Arena

[JMM28]

Don't know if anyone caught this, but channel 4 just led off with news of the arena being approved by the board. They also said that it will be 10k. Any official release?

[SShoe]

I just saw it. Great news. Groundbreaking in June. $80M. Practice facilities and offices, etc.

[kevinfootes]

I'll be shocked if the administration pulls this off well. With 10,000 seats, some long time tickets holders will wind up with seats behind the basket...unless they somehow change the configuartion to only leave 15 or 20 rows back there.

I'm all for the new building, but I wind up with worse seats after every move. Hopefully we won't have repeats of the Debbie Yow disaster.

[bauman]

If 10K then they need to get to the official web site and change all the info on the arena stats. It says 13K in a number of places.

I'd say CL was brought in to hit a home run and she only got a double!

[JMM28]

>

>I'd say CL was brought in to hit a home run and she only got

>a double!

How about a standup triple? I like the 10,000 number a lot better. The atmosphere will be even better. At first it will be like playing in a high school gym compared to Savvis, and even that is better than West Pine. The intensity level of a 10,000 seat arena will be much better. The Savvis and Dome are still around if there is a bigtime game. It will certainly increase the season ticket base amongst students and others. Having the hot ticket in town isn't a bad thing.

If groundbreaking is June, when is it ready? 18 months? 1 more year after this in Savvis? 2 more?

[courtside]

As it currently stands....I believe 3 games are allowed off campus...i.e. Savvis. So three big ones will be played at Svvis anyway. Keep that in mind too.

[SluSignGuy]

I am in the camp of being nervous about 10,000. What is the season ticket base now? roughly 8,000. Bringing the Arena on-campus is supposed to bring more students in. For example, GW has gotten good (and SLU with the Lovely L's of Lisch and Liddell) will probably experience similar fates. My first year at GW, about 100 students showed up to games. Now, I would put that number at about 1,250. I bet SLU can accomplish 1,000 Students per game eventually.

So how much expansion of a season ticket base and $$ will there be?

Hell, I love just having an Arena, but with a project this big, I would rather have at least an 11,500 size considering our season ticket base.

[AlumniFan]

I understand the concerns with seating, although I think that ALL of the seats are going to be closer which will make a huge difference.

The big win here is for the players and the coaches. Everything in one place is fantastic! That will make it a complete facility which will show well with recruits.

This is great news.

[AlumniFan]

There may be 8,000 season tickets, but only about 5,000 actually show up to games!!!!!!!!!!!

[STLfan]

The atmoshpere would be almost the exact same between a 10K and 13K seat arena. Plus at 10K we are not leaving much room to grow. It was only 10 years ago we were averaging around 17,000 a game. I thought I read somewhere that we are averaging around 9,000 a game this year which would be up 1,000 from last years numbers. By next year we could easly be averaging close to 10,000 a game with little to no extra tickets for the big games. And I am completely against moving our big games to the Savis Center once the arena is built. Our big games should be played on our home court. Plus why lose revenue and pay rent? If we are going to build an arena we should do it right and build it to last. What happens if in a few years nobody can get tickets to Bills games and everyone is screaming to move back to the Savis Center?

[TheA_Bomb]

Alot of bigtime programs have smaller Arenas than 10,000 seats. This place will be rocking at every game big or small.

I am concerned about getting season tickets in the future. I haven't lived in STL since I graduated but may return in the future and I wanted to buy season tickets when I have more disposable income. Will I be able to?

I'll be excited to hear the timeline for the project. That way we can all start projecting how many wins we will get there on our road to the Final 4.

[AlumniFan]

I looked VERY carefully tonight at the seats around the court. They were about 60% to 70% full AT BEST. There are a TON of no shows in the season ticket areas.

My hope is that the administration does this in such a way as to make the good seats financially unattractive to someone who is NOT going to attend many, if any, games. I don't mind paying up for good seats, but if I was not going to go to the games, I would probably hesitate to get tickets if the cost went up.

I just do not want a 10,000 seat arena with 2,000 seats around the floor empty!

[davidnark]

for all of the reasons Brad articulated so eloquently in the PD article.

[thetorch]

I wish we could have more seats but if that is what it takes to ahve offices and practice facility there than I am all for it. A state of the art practice facility, weight rooms, and new coaches offices are almost as important to recruits as the arena is.

[cheeseman]

I am glad about the arena announcement as a whole but I wish it was going to be more than 10k. If you do not have season tickets today you will not get season tickets in the future. Also, all of those who have them with someone else's name on the tickets will end up screwed. Finally, 10k means higher ticket prices - if they do not raise the ticket prices significantly, then the income for the athletic program can not increase and the dept. needs more $ so the only way to get it is charge more for the tickets. Oh well, times are a changing.

[GOSLU68]

with another year of this Soderberg will be drawing like the old days when a burned out Spoonhauer and an average talent coach like Grawer with a couple of good players filled the stands with 14,000 season ticket holders; too bad the reward for SLU was to become the third tennant in a building seating 22,000 that

even the Blues can't fill.

There is going to be some real bitching when Liddell and Lisch are seniors and a couple of new guys give the Billikens a real chance at the NCAA tournament and people will have to buy it on the radio. KFANS can't be heard at 14 th and Clark much less were we have to recruit. The North Carolina freshman from Poplar Bluff averaging 19 points and 8 rebounds and kids like Lisch and Liddell show how easily a program can turn with a couple of good recruits who are tough enough to step to the new

level, Blake Ahearn had 18 points and a dunk for the Mo State team that is 18-4 just think how good we would be if he was one of our starting 4 guards and he had a fan base wanting to buy tickets that drive to Springfield for games

[LoveforVouk]

So Brad said he wanted a smaller place so we are to cater to a below .500 coach who will be here for another 5 years. That makes no sense. Why build an arena that a coach wants when he will be gone in not to distant of a future. Remember we are talking about a below .500 coach. He spent all his career with Dick Bennett until Dick took him places. So we should listen to someone who has never been in the big time. We want our program to be great so we sell ourselves short to the wants and likes of an average coach. It makes no sense. Make it 13,000 seats so students and the returning ticket holders can come. If we turn people away cause it's sold out, do you really think they are gonna want to come back. The hot ticket thing is ######. People either want to go to a game or don't. People won't see that it is almost sold out and want to go. Also, this isn't Dayton where there is nothing to do. People in St. Louis don't care that much about SLU, SLU is always second to Mizzou. It is a bad mistake to make the gym 10,000. The A-10 has small, crappy gyms but why do we want to be like them. The SEC and Big-12 all has big places. We want to be like them so we should build a guym like them. When we get good, the extra 3,000 tickets will bring in great revenue. The people who want tickets but can't get them because we have 10,000 Tickets won't do ###### for SLU.

[Bay Area Billiken]

I am concerned that 10,000 seats will not be nearly enough.

Why can't SLU have the 2 practice courts, the offices, and the 3,000 additional seats? Is that too much to ask? Is it that cost prohibitive?

I am concerned that Average Joe, the guy who wants to see a game or two, will be aced out. SLU Basketball could well become that "hot ticket," and it could still be a hot ticket with 3,000 more seats. After all, SLU averaged over 17,000 during the Spoonball days.

[Billikenbooster]

Hope your headache goes away quickly once you sober up. While I agree with your position that we are better off with a 13K arena, I don't appreciate your inferences about our coach.

If your 'love for Vouk' is real, you will appreciate the difficulties of last season, and the maturation process that started this season. Our coach will be fine and so will our season, with continued support and constructive criticism. We are in the middle of a 5/6 winning streak, our approach is good, and interest is increasing over the course of the season.

Please continue to post, as though thinking your mother will be reading your writings.

mhg

[billiken_roy]

you stated more than once that our coach is an "under 500 coach". no matter how you look at it other than one season (last season) brad has never been an "under 500 coach".

lorus 79-45

south dakota state 36-18

wisconsin 16-10

saint louis 02-03 16-14

saint louis 03-04 19-13

saint louis 04-05 9-21

current season 14-10

that adds up to 189-131 overall

that add us to 58-58 as the saint louis coach.

thanks for your hate though jerk.

[billiken_roy]

over 3,000 of the fans last night would not be in the game. at 10k this is a sellout every night. and it will make it a certainty that people had better become billiken club members as a billiken club membership will become the "psl" of record.

personally at this point i dont care. my priority number is fairly low and i will get seats and likely get seats as good or better than a lot that are currently sitting better than me as i know i have improved my number by almost 800 since we came to the savvis by being a billiken club member, attending the tourney, donating extra money, etc. i.e. there is a point system in place and i would venture to guess most of the season tix holders havent given it a thought. those with the "in care of seats" need to start scrambling asap as it is time that stops.

the dilemna for the small timers like myself is what happens going forward. i am betting the donation thing with only 10k seats will get a little hotter going forward. what would really get me is your location is temporary year by year. that would be evil.

[bonwich]

There were, I'd guess, between 1,000 and 2,000 opportunistic sales, folks who had probably been to at most one other game all year, who were there for the CYC promotion ($10 lower bowl, $5 upper bowl). The 50 kids in the St. Charles West choir probably had 1-2 friends and relatives apiece high up in 108. And the halftime kids also accounted for 100-200 incremental attendees.

Speaking as someone who has held down the fort at endcourt with Willie and the Shoes, a couple of '70s era cheerleaders and, occasionally, the Scott Highmark family and the John Duff family, all this talk of "fans not being able to get in" is horsepoop. When Brehms came with her family last year, they were able to sit within 10 rows of the court. When we play SIU, the endcourt is routinely more full with Saluki fans than it is with Billiken fans. Even Iowa was able to infiltrate our section easily. I, for one, will be tremendously pleased when I can be assured that the "fans" surrounding me, just 10 rows from the court if I get a similar placement in the new arena, will always be fans -- and rabid fans -- of my own team.

[Sheltiedave]

There are a number of people who are not enamored with Brad's coaching philosophy, but they know how to post a logical analytical process. You don't, Vouk. Brad was a winner, is a winner, and will continue to be a winner. He has a son who is a very solid HS soph PG, who may end up at Saint Louis. This would mean Brad wants to be around for at least six years.

I see a multitude of signs we will be dancing next year, including having two freshmen who can snag 12 rebounds and drop 22 points on a great defensive Temple team. Our future is solid.

The key to our basketball program is having a palace where staff offices, practice facilities, and game facilities are sited together, and centrally located on campus. We are getting this(finally!) The entire athletic department will be located at the Bill, a huge benefit to every program.

We lose 3,000 seats, but we gain the offices, weight facilities, and practice venues that the basketball, volleyball, and all other sports programs have been advocating. The loss of 3,000 seats reduces the steel needed for the second concourse by about 40%, which creates the budget room to accomplish the above stated.

For those who are worried about the 17K attendance we garnered during the Spoon era, we would still be 4K short at any given time with a 13K capacity. I love strolling into the Savvis and picking up a scalped ticket for $5, and then sitting in a second row courtside seat wherever I want currently, but we need an electric home atmosphere. I am willing and want to pay through the nose if this plan is designed to achieve that end.

[AlumniFan]

You argue for a larger arena and then, IN THE SAME POST, you say:

"The hot ticket thing is ######. People either want to go to a game or don't. People won't see that it is almost sold out and want to go. Also, this isn't Dayton where there is nothing to do. People in St. Louis don't care that much about SLU, SLU is always second to Mizzou."

That entire statement argues for a SMALLER, not a larger arena!!!

So, I guess because the Superbowl is sold out each year, people who didn't get a ticket don't want to go anymore? What kind of logic is that?

If people are so in love with Mizzou over SLU, then explain Mizzou's attendance this year??????

Also, when did you sit down with Brad that he told you he was leaving in 5 years?

[kevinfootes]

They've picked the 10,000 in the middle of an attendance downturn that's starting to reverse itself. SLU may never get back to the 17-18,000 fans the drew during the Spoon era, but 10,000 just isn't enough. Barring the unforeseen, SLU has a great chance to win 20 games next year and they'll draw more than 10,000 regularly. 12-13,000 fans won't be unusual next season.

The facility is fine, just put in enough seats!