C-villetiger1 0 Posted October 25, 2006 Share Posted October 25, 2006 DC I was at the JPJA for Clapton as well. My wife and I went it was the first show there that I didnt work. I run the Food and Bev for UVA athletics. On a side note i sure hope UVA BBall is better than the pathetic football team! JPJA is amazing and I hope that Auburn shows that they are for real about bringing basketball in to the big picture. We ARE a football school but so is last years national champion Florida Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfan1234 0 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I think 12,500 would be a god number for the arena. Keep in mind that the arena will be used for much more than just basketball. What happens if we get really good and only have a 9,000 seat stadium? I remember when we had Porter and company and Beard-Eaves was rocking so I know we could sell out a 12,500 seat stadium. I would love to see us build a 15,000 seat stadium, but I know that won't happen so 12,500 is a good number. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfan1234 0 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Exactly C-ville! There si absolutely nothing wrong with being good in multiple sports. Actually it looks better on our university to be known as a multi-sport school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyebama 2 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 I say Keep BEMC.....Bring on AUBURN HOCKEY.... now thats the ticket!!!! WAR EAGLE on ICE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCWarEagle 0 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 DC I was at the JPJA for Clapton as well. My wife and I went it was the first show there that I didnt work. I run the Food and Bev for UVA athletics. On a side note i sure hope UVA BBall is better than the pathetic football team! JPJA is amazing and I hope that Auburn shows that they are for real about bringing basketball in to the big picture. We ARE a football school but so is last years national champion Florida Yeah, the JPJ is great. That was my first trip inside. It looks great from the outside too. UVA football is weak. Went to the UNC game last week w/ a friend and I was trying to be positive about the experience, but I just kept thinking (this place is so small. Why doesn't anyone stand up? Why is it so quiet). I remember on a big third down defensive play I was the only one standing up and yelling... Anyway, I agree that Auburn can be good at multiple sports. We will always be a football first school, but lots of schools are good in football in B-ball. Florida is a great example. So are Texas, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and closer to home Tenn and LSU. It is a lllloonnnngggg time from the end of the bowl game until the first game of the season. Keeping up w/ recruiting and the A-Day game are good, but it would be great if we had a good basketball team to cheer for. And if we were good maybe I could see us on TV more often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saniflush 0 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 It was probably Virginia. They just built an absolutely beautiful new facility (the John Paul Jones arena). That's cool that they named it after the bassist from Led Zepplin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C-villetiger1 0 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 It is not zeps bassist and it is not the Navy Admiral "We have not yet begun to fight". It was agift from paul Tutor Jones to his father who was named John Paul Jones. Just to clear that up!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanTiger 20,471 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Auburn wasn't even filling up BEMC back in the Chris Porter days for every game and that's when we'd reduced it to 10,500. 8500 is about right. That's about the size of Cameron Indoor Stadium (Duke University). It allows for a lower ceiling to keep the noise compacted and doesn't look as empty for the less important games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfan1234 0 Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Auburn was pretty close to selling out during the Chris Porter days. I was there! Auburn/Opelika is a growing community and in a few years I would not be surprised if the area exceeds 100,000 and on. If we have a consistently good team and a new arena with an attractive schedule, I see no reason why 12,500 could not be filled. Hell, we pull well over 100,000 for one football game 12,500 is 1/10 that size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autkidd 0 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 I would much rather have the problem of not enough seats than too many seats. IT looks better on TV, to recruits, and in pictures. Especially the state the program is in now. I hope it is a small arean with everyone on top of the court. Personally I think one of the best places for the new arena would be on the corner of Wire Rd. and Samford. Many people enter campus that way and it would be an impressive first glance of the campus. Also it would get rid of the eyesore that is the old track. In addition the parking problems would not be increased because of lost parking at the spots mentioned earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanTiger 20,471 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 First of all, we put 87,451 for one football game and that only when it's a good opponent. We routinely have crowds of 79,000-81,000 for lesser games like Tulane. Second, even during the Porter days, the capacity was only 10,500 and the games that were sold out were mostly weekend games and name opponents/rivals like Kentucky or Alabama. I was there too. I went to games. And I went to games long before that in the 80s during the Barkley and Person years when it was the same. We occasionally sold out BEMC when UK or UAT were there, but otherwise, it was filled to various degrees. We simply don't have a need for a facility of that size. Football is king at Auburn and always will be. When basketball is doing well, we'll be able to fill 8500 seats most of the time. We would rarely fill much more than that. When basketball isn't successful, attendance drops like a rock and a 12,500 seat facility will look like an empty canyon. Even in 1998 when we were 3-8 and in 1999 at 5-6 we were averaging over 80,000 in attendance in football. Same thing in 1991 and 1992, with losing seasons and probation looming. Same kind of percentage of seats filled in the Barfield years as we were in the midst of losing 9 straight to Alabama and went on probation. You simply cannot measure basketball attendance in any respect in the same way you measure football. They are completely different animals. Again, if 8500-9000 is large enough for arguably the biggest most successful program in college basketball (Duke), it's plenty large enough for Auburn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autiger311 0 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 i like the facility idea, but definitely not the location. parking is going to be a complete nightmare when construction begins. there are a couple hundred parking spots there that are used by students that will be crammed into other lots. hopefully when BEMC is torn down a large parking garage will be built. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfan1234 0 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 There are definitely more than 87,451 for a big game. Have you noticed the hundreds, maybe thousands of people who sit outside and tailgate during the game? How about the many hundreds who watch from the ramps or the student section being crammed like sardines. Auburn pulls 100,000 easily for big games. As for the basketball arena, I think over time with the expected population increase of the Aubunr-Opelika area and IF Auburn basketball could string together a few good seasons and become a consistent player, we could fill a larger arena. This arena will be multi-purpose so why not make it larger to accomadate concerts, graduation, special events, large indoor NCAA events and so on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfan1234 0 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 The new outdoor swimming facility is going where the crappy track is located, I believe. It is either there or where the tennis facility is, I can't quite remember, but either way the old track facility will not be there too much longer. Also, Auburn needs to begin planning for a state of the art student activities center. How could we go about proposing that to the facilities and planning division? I spent alot of time at the student act when I was at AU and it is terrible. Have you seen some of the newer ones at places like UCF, Oklahoma State, Florida, Missouri, and many other schools? Gosh, they are sweet. Smoothie bar, restaurants, multiple basketball courts, indoor suspended tracks, hundreds of machines and weights, spin classes and many cardio type classes offered, outdoor pools with man-made beaches, and on and on. Seriously, students pay alot of money to attend AU and they deserve a nice place to hang out. I am hapy that the student union is finally becoming a reality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitanTiger 20,471 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 There are definitely more than 87,451 for a big game. Have you noticed the hundreds, maybe thousands of people who sit outside and tailgate during the game? How about the many hundreds who watch from the ramps or the student section being crammed like sardines. Auburn pulls 100,000 easily for big games. As for the basketball arena, I think over time with the expected population increase of the Aubunr-Opelika area and IF Auburn basketball could string together a few good seasons and become a consistent player, we could fill a larger arena. This arena will be multi-purpose so why not make it larger to accomadate concerts, graduation, special events, large indoor NCAA events and so on? I have noticed them, and a lot of them are there for the tailgating but aren't going to pay for a ticket. They'd rather hang out with their satellite hookup, drink beer and grill out all day and watch it on TV. There are tons of excess people at the smaller games too, yet 5000-8000 empty seats remain. And part of the problem of BEMC and its lack of intimacy and atmosphere is that it tries to be too many things for too many people. It keeps it from being constructed where the fans are right on top of the action...an aspect that contributes to an intimidating home crowd feel. The new facility should be a basketball arena first and foremost. If other things can fit within that framework, great, but don't try to build something that can do everything because you end up with a box that can do a lot of things OK, but nothing particularly well. I know they'll use it for a lot of things, but don't try to build a Swiss Army knife. We'll just have to agree to disagree on the specific size I guess. I think a 8500-9000 seat facility will be plenty for Auburn's needs. And apparently so does the administration. I trust they've done the necessary studies to determine such things before spending $95 million on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerfan1234 0 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Now I can see where you are coming from about the Swiss Army knife analogy. I agree with you that the arena should be basketball first. Clever analogy. I don't know, part of me is hoping that AU becomes highly competitive in basketball just like football because I want AU to be good at everything. I hope that one day we can be similiar to Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, and some others and be an all around force ot be reckoned with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUslug 1 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 I think Va. Tech's arena is the one that Jacobs and company was impressed with. I went on their website and looked at it and it is very nice for a smallish arena. I've been to a fair amount of basketball games at Auburn and sometimes it is embarrasing to see the small crowds swallowed up in BEMC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aucanucktiger 1,789 Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 Hopefully all our engineering talent will get together and realize underground parking facilities are not only the common sense answer to this, but it will preserve the beauty of the campus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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