Joe C sounded kinda pissed there at the end

[Soonerman]

it's not? Why?

It feels like a convention center, not a basketball arena. I'm willing to bet the student section layout is the worst in the country. You have 50-75 students on the floor with the band, then an 8 foot high wall separating them from the rest of the student section. And it's just regular seats, no bleachers. Speaking of seats, they look orange on TV. That is a big no no.

 

[red recluse]

AND it could be a significant improvement to walking in across the lot while the weather is bad.

now you're reaching. it takes 1-2 minutes to walk into LNC from my car. that's about the same distance people will have to walk from their car to where a shuttle picks them up, plus the time it takes to get to the new facility and walk in from the drop off. sounds like a hassle. not to mention after the game and the wait to get back to your car.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

It feels like a convention center, not a basketball arena. I'm willing to bet the student section layout is the worst in the country. You have 50-75 students on the floor with the band, then an 8 foot high wall separating them from the rest of the student section. And it's just regular seats, no bleachers. Speaking of seats, they look orange on TV. That is a big no no.

Baylor's is the worst, I just laugh because the one thing that our athletic department totally ****s up on Baylor still found a way to do it worse than us.

 

[colston15]

And, how is a new facility going to bolster attendance?

Somebody please help me understand this.

Any time you open a new stadium, arena, etc, attendance will spike for a couple of years because of the excitement over the newness of it. If you can mesh that with an exciting product you could enlarge your fanbase for a long time.

 

[red recluse]

it's not? Why?

I disagree with you. I've seen OU play at the LNC a lot and it's fine. Is it perfect? No. Is any arena perfect? No.

i agree. there's not a bad seat in the place. it's not ideal, but it's nowhere near as bad as people are making it out to be.

 

[Soonerman]

Baylor's is the worst, I just laugh because the one thing that our athletic department totally ****s up on Baylor still found a way to do it worse than us.

Oh that's true, I forgot about Baylor. Theirs is awful too. OK, so we might have the 2nd worst lol.

 

[Big Old Booger]

It feels like a convention center, not a basketball arena. I'm willing to bet the student section layout is the worst in the country. You have 50-75 students on the floor with the band, then an 8 foot high wall separating them from the rest of the student section. And it's just regular seats, no bleachers. Speaking of seats, they look orange on TV. That is a big no no.

I question if you have even been inside the LNC.

1.) the wall isn't 8 feet. It's 3 at the most.
2.) The LNC feels nothing like a convention center. Go to the Myriad and you will see the difference. A convention Center has seats that move off the floor, and has a huge rectangular floor area.
3.) the seats are bright red; fix the color on your tv. Or, quit watching it on TV and go to the games so you can sit in the red seats.

 

[Big Old Booger]

please read the threads

I did. I've yet to see a solid argument for why we need a new arena.

 

[SoonerTraveler]

It's just not a great facility for watching basketball, no matter how good or bad the product on the floor is. Simple as that.

That is a matter of opinion.

My opinion is that the LNC is a wonderful place to watch a basketball game IF there is a big crowd. There is not a bad seat in the house. I have seen many many great games at the LNC since I became a season ticket holder in 1977.

Now, on the other hand, an on-campus rectangle arena built for basketball would be great. It would be better.

But, the arena does not make great fans. Great fans (and lots of them) make a great arena. The LNC has ROCKED when it was full of Sooner fans.

However, on this topic, I think this discussion is moot. A new on-campus arena at OU is a dream; and it ain't gonna happen.

:OUbball-logo:

 

[Big Old Booger]

Any time you open a new stadium, arena, etc, attendance will spike for a couple of years because of the excitement over the newness of it. If you can mesh that with an exciting product you could enlarge your fanbase for a long time.

That is how pro franchises operate, not universities.

KU has not been selling out all of their games, I guess that's because of Allen Fieldhouse.

 

[Soonerman]

I question if you have even been inside the LNC.

1.) the wall isn't 8 feet. It's 3 at the most.
2.) The LNC feels nothing like a convention center. Go to the Myriad and you will see the difference. A convention Center has seats that move off the floor, and has a huge rectangular floor area.
3.) the seats are bright red; fix the color on your tv. Or, quit watching it on TV and go to the games so you can sit in the red seats.

If you're just going to assume I don't go to games, then there's no sense in continuing this conversation. No wonder people think you're an idiot.

 

[Big Old Booger]

If you're just going to assume I don't go to games, then there's no sense in continuing this conversation. No wonder people think you're an idiot.

I didn't assume anything. You said the wall was 8 ft and you said it feels like a convention center.

Then you said the seats look orange on tv. If you went to the games, you would know the seats are red.

You proved you don't go to the games.

Case closed.

 

[stoops4pres]

I agree skyvue

Most students walk that far just to attend class day in and out. As my mother used to say (and really still does) its a matter of "want to".

I agree that its a lame excuse for students not to attend games because its "not on campus", but at least during my tenure at OU (a few years ago), no students walked that far to and from class. At least none that I knew of.

I think its ridiculous for students not to go because its a few blocks further, but unfortunately that is one of the primary factors for the lack of attendance. If it was on-campus, I would bet that more students would go.

 

[Big Old Booger]

I agree that its a lame excuse for students not to attend games because its "not on campus", but at least during my tenure at OU (a few years ago), no students walked that far to and from class. At least none that I knew of.

I think its ridiculous for students not to go because its a few blocks further, but unfortunately that is one of the primary factors for the lack of attendance. If it was on-campus, I would bet that more students would go.

1) the LNC is on campus, it's just on the far south end of the campus.
2) A lot of students live on south campus or on the south side of campus. You have the frats/sororities on south campus (Pi Phi, ATO, tri-delt, delts, fijis, kd's, KA's, etc.) all on that end and the LNC is closer to them than the field house. You also have students at post oak, and all the apartment complexes on hwy 9 (hampton woods, cardinal creek, etc.), and the university owned apartments on Chautauqua down by post oak.
3.) If the product were better, the LNC would be full. It's been proven in the past and it will be so in the future.

 

[coolm]

Bob, you're a no vote. we get it.

your point about the product is dead wrong...plus we need attendance when the product is poor.

 

[Sooner_In_MI]

Have to agree with BOB here. While I for one would love a new arena at the center of campus, using the location of the LNC as why student attendance is so poor is an excuse. From what I hear, the student section has been full at the LNC in the past; students just haven't been coming out lately because we sucked. The one thing that I do think could be improved is having a shuttle drive down from the dorm area to the LNC on game nights. The LNC is far from a great basketball arena, but the focus should be on getting the students interested in attending games at the LNC again, not on the possibility of a new arena.

 

[coolm]

Have to agree with BOB here. While I for one would love a new arena at the center of campus, using the location of the LNC as why student attendance is so poor is an excuse. From what I hear, the student section has been full at the LNC in the past; students just haven't been coming out lately because we sucked. The one thing that I do think could be improved is having a shuttle drive down from the dorm area to the LNC on game nights. The LNC is far from a great basketball arena, but the focus should be on getting the students interested in attending games at the LNC again, not on the possibility of a new arena.

then, like Bob, you also think it's just a matter of seeing the game. if that's the case then we will all just stay home.

 

[DenverSooner]

It feels like a convention center, not a basketball arena. I'm willing to bet the student section layout is the worst in the country. You have 50-75 students on the floor with the band, then an 8 foot high wall separating them from the rest of the student section. And it's just regular seats, no bleachers. Speaking of seats, they look orange on TV. That is a big no no.

It felt like a basketball arena in the late 80s. It was widely regarded one of the toughest venues in college basketball back then. The building doesn't matter, it is the fans that make it great. If you pack the hosue with crazy students and interested adults that will make some noise, it would be fine.

I am all for a new stadiium if it helps the program but I personally think the LNC is the fall guy for an apathetic fan base.

 

[stoops4pres]

1) the LNC is on campus, it's just on the far south end of the campus.

Sure, but given how far it is from the crux of campus, it seemingly feels like its off-campus. That's what I meant to say.

2) A lot of students live on south campus or on the south side of campus. You have the frats/sororities on south campus (Pi Phi, ATO, tri-delt, delts, fijis, kd's, KA's, etc.) all on that end and the LNC is closer to them than the field house. You also have students at post oak, and all the apartment complexes on hwy 9 (hampton woods, cardinal creek, etc.), and the university owned apartments on Chautauqua down by post oak.

You're right, and I took that into account during my previous post. Still, the smaller portion of students in that area feel that's no easy walk, especially when taking into account that they make the same trek towards class (Dale, Adams, Price, etc) basically every day. I'm not justifying it (in fact I think its weak), but that's how many students feel.

3.) If the product were better, the LNC would be full. It's been proven in the past and it will be so in the future.

Completely agree. Although this is slightly skewed given Blake was the best player in the country and OU was one of the best teams in the country, the students did great showing up throughout the 2008-2009 season. Its simple: The more you win, the more students show. I'm just saying that an arena with a closer proximity to the majority of campus would almost guarantee more students, compared to it being at the LNC. At least that's my opinion.

 

[coolm]

I am all for a new stadiium if it helps the program but I personally think the LNC is the fall guy for an apathetic fan base.

A large, wild group of boisterous fans will certainly do the job ... but the whole thing is kinda like building a fire. You need that initial spark and LNC's size and design requires more students/people being loud enough to cause it...while an arena with 10k on top of the court requires fewer and actually reverberates more. It's just a fact.

Plus, we just keep up this same chicken and egg argument ... saying we need the product to succeed first ... but this really isn't proving to be the case. We can keep arguing it but empirically we need a little more help from the home court and attendance to help play and recruiting.