New Basketball Arena proposed on Light the Tower Masterplan update

[NT80]

1 hour ago, UNTLifer said:

Just looked that up.  I had no idea that 5'9" was the average height of the American male.

The weight or girth of the average American male is what has been going up.   On the tour of Boston's Fenway Park, built in 1912, we learned the Grandstand area behind home plate has the original wooden seats with metal armrests.  But people were slimmer back then.  if those seats were refurbished to today's seat-width standards they would lose 3000 seats there!

[NT80]

1 hour ago, Green Otaku said:

?? It's an artist rendering from the athletic master plan. It gives an idea of what the dept. wants to do. 

We've never needed those extra 2k-3k seats. Have we ever even been close to selling out the Pit? We are in one of the best eras of UNT basketball and we struggle to look even half full. An arena with better sight-lines, closer seating, better lighting, luxury boxes, better training/locker rooms, more concessions, etc. It'd say that's a good trade off. The small drop in capacity is heavily outweighed by a purpose built tailored facility. 

 

Top Ten Super Pit Crowds

1 UNT vs SMU January 21, 1977 10,600

2 UNT vs DePaul December 16, 1980 9,100

3 UNT vs West Texas State March 1, 1976 8,816

4 UNT vs Louisiana Tech February 26, 2022 8,522

5 UNT vs Western Kentucky February 9, 2019 8,195

6 UNT vs Texas January 17, 1980 8,100

7 UNT vs Texas Tech November 16, 2010 7,105

8 UNT vs Texas-Pan American March 2, 1977 7,100

9 UNT vs Bradley February 28, 1976 7,087

10 UNT vs Louisiana-Lafayette February 18, 2012 6,921

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNT_Coliseum

 

[Side.Show.Joe]

2 hours ago, Green Otaku said:

?? It's an artist rendering from the athletic master plan. It gives an idea of what the dept. wants to do. 

We've never needed those extra 2k-3k seats. Have we ever even been close to selling out the Pit? We are in one of the best eras of UNT basketball and we struggle to look even half full. An arena with better sight-lines, closer seating, better lighting, luxury boxes, better training/locker rooms, more concessions, etc. It'd say that's a good trade off. The small drop in capacity is heavily outweighed by a purpose built tailored facility. 

Yeah, this rendering has been around for years now. Notice it doesn't have the battle flags in the paint. While the new arena will lose overall seating, it will make up for it with amenities, like luxury boxes, and state of the art lighting and audio. I'm willing to trade 2,000 empty seats for a better overall facility. 

 

Basically, we will have something similar to SMU's Moody Coliseum.... but nicer and with more luxury boxes. That'll piss off the mustangs. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by Side.Show.Joe

[Andrew]

7 hours ago, MDH said:

I worry most about student attendance if/when we move.

I would assume they just put it across the street from the Pit where fouts was. The only logical spot. 

[UNTLifer]

2 minutes ago, Andrew said:

I would assume they just put it across the street from the Pit where fouts was. The only logical spot. 

Nope. Not the plan

[Andrew]

Just now, UNTLifer said:

Nope. Not the plan

Then it’s a fools errand and waste of time and money…. I want a new arena but celery the minds at work aren’t intelligent enough to pull it off correctly. 

[Green Otaku]

1 hour ago, NT80 said:

 

Top Ten Super Pit Crowds

1 UNT vs SMU January 21, 1977 10,600

2 UNT vs DePaul December 16, 1980 9,100

3 UNT vs West Texas State March 1, 1976 8,816

4 UNT vs Louisiana Tech February 26, 2022 8,522

5 UNT vs Western Kentucky February 9, 2019 8,195

6 UNT vs Texas January 17, 1980 8,100

7 UNT vs Texas Tech November 16, 2010 7,105

8 UNT vs Texas-Pan American March 2, 1977 7,100

9 UNT vs Bradley February 28, 1976 7,087

10 UNT vs Louisiana-Lafayette February 18, 2012 6,921

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNT_Coliseum

 

Did a quick search for that 1977 SMU game and didn't see anything. Would love to see what that crowd looked like. 

[GrayEagle]

44 minutes ago, Green Otaku said:

Did a quick search for that 1977 SMU game and didn't see anything. Would love to see what that crowd looked like. 

Every seat was taken and an overflow had to sit in the aisles.  The fire marshall wanted to move them but finally gave up.  I'm sure it looked good from the court but it wasn't very comfortable due to the narrowness of the seats.  I didn't even try to go to the concession stand at half-time. It was bedlam but it was fun...a great experience looking back.

 

[greenminer]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

Then it’s a fools errand and waste of time and money…. I want a new arena but celery the minds at work aren’t intelligent enough to pull it off correctly. 

Sometimes I'm stunned you are sincere, and not a troll job.

[UNTLifer]

8 minutes ago, greenminer said:

Sometimes I'm stunned you are sincere, and not a troll job.

Saw that as well. How do you not catch the obvious. Anyone with a knob of broccoli for a brain knows carrot goes there. 

Edited January 24, 2023 by UNTLifer

[greenminer]

37 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Saw that as well. How do you not catch the obvious. Anyone with a knob of broccoli for a brain knows carrot goes there. 

And stop calling me Shurely!

[golfingomez]

a new basketball arena is tough for me everytime i think about it. mainly because i think both sides of the argument have a point. at the end of the day, it's costing money, time and energy that probably isn't necessary. 

 

[CMJ]

3 hours ago, NT80 said:

 

Top Ten Super Pit Crowds

1 UNT vs SMU January 21, 1977 10,600

2 UNT vs DePaul December 16, 1980 9,100

3 UNT vs West Texas State March 1, 1976 8,816

4 UNT vs Louisiana Tech February 26, 2022 8,522

5 UNT vs Western Kentucky February 9, 2019 8,195

6 UNT vs Texas January 17, 1980 8,100

7 UNT vs Texas Tech November 16, 2010 7,105

8 UNT vs Texas-Pan American March 2, 1977 7,100

9 UNT vs Bradley February 28, 1976 7,087

10 UNT vs Louisiana-Lafayette February 18, 2012 6,921

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNT_Coliseum

 

Wikipedia is incorrect.  The SMU game was on January 22nd.  I know this because my Mom went into labor with my older brother at that game.

Edited January 24, 2023 by CMJ

[greenminer]

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

Wikipedia is incorrect.  The SMU game was on January 22nd.  I know this because my Mom went into labor with my older brother at that game.

It's WIKI.  You can probably edit for about the same effort it takes to edit a post on GMG.com.

[NT80]

11 hours ago, CMJ said:

Wikipedia is incorrect.  The SMU game was on January 22nd.  I know this because my Mom went into labor with my older brother at that game.

You are correct.  January 22 was also a Saturday night.  NT won 103-99 and Bill Blakeley's team went 21-6 that year.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/north-texas/1977-schedule.html

 

[greenjoe]

Here’s a Coliseum fun fact…

Did you know that there are 4 different width seats in the Super Pit ?    This was done to provide an even number of seats, per row, as one goes higher and higher up the aisles.  The difference per seat is not noticeable until one stops and really pays attention.  Take a tape measurer to the next basketball game.  
 

Next week, we’ll talk about how cup holders came to be at the coliseum.

Edited January 24, 2023 by greenjoe

[GrandGreen]

I guess I am in the minority of this issue, but building a new smaller arena makes no sense to me.  

Costs a lots of money and will accomplish what?  Better recruiting, better attendance, I doubt it once the new wears off. 

I always look at UTA, who by the way had to replace their basketball arena; still poor attendance and no notable improvement in the overall program.  

[Cooke County Kid]

I attended six of the top attended games at the Super Pit, I sat on the steps at the smu game. The atmosphere at all those games was out of sight, most of those big games were when NTSU had less than 20,000 students.  If the students ever really start to show up we will all be glad that the SP is still there, it is a real advantage!

Edited January 24, 2023 by Cooke County Kid
Grammer

[Green Otaku]

33 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

I guess I am in the minority of this issue, but building a new smaller arena makes no sense to me.  

Costs a lots of money and will accomplish what?  Better recruiting, better attendance, I doubt it once the new wears off. 

I always look at UTA, who by the way had to replace their basketball arena; still poor attendance and no notable improvement in the overall program.  

Did Rice having a 70k football stadium help them in any way? Again, what's the point of having the empty seats that we can't fill? 

[GrandGreen]

14 minutes ago, Green Otaku said:

Did Rice having a 70k football stadium help them in any way? Again, what's the point of having the empty seats that we can't fill? 

Big advantage, not spending millions on something that is not needed

[Green Otaku]

16 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

Big advantage, not spending millions on something that is not needed

UT's Frank Erwin Center was built in 1974, The Coliseum was built in 1973. They had a capacity of 16.5k and their new arena holds 10k for basketball. I guess they didn't need it either? If you want to run with the big boys, you need to keep up facilities with the big boys. 

[GrandGreen]

Just now, Green Otaku said:

UT's Frank Erwin Center was built in 1974, The Coliseum was built in 1973. They had a capacity of 16.5k and their new arena holds 10k for basketball. I guess they didn't need it either? If you want to run with the big boys, you need to keep up facilities with the big boys. 

UT has so much money they have to look for ways to spend it, unfortunately NT does not.  

So your rationale to spend tens of millions is that UT does it.  

 

[Green Otaku]

2 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

UT has so much money they have to look for ways to spend it, unfortunately NT does not.  

So your rationale to spend tens of millions is that UT does it.  

 

We're not going to build a $375m multi purpose arena, something within our budget that competes with what others have in the American. With your line of thinking why even expand the AC? They are making it work right now right? 

 

As the SP is 50 years old there will be a time in the near future where UNT will have to make a choice to fully renovate, a topic that has been exhausted on here, or build a new facility. They will then need to decide ff basketball is better served with having their own facility and building a new arena. The question will come to a head in the next decade or so. 

[GrandGreen]

20 minutes ago, Green Otaku said:

We're not going to build a $375m multi purpose arena, something within our budget that competes with what others have in the American. With your line of thinking why even expand the AC? They are making it work right now right? 

 

As the SP is 50 years old there will be a time in the near future where UNT will have to make a choice to fully renovate, a topic that has been exhausted on here, or build a new facility. They will then need to decide ff basketball is better served with having their own facility and building a new arena. The question will come to a head in the next decade or so. 

My line of thinking is why spend money on something you don't need. 

Pull some deadline out of the blue, you or I don't know how long the Spit will last without a major expenditure. 

I certainly don't want to get in a discussion on asbestos tiles or weakening substructure until someone presents some actual facts.  

[UNTFan23]

The SP is an ADA nightmare.

The building does not have an elevator. The only means to get to the lower level is through ramps on the north/south side on the exterior of the arena. It's very steep and not safe.

The restrooms on the lower level have a step up to get to the toilets. Someone that is wheelchair bound would require help.

We're literally a lawsuit away from having the needed upgrades be forced to be done at the cost of 10s of millions of dollars.