Wake Forest buys arena for $8M

[MUfan12]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/9530181/wake-forest-demon-deacons-buy-joel-coliseum-8-million

With the arena debate ongoing in Milwaukee, I found this interesting. I wonder if such an arrangement would be available or feasible for MU, assuming a new arena is built.

[Benny B]

Two major distinctions here:

1) The Joel is a basketball-oriented arena.  It's old and in desperate need of updating, but still, it was at the 2007 game-which-should-not-be-named that I first said to myself, "this is what MU needs... a dedicated basketball arena."
2) Though on the outskirts & across University Pkwy, the Joel is still considered to be "on-campus" at WF.

In other words, I don't think MU would be keen on the idea of purchasing a multi-purpose arena that is a couple miles from campus... so a comparable option doesn't exist for MU.  Though even if you could get around that, consider:

Auburn built their 9,000+ seat arena in 2011 for under $100M.
SLU built their 10,000+ seat arena in 2008 for $80M.
The City of Evansville built the 11,500-seat Ford Center in 2011 for $127M.
Nebraska will open their 16,000-seat publicly-funded wet dream this year at a cost of $180M+.

There's nothing like being at a college hoops game in a true basketball arena.  If you've been to the Joyce, Pavillion, etc., you know what I'm talking about.  The BC simply cannot duplicate that kind of atmosphere.  Not to mention, I think something like that would drastically add to MU's "home-court advantage."  I can't wait to watch MU play at Hinkle this year... despite Stevens' departure, that game should still be electric.

Assuming that MU could build a decent, 12,000 -14,000 seat basketball arena for $100-150M, I would rather MU commit that kind of money to building its own arena than spending even the $10-15M necessary just to renovate the BC.  I wouldn't even take the Arena if they offered to give it away.

[TomW1365]

I like having beers with old college friends at the games.  For that reason, I will always prefer I share an arena with the Bucks.