On-Campus Arena Tidbit

[Mr. Nielsen]

Have heard the number now is in the $50-60k per game range. Not sure about the other aspects (parking, concessions, suites, etc).

They never got concessions at the BC, so I'm sure it's still that way at FF. I know they get a % of the suites that were sold at FF.

[TallTitan34]

Speaking of the suites, at the Wisconsin game they were 95% red. 

[skianth16]

Speaking of the suites, at the Wisconsin game they were 95% red.

I saw that too. While I'm not too surprised, given that those seats are pretty much all corporate, it wasn't great seeing that ring of red throughout the stadium. Maybe in 2 years, someone can coordinate a MU shirt giveaway for the suites to help even that out a little more.

[Mr. Nielsen]

Speaking of the suites, at the Wisconsin game they were 95% red.

I didn't notice that as I'm in row 14, but was told that was the case from folks who sit in the upper deck. Can't blame MU for that as they have zero control.

[warriorchick]

I saw that too. While I'm not too surprised, given that those seats are pretty much all corporate, it wasn't great seeing that ring of red throughout the stadium. Maybe in 2 years, someone can coordinate a MU shirt giveaway for the suites to help even that out a little more.

It makes perfect sense that it was mostly red.

Think about it.  If your company has a suite for Marquette basketball, which game are you going to invite all of your Badger Fan customers to?  You have the rest of the season to invite all your customers who graduated from Marquette.

[79Warrior]

I'm pretty confident that if (and its a huge if at this point) an on campus arena got built, it wouldn't be bigger than 12,000. Leave em wanting more.

Doubt MU leaves money on the table.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Doubt MU leaves money on the table.

Who says they would be leaving money on the table?

[79Warrior]

Who says they would be leaving money on the table?

Smaller arena = fewer seats to sell

[mu03eng]

Smaller arena = fewer seats to sell

At a higher price.......laws of supply and demand matter in ticket prices as well.

[Pakuni]

At a higher price.......laws of supply and demand matter in ticket prices as well.

There's also a cap on the price people are willing to pay to see a college basketball team in a city with plenty of options for their entertainment dollar.
How many fans - casual and hardcore - are going to pay another 20 percent, if not more, to make up from the lost revenue of 3-4,000 tickets sold? And to see games in what'll likely be an arena with fewer amenities in a less attractive location?

[Goose]

Pakuni

We jumped into season tickets again this year after a long break. Past decade I paid scalpers inflated cost to get best seats available for games I wanted to go to. This year, I will be wasting/giving away either fourth or fifth set of tickets for tonight"s game. In theory, I am already paying a 20-30% premium on my tickets. I know a lot of folks waste more than they use and do not care about the money part of it.

I probably would be more likely to go a crappy game at an arena that has some energy. One of the reasons I do not go to crappy games now is because the excitement level is not there. The one crappy game we went to, my wife and I were the only two people in our row, and we are in  row 16 of lower bowl. For me, nothing is worse than a bad opponent and empty arena.

[Pakuni]

Pakuni

We jumped into season tickets again this year after a long break. Past decade I paid scalpers inflated cost to get best seats available for games I wanted to go to. This year, I will be wasting/giving away either fourth or fifth set of tickets for tonight"s game. In theory, I am already paying a 20-30% premium on my tickets. I know a lot of folks waste more than they use and do not care about the money part of it.

I probably would be more likely to go a crappy game at an arena that has some energy. One of the reasons I do not go to crappy games now is because the excitement level is not there. The one crappy game we went to, my wife and I were the only two people in our row, and we are in  row 16 of lower bowl. For me, nothing is worse than a bad opponent and empty arena.

This is all fair, but what makes you think smaller arena = energy at a crappy game?
I imagine the season ticket holders and students (and casual fans) who stay away from mid-December games against North Dakota at Fiserve will stay away from mid-December games against North Dakota at an on-campus arena as well. And those who do show up aren't going to get more excited for a crappy opponent because there are fewer empty seats.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

I'm pretty confident that if (and its a huge if at this point) an on campus arena got built, it wouldn't be bigger than 12,000. Leave em wanting more.

Plz stay in academia,  in no world would MU want to leave existing season ticket holders or other possible viewers on the street.  The reason many college venues only have 10-11-12 thousand seats is bacuse they have trouble even filling that.  Under no cicumstsnces does MU, who has historically had a 14-15k seat average then decide to build a 12k arena for that or any other stupid reason of the sort. Plz stop

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

This is all fair, but what makes you think smaller arena = energy at a crappy game?
I imagine the season ticket holders and students (and casual fans) who stay away from mid-December games against North Dakota at Fiserve will stay away from mid-December games against North Dakota at an on-campus arena as well. And those who do show up aren't going to get more excited for a crappy opponent because there are fewer empty seats.

Bingo seats are already sold adding to athletic coffers , msybe they should only make it 5k for those types of games.  Lord this thread has zero forward thinking

[Its DJOver]

How many Milwaukee and surrounding area residents actually choose not to go to games that they've already paid for?  Maybe a Tuesday night 8 o'clock tip, but even then.  I go to games to watch MU basketball, not be in an amazing arena with an amazing atmosphere, my attendance would be almost identical if we were forced to play all games at the Al.  I can't imagine Guru being okay with any of you guys missing any game for any reason.

[The Sultan]

Plz stay in academia,  in no world would MU want to leave existing season ticket holders or other possible viewers on the street.  The reason many college venues only have 10-11-12 thousand seats is bacuse they have trouble even filling that.  Under no cicumstsnces does MU, who has historically had a 14-15k seat average then decide to build a 12k arena for that or any other stupid reason of the sort. Plz stop

Word is they were looking at an arena that was going to seat around 10,000.  And they averaged less than your stated "14-15k seat average" just last year.

So maybe you should do a little research before typing like an incoherent middle schooler next time?

[79Warrior]

Plz stay in academia,  in no world would MU want to leave existing season ticket holders or other possible viewers on the street.  The reason many college venues only have 10-11-12 thousand seats is bacuse they have trouble even filling that.  Under no cicumstsnces does MU, who has historically had a 14-15k seat average then decide to build a 12k arena for that or any other stupid reason of the sort. Plz stop

This

[Pakuni]

Word is they were looking at an arena that was going to seat around 10,000.  And they averaged less than your stated "14-15k seat average" just last year.

So maybe you should do a little research before typing like an incoherent middle schooler next time?

Looked at ... and rejected (and fairly quickly).
I get the allure of on-campus arena that would be Marquette's and Marquette's alone, but the economics of it really don't make much sense. Not only would it require MU to turn away thousands of fans, but it would have to find ways to fill seats when it's not  hosting a men's basketball game. That's no small task, especially in a city that has no shortage of other viable options.
The arena business is tough, and most struggle to break even or lose money.

[Goose]

Sand Knit

I agree on making the most money possible and repeating that system. That said, I am not so sure of accuracy of ST sold. In addition, I do know of a lot of 65+ fans that have had 4-8 season tickets for decades and likely discontinuing in relative near future. I can speak firsthand with my siblings, six tickets not renewed this year. They are 65+, travel in winter and kids have low level interest.

I would not be betting on 11k STH 4-5 years from now, and not because of product on the court. I do not see the younger folks jumping in and buying the tickets some folks have had for 50 years. World has changed and buying/entertainment habits have changed. MU has been very lucky the number of Al fans are still buying tickets today.

[StillAWarrior]

I don't think that even excavation or renovation could solve the problem here... you can't go up without going out and add a meaningful number of seats (unless you plan to hand out complimentary Dramamine to the upper deck fans), not to mention the current footprint isn't even enough to accommodate critical mass in a single-level configuration, considering:

1) Assembly Hall (the Hall with two walls) sits on a footprint that's approximately 370' x 290' at it's maximum widths.
2) Hinkle sits on a 350' x 225' footprint.
3) The Dee Dome, i.e. Weber State U (incidentally, also the inspiration for the Thunderdome), is 325' in diameter.

By comparison, the arena portion of the Al is currently about 175' x 225'.  Even if you turned things sideways (i.e. raze the offices), you can get 350' north to south, but still only 150' E to W. 

If you tore down Cobeen Hall, you get 225' E to W... now you have the exact same footprint as Hinkle.  The problem is, I very much doubt you could build Hinkle today and meet current building codes, and their capacity is only about 9,000 as it is so you're probably 7,500-8,000 by today's standards.  Either was, I personally think that's too small (IMO, the sweet spot for MU on-campus is probably about 10,000-11,000).

As mentioned, Weber State has the template MU... obviously it would be a different color scheme, with a larger scoreboard and video screens.  Reshape the end zones to bring the seats closer to the court and add a concourse at the tunnel level such that you can walk around the entire arena.  New speakers, some t-shirt parachute droppers, 50 different craft brews on tap, and the Thunderdome is born.

Dee Dome's capacity is 11,500 and change, so even cutting out a few seats, a 350' square footprint is what MU needs to make this happen.  Unfortunately, that doesn't exist at 12th and Wells... but I know someplace it does.

Good stuff, Benny.  Thanks.  Curious if you know or have seen the footprint dimensions of Cintas at Xavier.  I know someone up-thread expressed a contrary opinion, but I actually was pretty impressed when I was there a couple months ago.

[TinyTimsLittleBrother]

Looked at ... and rejected (and fairly quickly).
I get the allure of on-campus arena that would be Marquette's and Marquette's alone, but the economics of it really don't make much sense. Not only would it require MU to turn away thousands of fans, but it would have to find ways to fill seats when it's not  hosting a men's basketball game. That's no small task, especially in a city that has no shortage of other viable options.
The arena business is tough, and most struggle to break even or lose money.

Rejected because of cost. Not size.

[Goose]

StillaWarrior

MU brass knows the footprint of Cintas at X. That was the blueprint for discussion/model had by the folks at MU.

[Pakuni]

Rejected because of cost. Not size.

Cost wouldn't be an issue if they were confident that the revenues were there to justify the expense.

[Frenns Liquor Depot]

Rejected because of cost. Not size.

Size = Revenue potential & ultimately payback -- so these things are all linked.  Especially since you do want to maximize rev's on nights MU isnt playing with other events.

I am not going to pretend like I know the 'ideal' arena size for an MU game this year or 10 years down the road as that would take access to info that I dont have...

..but I do agree with the person who said being in the Bucks/NBA arena is the best situation for MU today.

[Cheeks]

Pakuni

We jumped into season tickets again this year after a long break. Past decade I paid scalpers inflated cost to get best seats available for games I wanted to go to. This year, I will be wasting/giving away either fourth or fifth set of tickets for tonight"s game. In theory, I am already paying a 20-30% premium on my tickets. I know a lot of folks waste more than they use and do not care about the money part of it.

I probably would be more likely to go a crappy game at an arena that has some energy. One of the reasons I do not go to crappy games now is because the excitement level is not there. The one crappy game we went to, my wife and I were the only two people in our row, and we are in  row 16 of lower bowl. For me, nothing is worse than a bad opponent and empty arena.

I'd go to crappy or good games, want to cheer on Marquette mostly.  Development of the kids, cheer for the alma mater.

JD