Renzi Stone says OU needs a new arena

Renzi works for the Kaiser Foundation, right? He should tell the Kaisers his idea.
 
Well, time for Renzi to put his money where his mouth is and donate the lion-share of the money needed for a new arena. Lets see just how strongly he feels about it by how much he donates.

Seems a bit harsh. Why can't he express his opinion like any other fan?
 
What happened to all that new arena talk when Lon got hired? There was even rumors of it moving on campus where the fieldhouse is.
 
I don't see us getting a new rena in my lifetime.if we have remodeled and expandaed our football stadium instead of building a new stadium,I can't see us building a new basketball venue.I do think we could do like osu did with GIA and raise the roof on LNC,gut and revamp the interior.Another factor is we just built practice facilities for men and women recentlly that are attched to LNC.Can't see us spending that money and then ditching the LNC.
 
Seems a bit harsh. Why can't he express his opinion like any other fan?

Well, if all these people are going to clamor for a new arena, then put some money towards it. That's all I'm saying. Nothing will happen as long as people just mention it and it's probably not going to happen anyway unless some deep pockets donor says "here is 20 million for a new basketball arena".

Personally, I'm tired of the conversation because the LNC is just fine. The attendance has nothing to do with the arena, it's the product on the court.
 
Well, if all these people are going to clamor for a new arena, then put some money towards it. That's all I'm saying. Nothing will happen as long as people just mention it and it's probably not going to happen anyway unless some deep pockets donor says "here is 20 million for a new basketball arena".

Personally, I'm tired of the conversation because the LNC is just fine. The attendance has nothing to do with the arena, it's the product on the court.



The LNC is not fine. Just because the condition of the facility isn't terrible doesn't mean it's a decent facility. It's cavernous, the seats are far from the court, and it's not near anything. The arena should be smaller, more vertical, seats closer to the court, and we need it closer to campus corner.
 
we need it closer to campus corner.

I hear this one often, and don't get it. One of the benefits of the LNC is that it's easy to get back on the road to OKC and elsewhere. That would not be the case in an arena near Campus Corner.

Basketball's not going to be like football in this regard -- I don't see Campus Corner playing a big role in the average fan's hoops experience.
 
I hear this one often, and don't get it. One of the benefits of the LNC is that it's easy to get back on the road to OKC and elsewhere. That would not be the case in an arena near Campus Corner.

Basketball's not going to be like football in this regard -- I don't see Campus Corner playing a big role in the average fan's hoops experience.

There's a theory that OU students will walk to games if they are on campus as to opposed to driving to the LNC, a theory I never bought. The dorms/greek houses are within walking distance to the LNC for an 18-21 year old (unless the weather is bad).

It's all about product and fan culture toward the sport.
 
There's a theory that OU students will walk to games if they are on campus as to opposed to driving to the LNC, a theory I never bought. The dorms/greek houses are within walking distance to the LNC for an 18-21 year old (unless the weather is bad).

It's all about product and fan culture toward the sport.

It might be in realistic walking distance, but that doesn't make the walk appealing. When I lived in the dorms, we only walked to a few of the games. The rest of the time we drove. And I'm a passionate OU basketball fan who also happened/happens to be in pretty good shape. Walking to the game, cheering for 2 hours, and then walking back...especially during the months of December, January, and February isn't something that many people want to do. And I don't blame them.
 
I agree with Sperry. That is, I think Lloyd Noble is pretty but not a basketball arena. The type of arena we need is just like Sperry describes.

This being said, I'm not sure how much the arena has to do with attendance. And, although I don't enjoy watching games at Noble, at least as much as I like the OSU, Tulsa and ORU arenas, I'm not in favor of building a new stadium if we don't have the money to do it. And, I don't know if we have the money.

In other words, I'm OK with Noble, if that is all we can afford. I have been told by pretty good sources that before the telephone scandal, Sampson was promised a new arena if he would commit to stay long term. And that Sampson put on a good face publicly, but thought there was a complete lack of atmosphere at Noble and lobbied for a basketball arena every chance he got. I don't know these facts for a fact, but have just been told this by a donor I know. Maybe someone on here knows whether this is true.

JMO, but I think the Thunder has and will continue to kill attendance at OU and OSU. I think attendance would improve with good teams, but just to some degree. People just have so much to spend on entertainment, and I think the proliferation and existance of casinos and now the expensive Thunder tickets have and will kill attendance at the Universities across Oklahoma.
 
There's a theory that OU students will walk to games if they are on campus as to opposed to driving to the LNC, a theory I never bought.

Plenty of students don't live on or all that near campus.

But even if that theory is true, how many students would we top out at for most games? Enough to make it that much more difficult for the thousands of non-student fans who attend games when the team's going well?

I suspect not.
 
Back
Top