Missed opportunity...

[skip-zip]

I'd love to see a dome. A Carrier Dome type of facility in Akron was originally proposed back when we first began playing D-1 Independent, but it never went anywhere. But seriously, it's not going to happen if our intension is to stay in the MAC. If our goal is to grow into a bigger program, maybe the dome would happen. I predict that the Rubber Bowl (since it needs to remain standing to hold up the hill) will continue to stand, and continue to crumble. But most of it will remain. Then, hundreds of years from now, it will become a tourist attraction, much like the Coliseum in Rome, Italy. Then people will come from all over the world to look at it and say, "wow...that's where they played that ancient barbaric American game of football."Just a thought.

[Blue & Gold]

If the MAC tournament and championship told me anything, we will likely NEVER need an arena any larger than about 8,000 seats. Rant: OVER.

You're probably right. But after surfing the net and looking at other arenas in cities similar in population with Akron, I believe a 12,000 seat facility would be appropriate. Akron is a rather large metropolitan area, but we truly lack a quality civic center/arena facility. I believe a facility like this would be beneficial to the entire city, and could possibly be constructed in such a manner as to connect with the John S. Knight Convention Center. However, it should be designed with various seating arrangments, so as to make possible the draping off of the upper sections, so that when the lower bowl alone is used, it has a capacity of around 7000. Just my thoughts. Arenas I checked out were: Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids Michigan - capacity: 12,000 Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence, RI - capacity: 14,500Hartford Civic Center, Hartford, CT - capacity: 16,295Other great arenas:University of Rhode Island's new Ryan Center - capacity: 7,657University of Pittsburgh's Peterson Events Center - capacity: 12,500 (my personal favorite!)