Box and Won Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Saturday was my first trip to the Allstate Arena, and to be honest, it was a lot better than I had anticipated. For as many seats as it holds, it has a very intimate feel to it, and the low ceiling helped with the noise level - even though the crowd was not all that big, it got quite loud at times. Although we wouldn't want to replicate the Allstate at SLU, there are definitely aspects about it that we could borrow for our new building, namely, the low ceiling. It seemed very dark there for some reason though. A little too much pre-recorded music for my tastes. Then again, most schools don't have our excellent band! There were probably a dozen Blue Crew members sitting at one of the ends of the court, and they did a great job making noise and cheering on the team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 in past years cusa and gmc conference tourney, there have been games where depaul never even had a band and when they did it was usually not good enough to have been considered for most high school bands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBand Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Odd, I remember Spoon always commenting that he hated playing at the (then) Rosemont Horizon. And in DePaul's defense, they have a fine music performance program that trumps anything SLU has to offer in their department. They've focused their resources toward that performance end in jazz and classical music. A Pep band just isnt as important to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 Band - I am not sure the comments were made to denegrate DePaul's fine arts program - the fact still remains that while they might have a great overall program their pep band stinks is all Roy was trying to say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 in the woody allen movie, "take the money and run", woody allen's character played the cello in the school band. and there is a hillarious scene where it shows him sitting on a chair playing the cello, the marching band goes past him. he stops, picks up his chair, sprints by the band, sits down, plays again until the band goes by, then he stops, picks up his chair, sprints by the band, ...... the point is, bring those classical guys out. it would definitely be something different! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billiken Rich Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 I was at the Robert E Lee in glorious downtown Kimmswick the other night for dinner. They had a harpist playing classic rock. I may have lived a sheltered life, but I found that enchanting. Hard to do at an arena though...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 nothing better than a rousing rendition of "whole lotta love" on a harp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willie Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 I thought Depauls game presentation was superior to anything we do. They turned the lights off for introduction and their team seemed to really get into it. The games they played were more entertaining then what we do.. They continually brought out kids to run around the floor. Somebody won an ipod,not a gift certificate to Joe Baccardies. Their band was not bad.Not as good as ours,our band is as good if not better than anything you'll hear at the final four. All in all I thought their game presentation was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted February 28, 2005 Author Share Posted February 28, 2005 I thought that the video that they showed before the introductions was pretty cool. Very well done. Before the game, they presented Drake Diener with a "game ball" for reaching 1,000 points in his career - nice touch. Overall, it's a pretty decent place to watch a game. It's just too bad that it's so far from their campus - if you think it's hard for us to get students to show up, it's got to be nearly impossible to get kids to make the trek from Lincoln Park to Rosemont. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted February 28, 2005 Share Posted February 28, 2005 i wonder why we (slu) didnt use the opportunity to at least give spoon an official hand at the uab game. he wasnt around for the hall of fame game the week before, so why not at least acknowledge him at the uab game during a timeout or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLUBandTBone Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 Last year we did a pre-game with the lights out, spotlights going, music, and a video going on a couple of occasions. If I recall correctly though Brad said that he only does that when he feels that his players have earned it. This season didn't provide many occasions for Brad to feel that way I imagine. But I do agree with you, the lights out and the pump up music really does a lot for the atmosphere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billikenbooster Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 DePaul has a baaaaaaaaaad band. Sorry..They are just lame. Yes, their mascot is more energetic (smaller head gear) than the Billiken. The wrist band giveaway was cool, kids love those, and using the kids during the TOs are much more entertaining and the kids love it. I'm sure those kids will always remember their time on the floor at the game. I really liked the one where the kids run to half court put on one shoe, then to the other end line, puton their other shoe, then dribble the ball back to the basket to win a bag of Blue Demon trinkets. That is a win win...kids have a great time again on the floor, and they win products that promote your team, which they will talk about positively with their friends. I liken the environment there to the difference between watching the Bears and the Rams in a home game. The incessant loud obnoxious ads for the 'sponsors' of the Rams...give me a friggin' break. The fans are the sponsors of the team...they are the ones paying the freight on the team, not those sponsors. now if feel better. mhg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago Billiken Posted March 1, 2005 Share Posted March 1, 2005 You are all right, Allstate Arena isn't a bad place to watch a game but being 15-20 miles away from campus kills DePaul and while they do offer free shuttles for students there is no student atmosphere. There wasn't much when I was at SLU about three years ago either. A force of students gives the home team that intangible leg-up that you can't replace. Official Billikens.com sponsor of Kevin Shortal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Box and Won Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 You're right - Savvis shows WAY too many ads on the video board. Just like at the Rams games, they're the perfect way to kill any crowd enthusiasm. I understand that as a Savvis tenant, we have to be subjected to ads for rodeos, monster truck pulls, ice skating, SpongeBob on ice and all the other b.s. that I'll never attend, but Allstate played a lot less ads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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