USA - College Basketball Arenas

[Benn]

The Memorial Gymnasium at Vanderbilt (designed as an Arena/Concert Hall, withthe benches on the ends) and Maples Pavilion at Stanford (with the students courtside) have reputations for being pretty crazy as well.

Memorial Gym
image hosted on flickr


Maples Pavilion
image hosted on flickr

[skobabe8]

Who was the writer for the Lexington newspaper that said the loudest he ever heard Rupp Arena was when Indiana beat Kent State to get to the 2002 Final Four?

[bigwilley]

Damn i thought it was 80 million, and if our newspaper writer said that he should be fired

[DPruett2333]

I would put Koch Arena up there with the best of them.



image hosted on flickr


A few years ago after an NIT game the Koch, Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton said that it was the loudest crowd he had ever heard, including Duke and North Carolina. Not to mention many other coaches who've made the same type of comments.

The Roundhouse most definately rocks!!!

[bigwilley]

Is that witchita state?

[Benn]

Yup

[jkramb]

Well, all you need to know is after the 2005 IU vs Duke game coach K said Assembly Hall was the loudest place he had ever been and that includes the Dean Dome and Cameron Indoor.

[Benn]

Until your AD convinces everyone that Assembly hall isn't worth renovating and Indiana ends up with a souless 20,000 seat box like Ohio State.

[bigwilley]

That doesnt suprise me, but assembly hall is not consistently an incredibly loud place. Duke could be playing wilmington's trucker school for the deaf. And duke would still have a sellout and be screaming as loud as they can.

[skobabe8]

Originally Posted by bigwilley

That doesnt suprise me, but assembly hall is not consistently an incredibly loud place. Duke could be playing wilmington's trucker school for the deaf. And duke would still have a sellout and be screaming as loud as they can.

Did you really say Assembly Hall at Indiana is not consistently loud???

[jkramb]

Originally Posted by bigwilley

That doesnt suprise me, but assembly hall is not consistently an incredibly loud place. Duke could be playing wilmington's trucker school for the deaf. And duke would still have a sellout and be screaming as loud as they can.

yeah, and I'm sure those 12,000 nerds are very intimidating . jk. I've actually heard that students don't show up for some of the crap games anymore. It happens everywhere though. They get spoiled and the crap games don't mean much anymore. Some of the old Alumni with the big money seats at assembly hall don't drive down from Indy for a wednesday night game against NW anymore. IU sells 9200 student season tickets every year, that is part of why it is so loud. The other thing is the pitch of the stands. They go like straight up and the walls on the ends lean in over the court and reflect the sound down on to the court. It is pretty amazing. You literally can't even talk to the person next to you.

[jkramb]

Originally Posted by Benn

Until your AD convinces everyone that Assembly hall isn't worth renovating and Indiana ends up with a souless 20,000 seat box like Ohio State.

it would cost less to buid a new building. When they build a new building it is expected to be a replica of conseco on the inside, which is considered the best place in the country to watch a basketball game. Assembly hall has A LOT of bad seats and horrible sight lines. It is loud which is great, but the bad seats are an issue and there are also issues with the slope of the seating bowl not being up to code or something. It is to steep.

[th0m]

Are there any decent pictures of the inside of Assembly Hall? Most other arena's have some, but it's hard to find any of Assembly Hall. Especially with the upper deck depicted as well.

[Benn]

Originally Posted by jkramb

it would cost less to buid a new building. When they build a new building it is expected to be a replica of conseco on the inside, which is considered the best place in the country to watch a basketball game. Assembly hall has A LOT of bad seats and horrible sight lines. It is loud which is great, but the bad seats are an issue and there are also issues with the slope of the seating bowl not being up to code or something. It is to steep.

Conseco is not particularly intimidating, and making a repilca is not very original, not to mention it would be prohibitively expensive, with current steel prices I would think $300 million would be a good to build conseco today. Keep in mind the new Oregon arena is going to cost a solid $200 million and will only seat 12,500.
Now if the go back and look at Hinkle and Williams and some of the other great Fieldhouses and then take a fresh look at how to make a proper fieldhouse that could be great. And they could probably get a 18,000-20,000 seater for somewhat less and really set the standard. I just don't have that much faith in a HOK.

[jkramb]

Originally Posted by Benn

Conseco is not particularly intimidating, and making a repilca is not very original, not to mention it would be prohibitively expensive, with current steel prices I would think $300 million would be a good to build conseco today. Keep in mind the new Oregon arena is going to cost a solid $200 million and will only seat 12,500.
Now if the go back and look at Hinkle and Williams and some of the other great Fieldhouses and then take a fresh look at how to make a proper fieldhouse that could be great. And they could probably get a 18,000-20,000 seater for somewhat less and really set the standard. I just don't have that much faith in a HOK.

true, but there are ways to make stadiums louder via acoustical design. Also, there is not a bad seat in a place like Conseco, as for being original, it would still be original. When I said designed after conseco, I just mean the seating configurement. The outside wouldn't look anything like it. I'm not even positive they would copy the seating bowl, but it would definitely take cues from it, and there is no reason it shouldn't. Conseco is considered by many to be the best place to watch a game in the country. whatever they do I'm sure it will be first rate. The university seems to be getting things right lately at least as far as construction is concerned. The new basketball development center they are building will be the best practice facilities in the country. It is INCREDIBLE. If you haven't seen the images and video yet, let me and I'll post them for you.

[jkramb]

QUOTE=th0m;19443584]Are there any decent pictures of the inside of Assembly Hall? Most other arena's have some, but it's hard to find any of Assembly Hall. Especially with the upper deck depicted as well.[/QUOTE]

it's hard to get a good photo due to how steep the seating bowls are. I'll try and find you one though. here is my favorite view of the arena.
[

this is the best i could find, but you still can't really see the balconies. i found a better one taken from the floor, but it was a flash image i couldn't save. It is pretty cool to go out to center court and look up. as you can see there aren't many seats on the endlines, so you look up and there are 17,000 seats that go straight up on the sidelines.

[Indiana Jones]

I totally agree Benn. I fear the IU admins and architects would botch a new design.

Conseco's atmosphere is awful, even with college games. That's the last design I want.

If I had my way, I would prefer a bowl like Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Nice steep seating with everyone close should be the top priority.

[jkramb]

Originally Posted by Indiana Jones

I totally agree Benn. I fear the IU admins and architects would botch a new design.

Conseco's atmosphere is awful, even with college games. That's the last design I want.

If I had my way, I would prefer a bowl like Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Nice steep seating with everyone close should be the top priority.

have you seen the new research buildings and athletic facilities they are building on campus. The IU administrations choosing of an architect won't scare me at all. Fact is, McRobbie is amazing at getting things done and done well and I have complete faith in him. I've never heard someone get such rave reviews from trustees and high ranking faculty. The man is seriously starting to look like he could be herman wells-esque

[Indiana Jones]

I think McRobbie is doing an great job. The list of $1MM+ projects here is amazing. But he doesn't know or care much about sports, which is fine, his focus shouldn't be on sports. I believe he referred to a basketball game as a match and halftime as the interval.

He wouldn't get too involved and leave it to the trustees and AD, who I don't entirely trust. Tom Crean was a great hire, but we all remember some of their lesser moves.

Assembly Hall, for all it's faults, provides a huge home court advantage. New arenas cannot even be built with such steep seating. The last thing I want is a plush arena. I want all the Hoosier fans close and on top of the court. Places like Value City Arena, Conseco, Memphis's arena, etc. don't do this. I worry about hiring a firm like HKS and a NBA arena design.

So, I'm thinking a big bowl with some suites on top. The outside could be beautiful Indiana limestone like the rest of the campus. If this isn't the plan, I'd much rather stick with AH a little longer.

[TexasBoi]

GIA at Oklahoma State deserves a mention. That place can get loud if the team is really good. But Phog Allen takes the cake for the big 12. Such a great arena with great fans with great tradition.