student section/alumni lower bowl/ BC rennovations...

[M@RQUETTEW@RRIORS]

I heard an interview a few weeks ago with John Hammond on wssp.  He mentioned they are going to attempt a multi-million dollar rennovation of the BC instead of trying to get a new arena.  All of this talk about poor student attendance and participation and the "alumni sit on their hands" talk gets me thinking.  If they do indeed rennovate the BC they desperately need both for the sake of MU and the bucks to reorganize the seating in the lower bowl especially the floor area.  There is a lot of wasted space and the crowd could be much closer to the action and have more of an impact.  The other thing they were talking about was adding some retail and restaurants in 1/2 of each atrium.  Plenty of space for 3 or 4 stories of retails and bars/restaurants for addition revenue there.  I think everyone can be happy if this is done properly.

[GGGG]

I agree with you.  For the sake of both the Bucks and Marquette, they have to do a better job making it a "basketball first" arena.  The Kohl Center, for instance, is a much more "intimate" basketball arena, but they play hockey there too.

[MerrittsMustache]

Not trying to be a buzzkill but no matter how they renovate the BC, the only way the students will have good seats in the lower bowl is if they each make big donations to the university (no, tuition doesn't count).

It's a Catch-22 argument: the students have "bad" seats because many of them aren't interested in the game, but many of them aren't interested in the game because they have "bad" seats.

[M@RQUETTEW@RRIORS]

Not trying to be a buzzkill but no matter how they renovate the BC, the only way the students will have good seats in the lower bowl is if they each make big donations to the university (no, tuition doesn't count).

It's a Catch-22 argument: the students have "bad" seats because many of them aren't interested in the game, but many of them aren't interested in the game because they have "bad" seats.

I dont really care if they get "good" seats in the lower bowl.  It would be nice however if the fans were all alot closer than they are now.

[Litehouse]

I don't think he's saying move the students, he's saying the proposed renovation could possibly re-design the seats to eliminate the big gaps behind the basket and in the corners.  The students would be in the same location, but the seats would be a more cohesive group, instead of the current segmented arrangement.

[muhoops1]

Revenue comes from luxury suites not the student section.  That is their main priority.  That and the fact that the BC is also a hockey arena creating certain limitations for the basketball crowd.

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Hey I had crappy student seats in oxygen deprived section and cheered my a**  off until i got too drunk . No excuse

[Josey Wales]

Hey I had crappy student seats in oxygen deprived section and cheered my a**  off until i got too drunk . No excuse

But the problem is, students can cheer as loud as they want but they are so far away it doesn't really matter much.

[chapman]

I dont really care if they get "good" seats in the lower bowl.  It would be nice however if the fans were all alot closer than they are now.

+1.  There's space closer to the floor where they would hopefully get some student seating, right on the end where they are now.  We don't need to move the students, they defeinitely don't need to be on the sides or on both ends, they just need to get some of them in the lower bowl closer to the action where there is currently a bunch of empty space.  You don't need to cater to the students by giving them a great view, and if they had to roll out crappy bleachers for our games it would be good enough.  The amount of student seating is perfect...it's a great selling point to prospective students to guarantee them season tickets, basketball is the thing that unites the campus, and there aren't 2,000 people getting shut out of tickets because students take up too much seating (the advantage of an arena disproportionately large compared to our needs).

[Ari Gold]

if they could somehow lower the ceiling? that'll keep the noise contained. I agree with changing the lower bowl around so the tunnels don't split the lower bowl of the student section

I kind of proposed this on another post, but given the US cell could become obsolete and with the current lack of events at the Midwest Express some sort of "combining" of the three, with other marketable additions might be an option worth considering