Saint Louis to build new $80 million on campus arena

[Da Coach]

http://www.slu.edu/readstory/more/6937

The new 10,600 seat arena will host the men's and women's basketball teams. The Billikens will no longer play any home games in the Savvis Center after the new arena opens in 2008.

My first take on this news is that in a few more years, SLU will realize it was a mistake to join the Atlantic 10. The other 13 teams in the Atlantic 10 are all 350-1000 miles east of St. Louis (other than Xavier and Dayton, every other school is in a east coast state). Traveling to play conference games must be a nightmare for them. They might begin looking for another conference and could be interested in the MVC again. I don't believe the MVC would ever consider them as long as they played their games in the Savvis Center, but now that they will be playing elsewhere, it could work.

[tornado]

The good news.....Virginia is also nearing completion of a $130 million on-campus athletic facility.

The bad news...The planned very poorly and went ahead and built it before the had all the funds and pledges, and guess what...
They are $20 million or so short of what they need.
Donors of $10,000 or more are "RANKED" and will get to select their season seats. I guess the students don't get the prime ones.

Either way, it looks like the Virginia taxpayers may get stung on this one.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149188612008&path=%21sports&s=1045855934844

[BradleyBrave]

Re: Saint Louis to build new $80 million on campus arena

http://www.slu.edu/readstory/more/6937

The new 10,600 seat arena will host the men's and women's basketball teams. The Billikens will no longer play any home games in the Savvis Center after the new arena opens in 2008.

My first take on this news is that in a few more years, SLU will realize it was a mistake to join the Atlantic 10. The other 13 teams in the Atlantic 10 are all 350-1000 miles east of St. Louis (other than Xavier and Dayton, every other school is in a east coast state). Traveling to play conference games must be a nightmare for them. They might begin looking for another conference and could be interested in the MVC again. I don't believe the MVC would ever consider them as long as they played their games in the Savvis Center, but now that they will be playing elsewhere, it could work.

I agree Coach. This makes it much easier to bring SLU on board in the MVC should they decide to make that jump. Heck, it would be a financial winner based upon the lighter travel schedule alone. Add in the natural local rivalries with MSU, SIU, EU, and even BU and ISU to an extent, and it really makes perfect sense for them to make that jump. I'm all in favor of it, although we would lose the luxury of our round-robin schedule (assuming Evansville doesn't drop out/get booted).

[MacabreMob]

Re: Saint Louis to build new $80 million on campus arena

http://www.slu.edu/readstory/more/6937

The new 10,600 seat arena will host the men's and women's basketball teams. The Billikens will no longer play any home games in the Savvis Center after the new arena opens in 2008.

My first take on this news is that in a few more years, SLU will realize it was a mistake to join the Atlantic 10. The other 13 teams in the Atlantic 10 are all 350-1000 miles east of St. Louis (other than Xavier and Dayton, every other school is in a east coast state). Traveling to play conference games must be a nightmare for them. They might begin looking for another conference and could be interested in the MVC again. I don't believe the MVC would ever consider them as long as they played their games in the Savvis Center, but now that they will be playing elsewhere, it could work.

I agree Coach. This makes it much easier to bring SLU on board in the MVC should they decide to make that jump. Heck, it would be a financial winner based upon the lighter travel schedule alone. Add in the natural local rivalries with MSU, SIU, EU, and even BU and ISU to an extent, and it really makes perfect sense for them to make that jump. I'm all in favor of it, although we would lose the luxury of our round-robin schedule (assuming Evansville doesn't drop out/get booted).

Yes - yes - yes.

I agree with you guys.

Interesting.

+SLoo 'snubs' us and thinks they are bigger than us.
+Now a new Arena for Sloo.
- this accommodates MVC interests when it comes to Trny site
+Sloo will have to swallow some pride and jump to MVC (?)
- Actually, MVC does them a favor making things better for them all around
+Eville has been mentioned before that they would like to go back to Non-DI status.
- Sweet! Please! And take Merfeld with you!

[it's boogie time]

I think SLU is just killing some time before a new conference forms.

[tornado]

St. Louis has changed conference affiliation enough that most people outside of diehard fans wouldn't be able to even tell you what conference they now play in.
It is just a matter of time until they do it again.