Blue & Gold

Are you in favor of a basketball-optimized multi-purpose arena, or a hockey-optimized all-purpose arena?

Pat, I'll answer this one for you. Over the course of years talking about this, we've discussed the pros/cons of a basketball-optimized arena floor plan versus what we called a "hockey-optimized" floor plan. We used to call the former a "basketball arena" and the latter a "hockey arena." Even though neither of those descriptions was entirely accurate, it just helped us clarify what we were referring to. Now we've gotten to referring to the basketball-optimized floor plan as "multi-purpose" as it could host many events other than basketball, but not as many as what we now refer to as an "all-purpose" arena, which could host everything the multi-purpose arena could, then some (hockey, indoor football/soccer, circus, monster trucks/motor cross, etc.

That's what I've heard too. The atmosphere isn't what it used to be. It's big & open & I've heard that it's actually kinda quiet in there during games. That is what KD wants to avoid. However, VCA seats, what, 19,000-ish? We'd only be looking @ 10,000 tops. Still, the floor plan would be very similar.

What arena was that?

Here is a link to The University of Columbus' Value City Arena calendar of events. Though I know our situations are (unfortunately) far from similar, I thought it would add to the discussion d/t the fact that OSU chose to build an all-purpose arena to replace a multi-purpose arena (St. John's Arena - basketball-optimized). I must confess that I've heard more than one Columbus fan say they don't like watching Buckeyes basketball in Value City Arena as much as they did in St. John's Arena - but maybe they're just old fogies. OSU uses VCA for men's & women's basketball, men's & women's (?!?!) hockey, as well as concerts, monster truck shows ( ) and the circus. Also interesting is that the city of Columbus didn't need another all-purpose arena, as they already had Nationwide Arena (Columbus BlueJackets). OSU decided to go with an all-purpose arena anyway.

Is there an Ohio North-South All-Star game that Isaiah Johnson would likely take part in? I can't find any information on such a game.

The hook is baited.

Correct. They play at EJ Thomas.

Per GoZips.com the baseball team is changing the location of their opening weekend series against Northern Illinois. They were originally slated to play at Canal Park, but have moved the games to another minor league stadium in Avon. Is Lee Jackson unplayable? Really makes you think that's where they want the arena.

This may be hard to explain, but where are the lobbies/foyer areas; where do people enter the arena to find their seats? Also, I'm a bit confused. I see five loges. Opposite the loges I see the press area (IIRC). But what do you have in mind for the end-zone areas on that level?

We're hoping he's a diamond in the rough. West Virginia is not heavily recruited, and his highlight video is pretty sick (it's at the beginning of this thread). Aren't all highlight videos sick? Yeah. But this kid's is especially sick.

Bob Dyer on Keith Dambrot.

George Thomas courtesy of Akron.com.

If this guys healthy, we've gone from a 2-man-deep DL situation to a 6-man-deep rotation: 2012 Grice------Caponi 2013 Grice-----Caponi Hollis-----McCray Price----Gauthney The new four (Hollis, McCray, Gauthney & Price) are all 300-pounders. IMHO the lack of depth @ DT is why we lost half the games we lost last year.

+1. UCLA's a very unique gig.

Joe Dunn had a great segment w/ Steve French on 1350 today. Firstly, they both said they wouldn't be surprised of the Zips add another guard to this year's recruiting class. Secondly, they mentioned it's 99% certain we've got a 5th-year senior DL transferring in from Florida State. "Big Time Sports Show w/ Joe Dunn." 1350 AM 3:00-6:00 p.m. It's almost always a good show for Zips fans.

Jeremiah Jackson will be playing in the 2013 Stark-Summit All-Star Game at Malone College. Tomorrow night (3/27). Tip-off @ 8:30. I go to this just about every year. It's fun. Summit almost always wins comfortably. Stark county did win last year; 1st time they've won in a long time. Anyway, I'm going to see what kind of game Jeremiah's got. Grey-shirt him, Coach D.

Tonight on ZipsLive (1350) they were talking about next year and Coach D said we had a point guard coming in who he wasn't allowed to name (Nyles Evans), and that "we might be bringing in another guard, because we're losing Alex a year earlier than we thought we would."

It'd be awfully hard to pass on an offer from UCLA. Minnesota? Not so much.

"A freshman point guard's a disaster." This commercial ominously ran during the 1st commercial break of the Akron -vs- VCU game.

^^This. Great baseball weather today. Spring has sprung! But, yes, I love spring baseball when the temperature is finally in the 50's & spring is in the air. One of my favorite times of year.

. The videographer was sitting directly across from the one ugly, closed corner of the arena (JAR-like corner). If we could extend the arena around without any closed corners, this would be perfect, as I love the dimensions of the Ryan Center. Here's another link from Stadium and Arena Visits which contains more pictures. (The exterior of the Ryan Center is hideous.) Capacity: 7,657 (with the closed corner) If we'd complete the arena it would probably be right at 10,000-seats.

grand opening video. (Barry Manilow?) [edit] Capacity: 10,600 - probably a little larger than we want.

I don't think anyone added this post-game video from George Thomas & Marla Ridenour. Akron -vs- VCU. They sound like they're at a funeral.

Yup. IIRC Ali Kart had an open 15-foot jumper to win it at the buzzer that rimmed out. That was a long time ago. I remember Randy Moss & Chad Pennington were still @ Marshall - I was watching the D-1AA National Championship game & then headed over to the JAR for the Xavier matchup. Anyway, we need to schedule more A-10 teams.