Basketball Team Should be Moved to Rec Hall for 2 Years
- Thread starter Harbaughsleepovers
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And I remember Parkhill kept clamoring for a new arena and wanted out of rec hall in order to elevate the program. Some of you people have no clue about psu history in anything. Also I never heard anyone complaining about the BJC until a couple of years ago. Here's the deal - the BJC isn't going anywhere so focus on winning basketball games and nobody will care where the team plays.
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No one complained about the BJC until a few years ago and you are questioning if people know anything about the history of the program? Where have you been?
When the BJC was built no one knew what the Internet was, there was no HDTV, the Big Ten Network didn't exist, you basically had to go to the games if you wanted to watch them most nights since they were rarely on TV. There was no D1 hockey program on campus to compete with in the winter and the students couldn't spend their weekday nights buried in Snapchat.
The world has changed drastically in 20 years. From interests to the way we consume things. We have also created bandwagon front running culture. Wake me up me when we are winning 30 games a year.
Penn State couldn't have a dumber design for a basketball arena on campus. If someone told me to build the dumbest possible arena for a basketball program in State College, PA in the year 2017 I would build the BJC.
Can I bank on you buying 8 season tickets in the upper deck end zone if they make the NCAA Tournament next year? Can I count on you to sit up there if they are winning?
No one said to stay at Rec Hall forever, but we are the only Big Ten program that has absolutely no home court advantage and last time I checked the whole league doesn't make the NCAA Tournament every year except for Penn State. We have 3 incredibly talented freshmen and a sophomore that we have to win with the next couple years.
If Penn State doesn't win the next couple years, it aint going to matter where they play, this program may cement itself as a bottom feeder for a very long time.
You don't seem to recognize that scheduling of Rec Hall is already dedicated to 4 other teams. Between these 4 teams since the start of Basketball season on Nov. 4th Rec hall has hosted 20 events for these teams. 5 women's volleyball, 4 men's gymnastics, 4 women's gymnastics and 6 wrestling. Rec hall is NOT universally available for scheduling all of PSU men's basketball games.
I also find the comments about size/configuration of BJC as somewhat of a red herring. I have attended basketball games at the Syracuse Carrier Dome. Talk about fans being seated distant from the court and large curtains. This is a football facility. and half is closed off with large hanging curtains which make BJC curtains look like post it notes. Syracuse annually draws the largest attendance
in the nation and it seems the home court advantage is fine thank you. The fans make the home court advantage more so than the building. Your comment about the oversized beaver stadium seems to recognize this.
As much as you may wish a return to the 1970's and rec hall for all basketball games for 2 years it is nothing more than a pipe dream....
You don't seem to recognize that scheduling of Rec Hall is already dedicated to 4 other teams. Between these 4 teams since the start of Basketball season on Nov. 4th Rec hall has hosted 20 events for these teams. 5 women's volleyball, 4 men's gymnastics, 4 women's gymnastics and 6 wrestling. Rec hall is NOT universally available for scheduling all of PSU men's basketball games.
I also find the comments about size/configuration of BJC as somewhat of a red herring. I have attended basketball games at the Syracuse Carrier Dome. Talk about fans being seated distant from the court and large curtains. This is a football facility. and half is closed off with large hanging curtains which make BJC curtains look like post it notes. Syracuse annually draws the largest attendance
in the nation and it seems the home court advantage is fine thank you. The fans make the home court advantage more so than the building. Your comment about the oversized beaver stadium seems to recognize this.
As much as you may wish a return to the 1970's and rec hall for all basketball games for 2 years it is nothing more than a pipe dream....
I've been to the Carrier Dome.
#1 Since 1970 Syracuse has won less than 18 games like twice? Let me repeat that. Since 1970 Syracuse has basically won 18 or more games pretty much every year and 18 is a bad year. How old is the Carrier Dome?
#2 Syracuse is an actual city, not State College.
If Penn State won 20 games every year the BJC would fill.
Penn State has a chicken or the egg problem.
We need to win to get to a point where the BJC has any chance at getting filled but we can't win if there is no home court advantage.
This fan base has proven they aren't going to show up to support and watch good young players develop.
We need a smaller venue for at least the short term that can provide an environment that allows Penn State to enjoy the same home court advantage our opponents do.
you make some nice reply points but neglected to address how to handle the potential conflicts with the 4 present teams calling rec hall home. Suggestions??
Penn State had all these other programs when the men and women basketball teams played there. Did a program start playing there only after basketball moved? I don't think so but don't know for sure.
The bottom line is this.
Penn State has no chance in the Big Ten without a homecourt advantage. There is way too much quality depth to overcome it. Having a 14 team league only makes it harder now.
Nebraska has a brand new arena they fill and NW is about to pour 100 million into theirs.
We have to take advantage of this opportunity with Chambers.
If the job has to become available again, every coach we look at it will know he is going to have to get it done inspite of the fan base and that is going to scare away the best candidates.
It's a Big Ten job so someone will take it, but that's only if none of the 50+ other better jobs are available. The dillusinal aren't grasping this.
No one is leaving a power 5 job for Penn State unless they are about to be fired like Kevin Stallings or Steve Lavin. No one is leaving a good A10 job for Penn State.
Anyone that can bye time to wait for a better job will. The guy Penn State would attract is a 1 bid league coach who wants to strike while the iron his hot because he may not sustain long enough to get another opportunity.
That's probably not a guy who is going to overcome decades of irrelavane and fan apathy, at least not quickly.
People who don't understand why it's so important that Chambers be the guy are so lost.
So silly. If NW can afford $100M for their BB program what can PSU afford?
If they invested $50M - they could hire almost any coach in the country for a 10 year deal.
Please do not tell me that most coaches making $2M would not jump to PSU for $4 or $5M.
Please don't tell me that our current kids would transfer if a top coach came.
Please don't me that a top coach can't recruit or win in BJC.
Above all, don't try to tell me that PSU cannot have an expectation of winning. They are competitive for championships in virtually every other sport.
BB more than all those other sports can be fixed really quickly with talentEd players and coaching.
I'll disagree with you on this one. I've attended games in both and I prefer Rec Hall. That is not to say it's a great venue, but it would be more intimate and noisier.
It was a novelty that first year. It was pretty empty the second time that they tried it.
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Yes the students were on campus.
No it wasn't finals week.
Attendance was pathetic.
Difference is Penn State joined the Big Ten since moving basketball out of Rec Hall. Big Ten has increased # of conf games due to expansion. BIG sets PSU's conf basketball schedule not PSU. That's a major difference since basketball was in Rec Hall. You're also not addressing how to explain to BIG your move of men's basketball to Rec but not women's. this will be my final contribution to this discussion as it's apparent you have a single objective which is dismissive of reality. It's nice to dream however.
Wrong, they played Big Ten basketball at Rec Hall.
Not going to act like I care about women's basketball, but it's ridiculous that their games are at the BJC.
They played teams the students never heard of and to completely dismiss that point is insane.
You don't move to Rec Hall for Canisius, you move to Rec Hall so the team has a homecourt for Big Ten Games.
Agree. Move to Rec Hall and eventually build a 10K max basketball arena for a real home court advantage. What some of you do not understand about the BJC is one it is a multi-purpose arena and built that way. Also, no matter how much the hoops team wins it will not fill the BJC on week day games. Weekend games yes, but week days no. A intimate 8/10K arena built for basketball would sell out every game and give the program a real home court advantage. No folks the BJC will not work for a successful men's basketball program.
..."coaches and players don't want to go to a place where people don't care"...
...please explain the Pitt football program...
Well, very few people want to go to Pitt, and even fewer stay more than a season or two.
You make it sound like sitting in the BJC for a MBB game is tantamount to a root canal. It's not the optimal experience we want it to be, but it's not living hell. Good gawd, man. Yes, they overbilt the BJC by about 3,000 seats and it's an all-purpose arena. No one is going to spend $100+ on a new basketball arena for Penn State and renovating Rec Hall is just not feasible, nor is moving MBB games there. We have to make the most of the BJC, despite its limitations. The present and historic problem with MBB is lack of tradition and the absence of a basketball culture on campus and in the Centre Region. A new arena wouldn't fix that. Only three consecutive teams dancing in the NCAA Tourney can make a dent in our lack of a basketball culture.
For Pem State MBB, it's not a question of "Build it and they will come." It's a question of "Win first, and they will come." Yeah, it's a chicken-or-egg dilemma, and Penn State's reputation among the basketball coaching fraternity is that ours is not "a place where you can win."
There's just no cure for the program's ills other than winning consistently, and getting to that point has always been a Sisyphean task. .
You are dead wrong. The environment is AWFUL.
Winning is not going to put 15k in that place in the HDTV, every game is on TV era.
If Roy Williams at North Carolina thinks his arena is 5k too big becauwen of today's consumer, what does that mean for Penn State?
Relative to the other environments in the Big Ten there is no homecourt advantage at the BJC.
You are completely missing my point.
If we don't win the next couple years and a continued lack of home court continues to be a major source of the problem, this program is going to cement itself as a Big Ten bottom feeder collecting a very nice wellfare check from the Big Ten.
A brand new 8k arena where every seat is a great seat and the building has some juice would cure a lot of problems.
Hey, at least we have that baseball stadium. We all know how how much people enjoy Penn State baseball in 40 degree weather. That Lubrano is a true visionary.
How often did we sell out Rec Hall when the teams were decent.
Attended game at BJC when they gave students free tickets. Students still a no show.
BJC was mandated as part of move to big ten. The question is not the venue but will a winning team draw a crowd.
Attended game at BJC when they gave students free tickets. Students still a no show.
BJC was mandated as part of move to big ten. The question is not the venue but will a winning team draw a crowd.
Would a winning football team draw 150000 people in Beaver Stadium? No
15,000 for a winter time week day night sport like basketball in Centre County when there is also a hockey program that has gained major traction to compete with is not viable.
The thousands of empty seats severely detracts from the atmosphere which makes attending games way less inviting or appealing to people who would attend games otherwise.
If Will Farell does another minor league basketball satire he can shoot scenes during halftime of a Penn State basketball game. He'll love the band sitting there all alone surrounded by a sea of empty blue.
If you tried to convince the coaches in the Big Ten that the BJC is not an issue for Penn State basketball they would laugh at you.
I suggest they play all weekday games at Rec and weekend at BJC. Or the B10 should only schedule home games at PSU on weekends. It is just too hard for that many bodies to get there for an evening game in the winter. I would think the B10 should be more concerned with $s coming in vs having a huge stadium that isn't a 4th filled. I guarantee the Hall would be sold out and make the same as having the games in the cavernous BJC. But I haven't been to a basketball game at Happy Valley since the early 90's so perhaps I am missing something. I can tell you this though, I cannot stand those same 5 boys who sit near the announcers and yell the same things to the point it is difficult to hear the announcers.
I'll disagree with you on this one. I've attended games in both and I prefer Rec Hall. That is not to say it's a great venue, but it would be more intimate and noisier.
Good picture but this was not taken at either of last years games.
Good for you growing up in Rec Hall. I know more than didley. Can guarantee you that if they ever move BB back to Rec Hall. It will be the last game i attend.
So if 65000 people show up for the blue white game this spring that means 65000 will show up for Michigan this fall?
Using your logic that's what would happen.
Btw: a bad crowd at Rec Hall beats a bad crowd at the BJC from a noise perspective.
Penn State would sell out every Big Ten home game at Rec Hall.
Right. You can't go back to Rec Hall now- how stupid would that be. "Oops- guess we made a mistake!"
You know why the BJC sucks? Because no one goes and it sits half empty. And no one goes because the team sucks. If the place were packed it would be fine. If it doesn't work, then you have to admit the program "is what it is" and build a medium size, 9,000 seat venue, and be done with it. And continue as a bottom feeder Big 10 program.
No, but it shows what the place looks like when it is packed. If it happened before, it can happen again.
Ok... l'll add one more comment since you are so dedicated to a move to rec Hall. Have you expressed your strong preference tothe Athletic Department to save MEN's basketball by a move to Rec Hall or only sharing that wisdom with this board? I imagine they would especially be willing to hear you out if you stepped up to lead a fund raiser to resolve the shortcomings sold out basketball would have at rec Hall. Inadequate parking, vehicle ingress/egress issues, only only 2 restrooms for each sex. Terrible concessions at too small concession stands. Understand your strong desire to elevate what you perceive will be the home court advantage. However the fan experience at a sold out rec Hall will be horrible outside of the game itself
No point in arguing it now. We'll find out on 3/13 what the future holds for a basketball facility.
Chambers can't win because of the arena. He can't win because the concession stand's food isn't up to the rest of the Big 10's concessions stands, it's the shoes...look at the shoes the other teams wear, if we wore those shoes no telling how good we would be.
Is there a single A high school gym nearby? We could pack that place every single game and then we would win.
It's the athletes IN those shoes that's the difference!
Although thinking outside the (shoe)box, maybe, just maybe, it's the socks they wear. You NEVER hear that as part of the discussion!
Lol!
Yeah buddy.
There would be no more damning a statement about the future of men's basketball than if 100 million was dumped into a 9000 seat arena configured for basketball.
Maybe Sandy could hang a big white flag on top of it as a reminder that we have officially quit trying with this 100 million dollar investment.
