Man, beating up Chicago State had a greater impact than I thought.
NU states 18-19 season tickets are sold out
- Thread starter Alan Smithee
- Start date
They better have the new joint finished by then. Given the slippage in Taj Fitz, I'd be a little worried if I was NU Athletics.....seems like they hired a Project Manager who used to work for Elon Musk.
It's not the size that matters, but how it's used. Fill that thing, make it loud, and all will be satisfied.
It always helps if you can dish out regular spankings too.
Haven't seen someone so concerned about being small since middle school gym.
I'm tellin' ya, Willy, you're going to be pleasantly surprised by the atmosphere in that place. Just wait . . . . .
Size of the gym is commiserate with the size of the University and its alumni base.
Yep.So very tired of the "we got the smallest gym in the B1G" rants. WTF cares.
Since when? McGaw used to seat 10,000 and NU's enrollment numbers hasn't changed. Just think DePaul, who's also has a small number of students, just built a new 10,000 seat arena. So when under Collins NU is hosting an important game against MSU or Minny and the demand greatly exceede the available 7,000 seats, they will just say sorry and take a money loss on the potential of 3,000 more people who want to attend. Oh well.
They do have the smallest gym, true? Guess we will just wait and see when thousands of additional NU fans are not able to see a game as NU moves toward another NCAA appearance. Guess they could move important games to the UC or DePaul.
Small, loud gym full of purple partisans = awesome. Never forget this: http://www.thepostgame.com/jim-nantz-northwestern-fred-couples-houston
Cynically, I've got to believe most of 'em would've been wearing the wrong colors. Personally, I won't miss 'em.
"Commiserate"??? CSP, not the vocabulary we expect from you or others on a Northwestern board. Perhaps "commensurate" was what you meant?
I'd rather see 100 MSU fans pay $900 each.....
DePaul's undergrad student body is over 15,000, nearly double ours. Wintrust Arena also came with over $100 million in public funds and hosts many other public-facing events.
Of course, the building also originally was set to seat 12,000, but they decided that was too big. Just think, though, when they have important games, they could have hosted that many more people!
Willy, I'm one person who is with you on this one. However, after seeing how construction has progressed, I don't think you and I ever had a chance at our 10,000 seat arena.
For whatever reason, the decision was made to keep those arching steel beams from the original building. My many years of architectural expertise in marketing tell me that had something to do with cost (I can't imagine what the cost of the building would have been if it's $120M+ WITH the beams.)
The minute they decided to keep those beams, the idea of expanding to 10K seats was dead - especially with cushioned seats all over the arena.
Yes, NU could have spent more money and started from scratch. But I'm surprised they were able to raise the $120M this soon, sandwiched between the football practice facility and the renovation of Ryan Field that Fitz is already floating out there.
With all that said, if any kind of winning continues, I think the small capacity and limited accessibility is really going to be problematic - not now ... not in five years - but in the long run.
If 4000 seats are gone, let's assume another 1000 go to students. That means the last 1000 are available to the public. And it looks like NU's strategy is to have limited availability, drive up demand and increase the price.
I don't think that's a good way to build a fan base that has major problems drawing and especially ATTENDING even with reasonable teams at laughably low prices.
For whatever reason, the decision was made to keep those arching steel beams from the original building. My many years of architectural expertise in marketing tell me that had something to do with cost (I can't imagine what the cost of the building would have been if it's $120M+ WITH the beams.)
The minute they decided to keep those beams, the idea of expanding to 10K seats was dead - especially with cushioned seats all over the arena.
Yes, NU could have spent more money and started from scratch. But I'm surprised they were able to raise the $120M this soon, sandwiched between the football practice facility and the renovation of Ryan Field that Fitz is already floating out there.
With all that said, if any kind of winning continues, I think the small capacity and limited accessibility is really going to be problematic - not now ... not in five years - but in the long run.
If 4000 seats are gone, let's assume another 1000 go to students. That means the last 1000 are available to the public. And it looks like NU's strategy is to have limited availability, drive up demand and increase the price.
I don't think that's a good way to build a fan base that has major problems drawing and especially ATTENDING even with reasonable teams at laughably low prices.
It will be a radical experiment in the current conventional wisdom of stadium construction: Build smaller with more premium seating to compete with the mobile or at home viewing experience. It will backfire if it turns out more visitors than home fans are willing to pay premium prices. I'm still a supporter of the planned renovation but am starting to waffle.
Well it's nice to hear that someone or two agree with me. Should have built a new gym. When and if Collins makes them a perennial conference contender and a NCAA participant those 7,000 seats will prove to be inadequate. Guess after the practice facility, the newer, smaller W-R are completed and Ryan Field is upgraded, they can then correct their mistake and build an all purpose 10,000 seat arena, like DePaul did. Maybe the City of Evanston will pitch in with some cash or other incentives, or not.
They had 10,000 people for the Illinois game, and 5,000 of 'em were wearing orange.
Nice small WRA filled with 7,039 purple shirts is going to be just fine. The rest can enjoy the game on their cumfy couches on HDTV.
Perhaps inadequate for people like you who are unwilling to fork up. For people like me who are willing to pay for a good product, it will be glorious.
Don't be another jerk who tells people how to spend their money. I now live over 75 miles from Evanston and don't relish that thought of driving home around midnight on two lane rural roads. However would like to attend some games with afternoon or earlier start times but if the 7,000 seat arena is practically sold out then long time NU fans like myself won't be able to get a seat. That's to bad and I still feel that having such a small capacity will come back to haunt them in the future. So Mr. "big bucks", go and enjoy your "glorious" time.
I see your still living in that fantasy world where the purple seat holders don't sell out to the enemy and that the scalpers only sell to purple people. Dream on and see what happens when CC has the Cats playing for the Big Ten Championship and additional 3,000 or so paying Chicago Area fans would like to cheer them on but no seats are available.
But in the fantasy world you're describing, how would the extra capacity end up in the hands (butts?) of Northwestern fans?
We have an experiment this year, and the first return was that the extra capacity inured to the benefit of the Illinois fan base. They bought the extra seats, not us.
In the week of John Lennon's 75th birthday, you might consider this addition to your post: You may say I'm a dreamer.
That's not the fault of arena size but the dedication of the NU fandom, who fail to attend home games. Put the blame where it belongs.
