Perfect arena for the Zips

[UA Fan]

[ZachTheZip]

Notice not a single wooden bleacher in sight. That's one of the JAR's biggest drawbacks, along with the track/railing.

[skip-zip]

Perfect indeed. But probably not for a public university who just built a brand new basketball arena less than 30 years ago, and just built a 50 million dollar football stadium.

[akronad]

When the JAR was built, it was also a PE facility. That is why the track is in place. The blfg. was to take the place of Memorial Hall.

[zen]

seatbacks are nice...

I love the circular design. Every seat seems to face center court.

[Dr Z]

Do they sell beer?

[Captain Kangaroo]

Is that Milikin's home court?

[akzipper]

Oval designs are better than circle arenas. Notice there's a ton of space between the front row at center court and the actual sidelines. The UCF Arena is a better arena to use as inspiration. Oval/square design, two levels and all chair backs. They are also a public school and have just recently built a new football stadium.

[zen]

Oval designs are better than circle arenas. Notice there's a ton of space between the front row at center court and the actual sidelines. The UCF Arena is a better arena to use as inspiration. Oval/square design, two levels and all chair backs. They are also a public school and have just recently built a new football stadium.

I disagree.... just because the people near the centerline have some room in front of them doesn't make the design inferior. It actually makes the design geometrically superior. Everyone with front row seats is almost exactly the same distance from center court. So, the guy with front row seat 3 sections down is just as close to center court as anyone else, but he isn't any farther from the far basket than a square design.... and the great thing (again) is the sight-lines, because that guy 3 sections down from center doesn't have to crank his head nearly as far when the game is at the far basket than he would on a square arena.

[Dave in Green]

Obviously just about any modern basketball facility design would be superior to the JAR. While I like the circular design for general sight lines, I would not want to pay the premium for front row center seats that are that far back from the court. In any case, the seating is not in a perfect circle. The sections at the four corners appear to have their front two rows removed to clear the corners of the court. I'd like to view other designs to see if this can be done even better by further combining circular and oval elements.

[UA Fan]

Is that Milikin's home court?

No...do you have another guess?

[you am i]

Is that Milikin's home court?

No...do you have another guess?

Let's see. The bottom picture says "Wichita State." I give up.

[Zipmeister]

The next to the bottom picture says Bradley. That's it, I,m going with Bradley.

[Roo]

That is one beautiful arena. Probably a tad too large for Akron, but a great concept. I prefer that design than that of UCF. I agree that the oval shape is much better than the rectangleish look.

Their website says that arena is actually a renovation, with a cost of $25 million. That's a lot of cash for a renovation....

Akron needs a new arena if they want to take the next step for their basketball program. In order to get the recruits and be taken serious as a basketball team, they need 8-10k seating to get big schools to play here and to get a good home court advantage going.

It's sickening how the soccer team gets so much respect from the fans but the basketball team gets none. I love the soccer team, don't get me wrong, but why don't the students show up and cause havoc for the basketball team as well??? Ive been disappointed by the student sections at the games Ive been too. They usually only turn up in droves for the Cant game.

But this topic has been discussed over and over and over, is anything new really going to be added?

[GoZips88]

But this topic has been discussed over and over and over, is anything new really going to be added?

... chairbacks for all, PLEASE?!?!

[zippyman23]

We can do a lot better than that. I would like to see something a little more modern than the circular dome look that was popular back 50-60's. No doubt that it would be an upgrade over the JAR, but there is no way we would build something like this if we build a new arena.

[akzipper]

But this topic has been discussed over and over and over, is anything new really going to be added?

... chairbacks for all, PLEASE?!?!

I've pretty much accepted the fact they will not be building a new arena for some time. But they can renovate! I would like to see them get rid of the track first, knock out some walls, expand the seating behind the baskets, add ribbon boards like at InfoCision, maybe a new jumbotron, chairbacks throughout, add suites and press boxes, and some exterior imporvements to make it look like an actual arena. Is that too much to ask for? haha

[ZachTheZip]

But this topic has been discussed over and over and over, is anything new really going to be added?

... chairbacks for all, PLEASE?!?!

That would be a big one. One of the main reasons the JAR gets compared to a high school gym is the abundance of wooden bleachers. Fill the whole arena with chairbacks and while you decrease capacity (some would say excess capacity) you make the experience a nicer one. It also allows you to move the students to one unified section behind the benches without using up a significant portion of your money-making seats. Move the upper seats closer and put up a row or two behind the tallest we have now to add a few more seats while also improving sight lines for 80% of the arena.

You can also take the entire south upper section, knock it out and turn it into a luxury suite that connects to the Tommy Evans lounge.

[Let'sGoZips94]

I hate the circular designed stadiums. Give me an oval one. The best oval one I've seen is Purdue's. Mackey Arena

I have always loved this stadium. Now, it is going through a $99.5 million renovation, but the general stadium idea is do-able.

[zippyman23]

I hate the circular designed stadiums. Give me an oval one. The best oval one I've seen is Purdue's. Mackey Arena

I have always loved this stadium. Now, it is going through a $99.5 million renovation, but the general stadium idea is do-able.

Mackey Arena has a circular design as well.

http://www.purdue.edu/athletics/facilities...ating_chart.pdf

[Let'sGoZips94]

Ahhh, I guess you're right. My bad. They do, however, keep the seating close to the court. It truly is one of the greatest atmospheres though. It has an aluminum roof, which sound just bounces off of.

[Dave in Green]

The seating layout of Mackey Arena shows how a circular design can have the front few rows modified to keep the midcourt premium seating close to the court. Having every seat facing the exact center of the court is definitely a nice feature of a circular design. Having straight rows of seats along the sides of the court and semi-circular seating at each end would also be an improvement over a purely rectangular seating arrangement, as would a properly shaped oval.

[UA Fan]

Do they sell beer?

Yeah, Shocker-Top Belgian White

[RootforRoo44]

It's sickening how the soccer team gets so much respect from the fans but the basketball team gets none. I love the soccer team, don't get me wrong, but why don't the students show up and cause havoc for the basketball team as well??? Ive been disappointed by the student sections at the games Ive been too. They usually only turn up in droves for the Cant game.

But this topic has been discussed over and over and over, is anything new really going to be added?

I'll tell you the real reason. As someone who has been on the north side down low for 4 straight years I can tell you that the police on hand as well as the staff on the floor discourages anything close to being "rowdy" or "havoc like". I've organized balloons to be passed out that we blew up our selves, harassed opposing players, and even looked up funny personal information (gf names, cell phones of players, etc) and have been not only yelled at for this but told that i would be removed from the game if it happened again or continued(in fact i actually was removed from a game last year for calling Chris Singletary a "thug" on an inbounds play).

I don't want to knock the Rowdies because they have done everything in their power to create a good atmosphere but the University threatens the Rowdies' higher ups as well as the average Rowdie when things actually do start to get good. One thing that is interesting is that we've been warned multiple times for using the players names, yes! Using their names.

So basically this is where the real problem is, and it definitely turns people away as it is not nearly as fun as the atmosphere at the soccer games. I figure the reason it's not enforced as well at soccer games is it's much harder to control that HUGE crowd than the basketball games where 80 students are in a neat row and surrounded by staff waiting to tone things down.

My suggestion is people at the U need to lighten up a bit and/or the leaders in the Rowdies just need to say "hey this is what we are about, if you dont like it tough". Do you think the Cameron Crazies get yelled at for these sort of things? I think not. This is what college basketball is all about.

[ZachTheZip]

It's sickening how the soccer team gets so much respect from the fans but the basketball team gets none. I love the soccer team, don't get me wrong, but why don't the students show up and cause havoc for the basketball team as well??? Ive been disappointed by the student sections at the games Ive been too. They usually only turn up in droves for the Cant game.

But this topic has been discussed over and over and over, is anything new really going to be added?

I'll tell you the real reason. As someone who has been on the north side down low for 4 straight years I can tell you that the police on hand as well as the staff on the floor discourages anything close to being "rowdy" or "havoc like". I've organized balloons to be passed out that we blew up our selves, harassed opposing players, and even looked up funny personal information (gf names, cell phones of players, etc) and have been not only yelled at for this but told that i would be removed from the game if it happened again or continued(in fact i actually was removed from a game last year for calling Chris Singletary a "thug" on an inbounds play).

I don't want to knock the Rowdies because they have done everything in their power to create a good atmosphere but the University threatens the Rowdies' higher ups as well as the average Rowdie when things actually do start to get good. One thing that is interesting is that we've been warned multiple times for using the players names, yes! Using their names.

So basically this is where the real problem is, and it definitely turns people away as it is not nearly as fun as the atmosphere at the soccer games. I figure the reason it's not enforced as well at soccer games is it's much harder to control that HUGE crowd than the basketball games where 80 students are in a neat row and surrounded by staff waiting to tone things down.

My suggestion is people at the U need to lighten up a bit and/or the leaders in the Rowdies just need to say "hey this is what we are about, if you dont like it tough". Do you think the Cameron Crazies get yelled at for these sort of things? I think not. This is what college basketball is all about.

It's easy to single out a student in such a small section, especially when everyone else is being quiet (far too quiet, really). This is why they need to consolidate the student sections into a single large area. No more being split in three between the upper section and two lower sections. Look at soccer for the perfect example. Every student is behind the goal, and they are able to create an atmosphere that is entertaining to fans and intimidating to the opposing team. They can't really do that at the JAR with the way it's currently set up.