practices when? Let's be real, maybe they could *GASP* split the day up into different sessions for each team! (It's not like both teams are on court 12 hours a day.....)

[BradleyBrave]

On a separate note, as I mentioned in another post, in my opinion the most important piece here is the dedicated men's practice facility. It's just awesome, and I look forward to seeing what we can do recruiting-wise with that kind of facility to show off. I also think the new facilities and new floor could help in preventing injuries. The Fieldhouse floor and Haussler floor were not been the best as far as impact and wear-and-tear on your knees, feet, and ankles - as shown by an usually high number of stress fracture and foot-related injuries going back to the Anthony Parker era. From what I hear this new floor in the new practice facility is as forgiving as a wood floor can be in that regard, and hopefully will keep us from having this unusually high number of stress-related foot injuries.

[BUFanatic]

Geeze, I didn't even live through the golden years of the Fieldhouse and I've been it's most vocal supporter on this thread! lolz bahahaha

[it's boogie time]

Do we know what kind of high school tournaments or games are going to be scheduled at the new arena? It seemed like in the past that you would want to hide high schoolers from campus, but now you want as many players to see the new facilities as possible.

[BradleyBrave]

once the whole thing is done & up and running, I have heard from a reliable source they aggressively market the venue for high school games, regionals, sectionals, Supersectionals, AAU events, concerts, etc...
I'll have more in my blog later..

Sectionals and Supersectionals have in the past attracted more than 4,200. Concerts easily can and likely would. Again, 6,000-7,000 would have been ideal and made the venue all the more attractive for a number of revenue-generating events for the university.

[BradleyBrave]

BU has built what was most sensible and functional and had they tried to make it bigger, the city of Peoria would have nixed it and they'd have had to sacrifice some of the other parts of the facility, when in all likelihood there'll only be 1 or 2 events per year that would draw more than capacity.

Anyway -- here's my take on the facilities -- I was 100% impressed.....
http://bubravesblogger.blogspot.com/...acilities.html

Which was the point Beninator was trying to make, attacked for, and a point that I agree with. I have little doubt BU probably wanted it to be more viable, but had to bend over backwards and over-compromise to get the eventual city approval. Anyone who's been around Peoria for a while knows that the city and BU have never had the best relationship. Of course there were politics at work - Why would the city allow BU to build an arena that could directly compete with it for men's basketball games, concerts, and other events?

[ph]

Does anyone have a great relationship with city zoning?

[Braves4Life]

Of course there were politics at work - Why would the city allow BU to build an arena that could directly compete with it for men's basketball games, concerts, and other events?

BradleyBrave and Beninator -- Two smart men!

[dogsrus]

Which was the point Beninator was trying to make, attacked for, and a point that I agree with. I have little doubt BU probably wanted it to be more viable, but had to bend over backwards and over-compromise to get the eventual city approval. Anyone who's been around Peoria for a while knows that the city and BU have never had the best relationship. Of course there were politics at work - Why would the city allow BU to build an arena that could directly compete with it for men's basketball games, concerts, and other events?

You and Ben are 100% correct...BU did NOT build the most "sensible and functional" arena they could. They built what the City basically "allowed" them to build.

It shows how shortsighted they, the City, can be. ANYTHING that makes BU better makes the city better. 7,000 seats wasn't going to kill the Civic Center. Competition makes you stronger if you are intelligent enough to take on the challenge.

[dogsrus]

BradleyBrave and Beninator -- Two smart men!

+1