Bradley to move games to Renaissance Coliseum

[tornado]

I am with you about 90% but on the Eastside topic - I will take opposition...

EastSide Sports Complex has been largely responsible for the influx of an enormous number of out of town visitors, restaurant business, additional shopping & of course - the need for lodging....
- not just for huge softball tourneys, but also baseball, several state tournaments including IESA Track & Baseball, soccer games, and even all summer long with travel ball tournaments...

It's hard not to notice at least eight or nine NEW hotels that have gone up in East Peoria over the past decade...with Peoria lagging way behind
and just now trying to catch up with the new baseball complex out by Grand Prairie..
although note who the biggest proponent of that endeavor is - a big-time hotel guy...


So don't be so quick to count EastSide in the unproductive column...
When Eastside was built back in the early 90's there was a lot of bellyaching and whining around East Peoria - but there's nobody complaining now - it has helped the city's economy plenty and there's even talk now of expanding it if they can find a way...

[Vent]

Maybe I should have been more clearer on the Eastside comment. I did not mean or say Eastside has been non productive. It has been very productive for many amateur tournaments including IHSA and IESA tournaments. What I was referring to and omitted was the clear fact, that Eastside Centre has not made East Peoria High more successful in football, boys baseball, boys soccer, boys track, girls soccer or girls volleyball. There has been much success with the girls softball team. It was used as an illustration, that great facilities do not automatically equate into winning teams.

[tornado]

well, you are right there - I talk to East Peoria people all the time and it is a source of major concern & embarrassment that a school of this size cannot field decent teams in pretty much any sport (although wrestling & recently boys golf have done OK)
.. but mostly it is a result of poor youth programs that do NOT develop either talent or interest -
If EP could develop a solid youth FB program or development program (like Metamora) or youth soccer (like Morton does) it would help a few years down the line.

[Canton BU fan]

It's true that facilities don't always result in competitive teams but Eastside is a bad example. That place exists to host events that don't have anything to do with school sports. I have been there a lot over the years for youth baseball. A facility like that is overkill for summer rec baseball and softball. If it was for things like that I am sure it never would have been built.

[tornado]

This downsizing into the Ren-Col fits with the downsizing of our entire program...even downsizing of our recruiting...
we've already been told by our media that this is just part of rebuilding "the right way" - with strong hints that we've been seeing the wrong way for the past decade...

but just what do the media guys label as the wrong way??

Here's what they have told us over the past decade..in a weak attempt to rip on previous recruiting...

That it is wrong to bring in too many juco kids ("Too many jucos")
That it is wrong to bring in too many newcomers at once (Too many D-I virgins")
That it is wrong to spurn the local kids and fail to build strong local ties (like Jeremy Crouch, DSE..)
That it's wrong to bring in kids who have to be suspended or who get arrested..
Taking transfers is risky...running players in and out, player losses, cleaning house & restocking each year..
And of course it's wrong to miss so badly on recruits - waste scholarships on kids who can't score, can't play defense, aren't even eligible and who are not D-I caliber.

But now the same media is 100% silent when this staff does all of this in spades...
Here we are in Year-4, all the players are Geno's, he ought to have a roster full of solid 4-year recruits contributing...

Instead, the only four kids he has recruited in 4 years - who are potential 4-year guys that haven't left -
have contributed thus far 197 of our 655 points, and way less than 1/3 of our production - except they have contributed well over 1/3 of our turnovers.

[newbie doobie]

In JournalStar http://www.pjstar.com/article/201412...8/2011/OPINION
Opinion: Will Bradley basketball downsize to Division II or III

[Da Coach]

Another 40-year season ticket holder disgusted with being lectured to by Bradley about playing games at Ren Col.

[Vent]

I told some friends, when Ford and Cross started talking about moving games to campus, that the topic would be the spark that lit the fire. I would imagine Ford regrets calling people "uneducated" that disagree with playing Eureka. Those are the kind of things that happen when frustration sets in. I really believe, there is nobody that wants to win more than Geno. He unfortunately just doesn't have the ability to make it happen. Glasser has destroyed BU. It is unfortunate that in our society, athletics take precedent over academics. Maybe that is part of the reason we lag behind the rest of the world in education. If the attention was focused on the way the current president at BU has ruined the academic side of BU as much as the basketball side, she would have been gone a long time ago. Now it is finally all coming to a head (hopefully).