NU vs DePaul Arenas: Is NU WASTING money?

[FeliSilvestris]

7600 was just an initial estimate when the renovation was first announced last summer. As the plans were finalized that number apparently went down a bit.
As far as renovation vs. rebuild, I'd guess time had a lot to do with that decision

A reduction from 7,600 to 6,800 is a lot greater than "a bit". That's 800 seats, which is about 11% of the initial estimate.
Building a brand new arena may very well take longer than renovating the old one, but the advantages of having a brand new state-of-the-art facility (for about the same money) surely outweighs the inconvenience of playing one extra season elsewhere in Chicagoland.

EDIT: BTW, in the release linked above, I cannot find the capacity of the renovated arena. Is it there?

 

[PurpleHaze525]

A reduction from 7,600 to 6,800 is a lot greater than "a bit". That's 800 seats, which is about 11% of the initial estimate.
Building a brand new arena may very well take longer than renovating the old one, but the advantages of having a brand new state-of-the-art facility (for about the same money) surely outweighs the inconvenience of playing one extra season elsewhere in Chicagoland.

EDIT: BTW, in the release linked above, I cannot find the capacity of the renovated arena. Is it there?

No, I think you're right that NU never officially released the capacity. As far as I can tell the 7600 number (actually 7500) came from this TG article.

 

[illini75]

You are probably right on rennos costs. Which strengthens the question in the OP: Why not spend a bit more and get a brand new (possibly larger) arena?

Yes, it may have taken longer (possibly affecting a second season). But that would be a relatively minor inconvenience considering the benefit of having a brand new arena, whose expected lifespan would be at least decades.

By the way, it seems DePaul got about $20MM from naming rights over 15 years. Potentially NU could have gotten a similar deal for its new arena.

Don't know about the naming rights parity. Having exposure in the McCormick Place area is a lot more valuable than east Central Street, Evanston. It's all about the eyeballs.

 

[gocatsgo2003]

A reduction from 7,600 to 6,800 is a lot greater than "a bit". That's 800 seats, which is about 11% of the initial estimate.
Building a brand new arena may very well take longer than renovating the old one, but the advantages of having a brand new state-of-the-art facility (for about the same money) surely outweighs the inconvenience of playing one extra season elsewhere in Chicagoland.

EDIT: BTW, in the release linked above, I cannot find the capacity of the renovated arena. Is it there?

What about the plans is not "state of the art?"

 

[NJCat]

What about the plans is not "state of the art?"

"6,800 seats, 64 year old footprint."

Very predictable.

Look, we get the Felis schtick: posit a plausible hypothetical argument 180 degrees out of phase with the majority of sentiment, repeat the argument ad nauseam as click-bait to stimulate discussion and (hopefully) annoy/piss off the more gullible posters, use phrases like "AS STATED ELSEWHERE" to give the appearance of credibility to said argument, etc. etc. etc. It's really pretty funny to watch. I doubt he seriously believe much of what he writes but enjoys a good disagreement with many of the posters. For years it was "5, [PF] 2, 4, 5, 2, 3........", now he has found a great new straw man around the MISTAKE being made with the renovation of WRA. Go with the flow and don't let it bother you.......

 

[gocatsgo2003]

6,800 seats, 54 year old footprint.

Edit in response to your edit... phew.