GP1

Tigerdroppings Fark Board

I have no interest in that either. I also have no interest in watching our usual crowd of 3,000 people in an arena with 7,000 empty seats. One is just as pathetic as the other. Maybe 4,500 people in an arena of 7,000 would be a good fit. We would only have to replace a little over half the seats every ten years and all of the seats every 20 years.

Good stuff Dave. The numbers are a lot lower than I thought they would be. College basketball has been and increasingly becoming a made for TV sport. My evidence is NCAA Tournament games on the east coast start at prime time and carry past midnight making the experience miserable for the people at the game, but tolerable for those at home who might want to turn in early, at which point the west coast audience picks up. If "exposure" matters, is it better to have your games on TV with a smaller packed arena, or a large half empty arena? Half empty arenas are Mickey Mouse and short sighted, which is whey athletic directors support such arenas. They don't care that the stadium sits half empty after it is built because they have already moved on to their next job. Smaller, loud, packed arenas with people enjoying a high level of play are great for TV and the exposure we want.

TD Arena is where College of Charleston plays. 5,100 seats. It is a beautiful place and to go from 5,100 seats to a number between 6,000 and 7,000 would cost more, but you never know how much more until you have a look. The biggest change I would make, in addition to seating capacity, is the location of the seats. I would have two large upper decks on the sides and no upper decks behind the baskets. It would make the building taller and cost more because of that, but if there is the money to do it, then do it. TD Arena is a great place to see a college basketball game. Getting back to the regional bank idea. TD Bank is the sponsor of the Boston Garden and a minor league stadium in New Jersey. Akron needs to find a way to work with a regional bank if they haven't already.

For those who have never been to PNC Park for a Pirates game, there is a real treat there. In the restrooms, all of the urinals face the field so you can see the game going on while you relieve yourself. That's why they call it PNC Park.

Businesses can put their name on a lot of things. There is a bank here in the Carolinas called BB&T. I don't know if they are in the north or not, but it is a good business. They sponsor a lot of arenas below the professional level. UofA should go to Key bank and some of the midwest regional banks and see what they can work out if they already haven't.

Are you saying the good players and good coaching don't make Gonzaga a great mid major program and nationally ranked? I've learned from years of reading this board and following the leadership of UofA that the opposite is true. It's arenas and exposure that make a good team, not on court performance. Follow group thinking dude. It is always right. EDIT: The above statement is not true. BB&T sponsors the Myrtle Beach minor league baseball stadium and will soon have their name on the Charlotte Knights stadium. They are also the sponsor of Wake Forest's football stadium. The do have more of a professional reach than college. I would consider PNC putting their name on an arena for UofA just as good as putting it on a Class A stadium in Myrtle Beach. People would see it more than three months a year.

Good question. Why won't ESPN and SI ask the same types of questions? It's all about access and favor.

Bingo!

I see what you are saying, but younger sports fans have been reading Deadspin for years. The Gawker group of websites is highly popular. What Deadspin is doing isn't new in any way. I don't see my enjoyment of Deadspin as a savvy decision in any manner; although I do appreciate the word being thrown in my direction. It provides content that is factual and thought provoking that is outside of the norm for hacks like ESPN, SI, etc. The one thing I really like about Deadspin is they don't pretend athletes are admirable because they play sports. If an athlete is admirable, they show how the person is admirable. The truth is, most professional and high level college athletes are shallow, self absorbed a-holes with limited intellectual ability. Whenever possible, they display this on their website. Most athletes don't care because they are shallow, self absorbed a-holes with limited intellectual ability can't see they are shallow, self absored a-holes with limited intellectual ability. I don't think it is a secret that I like when things are the opposite of what people want them to be and I LOVE those sites because of that. For example, they spent a lot of time reminding people, while ESPN was slobbering over the Ray Lewis retirement story line, that Lewis was involved in criminal activity in Atlanta that resulted in murder and him disappearing the blood stained clothing he was wearing. For those of you who think Lewis didn't do anything, you have to be pretty close to someone to get blood on your hands and clothes in a stabbing. Reeeealy close. The main reason Deadspin won't become mainstream is they operate out of a small room in NY City with the rest of the Gawker writers. They aren't out traveling with teams and sucking up to players and coaches for access like the folks at SI and ESPN do. Since they don't do that, they are free to write what they want and keep it as factual as possible. They have a tab called "send a tip" that people send sports related stories to them all the time. The ones who really need to worry, but are too tied to their access and favor are ESPN, etc. They look terrible, but their hands are tied to actually do anything about it. Isn't if funny on many levels that as they become more irrelevant, they look bad covering an again irrelevant college football program? Thanks again for the savvy comment. I'll take it. This post could also be considered "long winded" as I intended for a one paragraph response and here I am in the middle of paragraph 6.

The vanishing act is the real problem. Think about John Rocker. Why did he disappear from baseball? It had nothing to do with his stupid beliefs about...well...everything. He couldn't throw the ball over the plate and when he did, guys hit him all over the park. Had Rocker been able to get guys out at the rate he did before he went Kenny Powers, he would have lasted much longer. Lots of times, us fans worry too much about "distractions". What we don't realize is the guys don't give one hoot about the distractions. On any football team, a player has about 4-5 friends and the rest are just the guys around the locker room. Locker rooms are divided along many lines: income, race, age, nationality (baseball), etc. Most players aren't close enough to the other players to care about something like this. This distraction won't keep a team from taking him. Not being about to get off of blocks against Alabama and making tackles ten yards down field is another issue.

In the next couple of months? I would hope that people have been reading Deadspin for years. Years ago now, Will Leitch wrote a book called "God Save the Fan" and I encouraged everyone on this board to read it. Had everyone done that, they would understand why Deadspin was the only sports journalism organization that could have ever broken this story. They say it is SPORTS NEWS WITHOUT ACCESS, FAVOR, OR DISCRETION. This has always been the underlying belief about themselves and as the organization has grown, it continues to hold true to the saying. This story isn't going to change Deadspin. They have been producing excellent stories like this for years. Again, if you folks on the board have never read the book, go out and buy "God Save the Fan" and read it.

Getting back to this fantastic point I made, it is now being reported that most players on the ND team knew this girl didn't exist. If the players knew, who else knew? Did assistant coaches know?....they hear a lot. Did an assistants tell Pumpkin Head and video manager killer Kelly about it? Did the administration know about it? Lots of questions remain. Maybe Penn State is not the only place in the world where horrible behavior is covered up. Lots to see.

Well said. It's about winning, not stadium size.

Did you wreck your car laughing when you heard it? Did he follow it up by saying when he coached LBJ in high school he used to get tired after Christmas break when school started again? Maybe a well trained college student walking with a backpack is tiring. Who knew?

Those seats almost look useful.

Good post. I heard a story last night on the Charlotte news that the Panthers are looking into selling BofA Stadium to the City of Charlotte just to get out from having to maintain the stadium. In exchange for the City of Charlotte pouring millions of taxpayers dollars into the stadium for renovation (they were interviewing a woman on the streets of Charlotte who looked like wino and she explained the importance of the stadium to the City of Charlotte...it was one of the more laughable things I have ever seen on local news. Who needs Comedy Central when you can watch the local news?), the Panthers would sign a long term lease to remain in the City.

It sure is. And on game day, it will look mostly like it does in that picture.

Direct quote from Deadspin article from yesterday that has already been linked to on this site. Statement of the facts. There was no Lennay Kekua. Lennay Kekua did not meet Manti Te'o after the Stanford game in 2009. Lennay Kekua did not attend Stanford. Lennay Kekua never visited Manti Te'o in Hawaii. Lennay Kekua was not in a car accident. Lennay Kekua did not talk to Manti Te'o every night on the telephone. She was not diagnosed with cancer, did not spend time in the hospital, did not engage in a lengthy battle with leukemia. She never had a bone marrow transplant. She was not released from the hospital on Sept. 10, nor did Brian Te'o congratulate her for this over the telephone. She did not insist that Manti Te'o play in the Michigan State or Michigan games, and did not request he send white flowers to her funeral. Her favorite color was not white. Her brother, Koa, did not inform Manti Te'o that she was dead. Koa did not exist. Her funeral did not take place in Carson, Calif., and her casket was not closed at 9 a.m. exactly. She was not laid to rest. Lennay Kekua's last words to Manti Te'o were not "I love you."

No reason to waste time and money? Don't tell an athletic director that. Actually, if UofA had to take out a loan for the $102 million, it would be a lot more than $6 million a year over the 17 years. It doesn't matter though. Just ask any athletic director. Money grows on trees for them and just throw more money on top of student fees. Hell, there is enough money out there to make any resume look good.

I was in a hurry to get out the door this morning. Let me be more clear. I didn't say build a 3,800 seat arena or a 2,000 seat arena. All this talk of a 10,000 seat arena is foolish. A 7,500 seat arena is good enough and probably almost too big. The size of the arena doesn't matter. The quality of the product on the court matters...just ask Duke. How did Duke ever become and stay a national power playing in a high school gym? If one is searching for excellence in the basketball program, maybe the size of the arena isn't as big of an issue as one would like to believe. Maybe, just maybe, players and coaches matter more. I don't have a problem with empty seats. I have a problem with a sea of empty seats and that is what will happen if a 10,000 arena is built. Any new arena built needs to be built with idea that we will have a greater home court advantage with a mid sized, full looking arena than a 10,000 seat arena with half the seats empty. Lastly, using the fact that we draw 3K+ on average for home games isn't a fact that inspires confidence in me for future attendance. 3K is a horrible number and I would try to stay away from using that number as one that should inspire a fans confidence in the future. One can only blame marketing and the benches in the JAR for so long. At some point, there is something else wrong. When that number exceeds 4,500, I'll be impressed.

Coastal Carolina built a 3,600 seat arena for their team. They beat us this year. Build a stadium that can be filled every game, not for one or two high capacity games a year. Empty seats look terrible.

I just saw a funny one on the internet. "Play like you had a fake girlfriend die today."

Are you sure they aren't called "losers"?

For all of you young whippersnappers out there, there used to be a thing called "investigative journalism" and this is what it looked like. See, way back when I was walking to school up hill both ways, when a reporter heard something, they actually took time to find out whether or not it was true. Reading this story is like going back in time and reading what used to be journalism. Right now, there is a 10 year old sitting in a hospital somewhere dying of leukemia. These lying bastards made up a story about a young person dying of cancer. They are all sick and Manti is just as sick as the rest. He knew what everyone was doing and participated. He is too smart of a guy to have been duped by anyone. The ND faithful must be so upset at this point. First, they got to be relevant for a couple of months before getting run out of the stadium by Alabama. Then they had to retire their ND sweatshirt they haven't worn in 20 years into the drawer they pulled it out of at the beginning of November. Now, they have to weather the long winter without their ND sweatshirt with the knowledge their again irrelevant team promoted an insane person for an entire season. With the internet, it is going to be hard for the ND PR machine to cover this up. They have already come out with the "Nothing to see here...go about your business" response. I don't think that is going to work.