Bradley to move games to Renaissance Coliseum

[Da Coach]

We have reported before that this idea is more than just a rumor. I have previously posted that I have heard that the administration has consulted engineering experts about expanding the Ren Col. Now be prepared for the administration to start floating this concept to the public. I suspect the PJ Star will promote this idea in an article soon.
As terrible as this would be for the Bradley program, it appears it will soon become reality.

[Chico]

We have reported before that this idea is more than just a rumor. I have previously posted that I have heard that the administration has consulted engineering experts about expanding the Ren Col. Now be prepared for the administration to start floating this concept to the public. I suspect the PJ Star will promote this idea in an article soon.
As terrible as this would be for the Bradley program, it appears it will soon become reality.

If that happens, goodbye Bradley basketball.

[ancona flash]

Count me as one who would be very disappointed if this would happen. But guys??¦..lets not get everyone panicked here. The title of the thread alone insinuates that this is already a done deal. It's not.

If they get an engineering firm on board it would take months if not years to put a viable plan together. Then once a plan is in place it would need BOT approval. This could take several years to even get to a starting point. Then if it's approved, we've got ourselves a nice little bargaining chip with the Civic Center, which can't be the worst thing. If you don't work with us a little better then we will do this-type thing. The CC needs a strong Bradley basketball program. It's not like they are sitting in an office plotting how they can screw BU over. They want a winner and a full house just like all of us do. But they also need BU hoops in a big way. Having a viable alternative breeds competition which can't hurt. If by then (3-4 years from now) we still are horrible, bottom 3 in the MVC, etc, etc, then I think we would be to the point that moving to a on campus arena and Chico's dire prediction comes 50% true. BU ball won't go away, but it would be past the point of a reasonable fix back to the days of Mo's good years, or Versace in the early to mid 80's.

Which gets back to the main issue at hand. If we win, Carver fills up and all attendance problems go away. The RC is a moot point and this thread becomes completely irrelevant. All the more reason to put everything we can behind this team now so this issue (that may not be nearly the issue we think it is) becomes an afterthought.

[tornado]

well that just cannot possibly be....
we have Dr. Michael Cross at his word multiple times that Bradley is 100% committed to keeping the games at Carver Arena...he has said so on several occasions ...

Just a couple months ago in a live interview and chat (at 12:50) - LINK

Dr. Cross was asked...
"should we be expecting more Mens games at the RC..?"

His unequivocal answer was..
"The Renaissance Coliseum is as nice a facility as any in the country and is a
very viable option for select and limited situations, primarily driven by lack
of date availability at the PCC. Its current size makes its use for a majority
of our games impractical."



And even MORE RECENTLY - just last month....
"It doesn't mean we're going to change our committment to Division I athletics," Cross tells WMBD's Greg and Dan.
... it does not mean more men's basketball games at Renaissance Coliseum.
"The discussion about playing games at Renaissance Coliseum is not something we've gotten into at this point," Cross says."

no way they'd be saying these things if they were just blowing smoke up our.....noses....
...although they could change the size of RC and they could get into the discussion...

[Da Coach]

I guess we'll find out pretty soon.

IMO, the decision has already been made.

[Oldalumni]

I have been reviewing this topic on this board, the other board, listened to Geno's comments after the game and observed the BU Admins/Trustee Board actions the last few years and here are some thoughts and solution.

1. Geno said that the Ren Ctr gives his team a home court advantage and his current players would rather play there than in the larger arena in front of more people.

2. The university and many have said a top priority should be to get students to the game and not have to rely on us older alumni so much because we are a dwindling commodity.

3. The Civic Center does not allow as much profit to go to the university as the Ren Center.

4. The results during the last few years of the team has probably been the major reason for the reduction in fans attending the game.

5. The level of opponents has been downgraded and thus does not draw the fans interest in seeing the competition even if our talent is not good.

6. The Admin is caught between trying to do what they want to do but still trying to keep the alumns somewhat happy enough to maintain contributions.

7. With the lack of success the historical fan pride in the program has and will continue to go down.

6. Nothing seems to be changing that would reverse the trend in lower attendance at the games in the future and it seems that the people in charge are content with that outcome. (I gave my lower bowl tickets up that I had since the move to the Civic Center)

Solution:

Play all games at Ren Center and allow the students to have the tickets to the games. If there are any tickets available 24 hours before the game then the public could then purchase them.

This would accommodate the current coach's, player's, and admin's priorities.

I would rather see the change take place immediately so we can move on to others interests then keep the current strategy which allows for hope but has the same outcome as the solution while creating so many hard feelings among long time Bradley fans against other Bradley fans.

I wish I were wrong but I doubt it.

[tornado]

the actions of the past few years have boxed BU in with irresponsible & insurmountable financial losses - it's pretty much a given that if you can't pay the rent on a nice place but you own a garage, then you move into your garage to cut your losses...
If they move to the Ren-Col - it'll get blown way up as if it's a great move, a smart move, a piece of shrewd management, and something only the current people are wise enough and brave enough to achieve..
when in reality it's not much different from jumping off the cruise ship and into a lifeboat because it's all you got now since the ship is sinking

[Da Coach]

If the continued destruction of a great basketball program is the goal of this current administration, then everything they've done makes sense, and downgrading the schedule and moving games to the campus gymnasium is just the next logical step. They are completely responsible for the woeful financial state that they have caused, and now they will use that as an excuse to further destroy the program. It's a travesty, and they aren't done yet. D III here we come.

[LongTimeFan]

Wouldn't we nee a building permit from the city? All I heard was the current RenCol was this size to prevent Bradley moving its games to the RenCol. Is in now conceivable that a billing permit would be issued?

Parking is also a big issue. One of the announcers just made it to the game due to parking issues. We also have a problem with the traffic flow at University and main. I can picture that with two or three thousand more people coming to the campus.

This game was attended by some of the students simply because it was a novelty on campus. I wonder if BU could pull a like amount to all games. I would imagine Saturday games might be successful but college pressures might prevent them from attending the majority of the games.

I think the Admin would be shooting themselves in the foot. I have seen some comments about improving the revenue flow though concessions and advertisements. However, if the 'grey hairs' are upset and stop following BU basketball, I wonder what that would do to future endowments. Will the current generation of graduates make endowments to the university? I'm not sure they would have the same attitude towards endowments. Also the smaller the fan base the fewer endowments.

[Da Coach]

Very astute observations. I agree that students won't come unless we are winning, and that will be far less likely to ever occur if we shrink the program by moving into a glorified high school gym. Plus, most of the donating alumni would disappear, all but guaranteeing the move would be another massive mistake like this administration is famous for.

[Dub]

To me there have been clear efforts over the past few seasons to condition us toward the idea of this shift. Comments in the pregame, comments in the postgame. But perhaps there's even more to the story. Perhaps the admin/BOT are positioning Bradley's men's program in anticipation of a massive restructure in the NCAA which they felt was inevitably going to lower demand for the product anyway. Wouldn't that explain why there hasn't been much urgency on the part of the admin regarding poor turnout? The way to make RenCol a viable option is to move toward acceptance of a lower level of demand. The way to lower demand is.... well we've all watched the various ways to make that happen.

[Da Coach]

...Now be prepared for the administration to start floating this concept to the public. I suspect the PJ Star will promote this idea in an article soon.
As terrible as this would be for the Bradley program, it appears it will soon become reality.

Here it is, just as I predicted. The PJ Star continues to shill for this inept administration-

http://m.pjstar.com/article/20141204/SPORTS/141209506/12701/SPORTS

Geno dutifully does his part, too.

[Dub]

[QUOTE= Geno dutifully does his part, too.[/QUOTE]

Dave Snell seems to be towing the line as well, but I don't think Chad Kline got the memo. Does Geno think that a permanently shrunken Bradley program would be able to continue to spend $800K per year on a head coach?

[LongTimeFan]

Hmm, Adding 2000 seats to the RenCol. I wonder if the fire marshall would see eye to eye with that. I believe he is hired by the city.

[Da Coach]

A couple other observations-

In Dave Reynolds' article, he shows this picture with the caption below-


A crowd of 4, 204 watches Tuesday's Bradley game at Renaissance Coliseum.

In that picture, though not surprisingly Dave does not notice or mention it, but it is obvious that half or more of the seats are unoccupied. To base much of his article on the seriously flawed premise that Bradley draws well in the Renaissance Coliseum because the announced attendance was 4,204 is more backward thinking by Dave. As most people here know, that game was included in everyone's season ticket package. It's likely there were 4000 or more tickets sold just because of the season ticket holders. We have seen how many tickets they can sell when people actually have to buy them for the Renaissance Coliseum-
On 11/12/12 Bradley hosted Texas Pan-Am in a game that was not part of the season ticket package, though fans were able to order tickets at the same time they renewed their season tickets. It also was the game when Anthony Parker was inducted into the Bradley Hall of Fame. Yet the announced attendance was 3,151 and I doubt there were 1,500 actual fans in attendance.
Later that season, on March 20, 2013 Bradley hosted Green Bay in the CIT. Announced attendance was 1,801. On March 23, Bradley hosted Tulane and the announced attendance was 1,897. In reality, the actual fan count was much lower.
I have been amazingly accurate with nearly all my predictions about the course of events and the massive fallout from the inept handling of the firing of the last coach, the hiring of the current coach, and the downhill slide this program has taken as a result. So mark this one down- this program will slide into oblivion, and season tickets will drop to 2000 or less if our inept administration takes this course of action.

Finally- one other line from Dave Reynolds' article-
Considering how much attendance has declined in recent seasons, though, moving back to campus might well become a financial necessity for Bradley, which has run an athletics deficit of nearly $18 million the last three years.
“We have an obligation to make sure that we’re looking at what is in the best long-term interest of our basketball program,” BU athletics director Michael Cross said. “Understanding all the forms that would take, we need to do our due diligence to make sure we make judicious choices.”

Had anyone heard this figure before? The athletic department ran a deficit of nearly $18 million the last 3 years! That is an astounding turnaround from an athletic department that just a few years ago was boasting about breaking records year after year for revenues and donations.
This comes from Bradley's own website-
Bradley Athletics Reports Record Revenue for Third Straight Year

http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3400&ATCLID=1597812

How inept does the admin have to be to squander all this revenue and all the goodwill of a huge loyal and generous fan base in this short of a time span?

And if they have been culpable in squandering all that money and turning a great program with record revenues into a pathetic, losing program with an $18 million deficit in the last 3 years, how could anyone believe or trust that the same people are capable of doing "what is in the best long-term interest of our basketball program” or that they have the ability "to do our due diligence to make sure we make judicious choices."

Most fans I know do not.