DentonLurker

This thread, man...

From what I’ve learned about Coach Mac over the time he’s been here, I’d be shocked if he ever took a job just because of money. He may end up taking a job after UNT, but I think it will be to move to an upper echelon basketball gig. No offense to SMU, but I don’t think that’s it.

I know people here don’t want to admit it, but he’s not wrong. Our attendance is dreadful across the board considering student body size and DFW-area alumni. And Oklahoma should be embarrassed by their attendance too.

4,866

3,386

I heard it's pretty much a done deal. I heard Little Dribblers was also going to add baseball to sweeten the deal.

Obviously, like any opinion on a message board, it’s my opinion based on the fact that baseball hasn’t been added. If there was a commitment from donors that would support the building of a baseball stadium and support the ongoing costs, why would the school not have moved on it? I can’t imagine they’re sitting there thinking, “I know we have this huge commitment. Let’s just not do this.”

This actually further makes my point. There just aren’t enough donors willing to commit enough dollars to support baseball even though the commitment would be significantly lower than a new basketball/volleyball arena.

I do too. I know a couple of them. Their idea of what it costs to build a stadium and run a program was a long way from reality.

At the end of the day, my guess is the baseball fan base you refer to hasn't offered to write big enough checks yet. If enough people stepped forward willing to write checks for baseball vs. any other sport, my guess is we would add baseball.

AD’s are hired and fired based primarily on their ability to fundraise and hire the right coaches. If Wren raised $100M at UNT, that would be viewed positively no matter what the funds were used for. Do you really think that if he raised enough capital to start a baseball program from scratch and elevated annual giving in a way to sustain a baseball program wouldn’t “pad his resume”? I know this narrative you’re trying to write is that this is somehow just to pad his resume, but your opinion that baseball is more important than a new arena is trumping reality. You just disagree with him about a new basketball arena. Leave it at that instead of trying to find ulterior motives.

Athletics would be putting money into a building they hope to get out of. At this point, considering he has already said he wants to build a new arena, it would be fiscally irresponsible to keep putting money into the Pit above the bare minimum. And those are *quote* loge seats *unquote* anyway. They look awful.

I don't actually think that would be true. The management of the Super Pit would still be there for the Super Pit and it's events it has now, with the exception of athletics. The athletics events would move to the new basketball/volleyball arena that will be managed by AD staff.

I think the word ownership here is what’s confusing. At the end of the day everything, including athletics facilities, is owned by the university. The issue people are referring to is management. There’s an entire staff responsible for managing the Super Pit that does not roll up to Wren. The other athletic facilities on campus are managed by a staff that rolls up to Wren. So a dedicated arena managed by Wren’s team would obviously be ideal vs coordinating with another university department to make things happen at the Super Pit.

Not if they follow college baseball at all. Good teams lose midweek games like this all the time. Stanford’s starting pitcher was probably their number 5 or 6 starter. Hell, sometimes they start middle relievers in games like that. I know you want UNT to add baseball yesterday, but pulling this out to try to justify your position is laughable to anyone who actually follows college baseball.

There is a practice facility over there, but it's far from state of the art. If memory serves me correctly, it doesn't even have showers. At one point, the team's preference was still to practice at the Pit.

Wren has already done this. He’s checked some items off and laid out a list of future projects. See http://lightthetower.com

I'm going to have to disagree with you here, Bud. I hope the athletic staff walks around and wonders about ways to fill the arena. We don't have the luxury of being a perennial power like Duke or Kansas where fans show up no matter what.

We will have to agree to disagree here. We might be able to, but at the end of the day, I’m not convinced the price tag would be any cheaper. Considering he put a new arena in the master plan, I’m going to assume we already know how he feels and that he’s spoken to his coaches to find out what they would like to see. Also, I keep seeing old venues of some of the most historic sports teams in the history of sports referenced. Unfortunately, we don’t have their same history to trump the lack of amenities that fans expect. There’s a huge difference between those programs and ours.

Okay. I’ll bite. The Super Pit needs: suites, real floor seats (not an afterthought that gets snuck in there on risers; including space to do baseline seats without a huge gap behind them before you have additional fans; and the tables in front of the floor seats are ridiculous- this one is just a pet peeve of mine), a seating arrangement that’s built for basketball with fans as close to the court as you can get them, a real donor room (with a sports bar/lounge feel with tv’s, a bar, wait staff, etc.), a state of the art press area (those green things over there are hideous; and if you’ve never seen where they do postgame interviews, it’s a dog of an area), locker rooms that have all the latest and greatest bells and whistles, players lounge, training room, weight room, snack/small meal area for players, practice facility connected to the arena that isn’t an old piece of crap building, way more concession stands that don’t imped foot traffic through the concourse, etc. And quite frankly, I’d get behind any price tag on a new arena if it meant Grant McCasland knew and felt our commitment to his program in a way that might keep him hear for the foreseeable future.

It’s about a lot more than suites. The Super Pit is just outdated. It’s lacking a ton of amenities that new arenas have. I could go on and on about the things modern arenas have that the Super Pit doesn’t have. Don’t let one game throw off your perspective on what size arena we should be playing in either. We averaged under 4k on the year. Do the math. That’s averaging less than a half-full arena with the best team I’ve seen suit up at the Super Pit.

I don't really understand any of the arguments that don't allow all conference champions, at minimum, play in the playoffs. All 10 conference champions should be in the playoffs. If not, it's a continued acknowledgement that not all teams are really playing at the highest level. In that case, I think you should just split the P5's out and let them do their thing. To me, it should be 16 teams (10 conference champs + 6 at large). Expanded playoffs work in pretty much every sport played on the planet. But somehow that model doesn't work in college football? I don't buy it.

What are all the schools outside of those 53 right now? Aside from a bone thrown to Cincinnati, isn't it effectively FCS with bowl games right now?

Agreed