Arena-Do it right, or don't do it!

[bonwich]

Taj, O'Donnell in our day was called the "Woolworth Building," because it once held either the national or regional headquarters for Woolworth's. (SLU didn't own it then.) It was also, prior to that, the St. Louis Club or somesuch, but that was well before our time. It's a pretty cool building, three or four stories, between Jesuit Hall (was it still Rogers Hall when we were there?) and the Masonic temples on the north side of Lindell, kind of across the street from Pius library.

[davidnark]

An old cliche says that you have to take the good with the bad. I won't be the only one to tell you that with Biondi it isn't all good.

[stlsoccer]

In response to the thought that Robert Hermann Stadium was done incorrectly, he/she should get a clue. SLU's stadium is one of the highest quality natural grass facilities in the nation. The only drawbacks were the locker rooms and concessions, but as for the stands and playing surface, these are one of the best in the country. 5.8 million or so went towards the stadium, which in my mind isn't chump change. As a former SLU player, it is a disgrace to hear someone bash the stadium. I've been to many top teams's stadium's across the country, and none compare to Hermann Stadium.

[knight_rider]

No doubt, we all want the Arena. However, if this building does not meet the needs of the players, both coaching staffs, and the training room, it is a waste of time. Our present players and future recruits are smart. When they visit the new facility and see that corners have been cut (no coach's offices, etc.) they will quickly figure out that the higher-ups are not giving 100% to support the programs.

Quite honestly, I don't think many of us realize just how good Brad and Shimmy are. I realize neither have "top 10" talent yet, but I don't think we can argue that the recruiting is getting better. This is amazing considering neither of the present locker rooms in West Pine have bathrooms, the women do not have a shower and the men shower with cockroaches! From what I have been hearing, it is an ongoing joke amongst our players about the deplorable conditions.

What this all comes down to is PRIDE! We are asking our athletes to perform at a level with the top programs in the country. We are asking our coaches to recruits those "top 10" athletes. Yet, biondi and his cronies treat all of them like second-class citizens. What type of pride is being demonstrated from the top? I can't stand Mizzou and everyone on here would love for the Billikens to be at a higher level than them; but I don't think we want to compare facilities and the support of the athletic programs. I could only imagine what Brad and Shimmy could accomplish if given those resources. I hate this, but at this point in time we are the doormats in the state of Missouri. This will not change unless the vision at the top changes! Good father, let Cheryl perform the job you hired her to do!

[Taj79]

... so where did he put this tacky and worn astro-turf carpet that nark is talking about? I left in 1988. Wife and kids and I went back in around the late 90's early 00's. Don't recall seeing this turf stuff and can't seem to fathom where it might make sense to put it.

[Box and Won]

Laclede is now closed off at Compton, and they laid the turf down on what used to be the street, across from the soccer field.

[billikenmetz]

Now what year of Pacer are you talking about? I think old Rusty could drive a washing machine if they adjusted the chasis right and put a fresh four on and topped 'er off with a splash of UNOCAL 76. GET 'ER DONE, RUSTY!

[knight_rider]

Good Call! Let's just hope this isn't a restrictor plate race!

[slufanskip]

Step up with the cash ... bring enough to the table and you can probably get an office for yourself. A 13,000 seat arena with no offices or practice facilities is better than what we have now and IMO better than an 8-10K arena with the offices and amenities ... if only from a revenue generating standpoint. Now what I would really like to see is 13K with all the bells and whistles ... but they are not giving me alot of say ... even though I donated $500.00. Hell it kind of pisses me off that no one has even called to get my input.

Official Billikens.com sponsor of H. Waldman

[Cowboy]

I gotta throw in my thought here

I haven't heard anything about meeting rooms and a video room where all games are recorded for scouting purposes.

Now to me, those things HAVE to be where the coaches offices are, but you also want to have meetings right before or after practice so if you have to trudge from West Pine to Compton, in the rain, snow, cold, wind basically STL during the season, you lose all inertia for the session b/c part of the benefit of our own bldg is also being able to practice where we play, at least a heckuva lot more than we can now. Try having success (any) with the above as part of your operation.

Even if certain people complain about a lack of progress, the bldg in my mind must have coaches offices, meeting rooms, video room, it must be state of the art, even if we can't put a spade in dirt in 6 months.

Who are recruiting against??? I hope it becomes the Big 12 and Big 10's of the world with the facilities they offer and ours needs to be at least as good.

We talk about UB not having recruiting success outside of STL, look at my scenario above and you tell me what school you chose (we all know BRoy picks SLU over any and every regardless).

[3star_recruit]

"Who are we recruiting against???"

At the moment we're losing recruits to the top tier of the Missouri Valley. Once we start winning coupled with the new arena we'll be in a position to beat mid-tier Big 10 and Big 12 teams for recruits.