Would a dual purpose facility like PPG Paints arena in Pittsburgh (which is home to the Pens but routinely plays host to NCAA tournament games) have been the best solution?
I can't imagine PSU would demolish the BJC. The best we could hope for would be a major renovation in 5+ years.
That is interesting. I think the days of the big, massive facilities is over. You see a trend to lower-attendance facilities where the team can play the theory of elasticity with tickets and keep a better margin. For example, I always get my PSU tickets from a broker right before the game. With 107k, someone is undoubtedly going to try and dump tickets due to a flu or whatever. And, revenues are much more affected by media (TV, radio) than ticket/perking/beer sales. I'll bet, even with the smaller facilities, they still have a lot of corporate loges. Until taxes say you can't write off loges, that will be the trend.Better plan would be to give BJ over to concerts, event, rainy day graduations or whatever, and build a base 11k seat BB facility with the fans and students right up againt the court and create a real home court advantage like many other teams have. It likely would cost between $150-$200 million, a bargain compared with the $700 million estimate for the refurbishment of Beaver Stadium. and we know that stadium projects almost always go over estimates when completed.
Baylor is demolishing their previous BB arena, opened in 1988, and building a new, smaller area (10,284 down to 7500) for a better atmosphere.
College basketball's much-needed move to smaller arenas
As attendance in college basketball remains well below what it was 15 years ago, Baylor, Texas and others have shown there's a fixfrontporchsports.substack.com
It's one thing to suggest building a smaller arena when the old one is dilapidated and in need of replacement. It's another thing to suggest adding a completely new arena and keeping the old one just for concerts. I don't see that as a realistic option.
Good point. it all comes down to the dollars. the BBall program needs a shot in the arm and the old arena just isn't going to cut it. If they can revitalize the program, can it pay for itself? I can't imagine a 7,000 seat arena would cost that much but it isn't big enough for big time concerts either. Duke, for example, holds less than 10,000 people.
Hahahaha, that took me like 17 seconds to be wrong on that one!!! Might be a new record for me
BJC was built in 1996 so we would have to wait 8 more years if we wanted to be like Baylor.Better plan would be to give BJ over to concerts, events, rainy day graduations or whatever, and build a base 8-11k seat BB facility with the fans and students right up againt the court and create a real home court advantage like many other teams have. It likely would cost between $150-$200 million, a bargain compared with the $700 million estimate for the refurbishment of Beaver Stadium. and we know that stadium projects almost always go over estimates when completed.
Baylor is demolishing their previous BB arena, opened in 1988, and building a new, smaller area (10,284 down to 7500) for a better atmosphere.
College basketball's much-needed move to smaller arenas
As attendance in college basketball remains well below what it was 15 years ago, Baylor, Texas and others have shown there's a fixfrontporchsports.substack.com
Sound like a plan....
Turn it into a building they are planning on spending a shit load of money on for another building that might not be fully functional or filled. It's time to stop the expansionists at PS who make huge money off of that expansion. Make better use of what they have but then the cronies wouldn't get their payday.
Building a $7,000 seat arena would cost more that the construction cost ($200 billion?). We would have to maintain an extra building.
