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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 20, 2015 16:35:42 GMT -5
Tom Gola Court at the WaWa Arena has a nice ring to it. I would not make it multipurpose. If you don't have to build on the same land as Hayman, then Hayman should be for everything else while the new one should be just basketball games. If you want to have a basketball-centric practice facility / weight room in there as well, great, but basketball should have this one. And this from a former non-basketball athlete. Playing a wise a$$ for a minute, why not make it multipurpose? Nova has an indoor track that runs around the Pavilion, why couldn't they do the same in a new arena at La Salle? The track team would benefit, and could host some events too. Not saying the surface on Nova's indoor track is good, or event ideal, but it's better than nothing. #OHWAIT that would mean the court would have to moveable and I guess that wouldn't happen with the great facilities staff we have. Do you want what the Ski Lodge is? Every multipurpose gym I've been in is awful. If you have Hayman already, you can put a 200m track surface in there. Very few people are going to volleyball games, hold them there. Put all the team offices in there. Intramural there. Keep a new building for what it's for. Basketball. Make it basketball focused. Don't bog it down with volleyball nets and portable batting cages and intramural handball. Just my two cents.
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Post by SICguy84 on Feb 20, 2015 16:36:47 GMT -5
If 25 of us put up a grand we can have someone from here sit on the BOT. I would put up a 1k to have Explorer Steve become a trustee and be relentless about this issue haha.
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Post by explorerman on Feb 20, 2015 16:41:34 GMT -5
I don't even where I want to start with this.. So many different ways... None of them good..Cali, are you trolling? Not trolling but just having a little fun with a dead horse. Haha I was going to say.. My heart simply can't handle some of the things people say on here..
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Post by SICguy84 on Feb 20, 2015 16:55:10 GMT -5
If 25 of us put up a grand we can have someone from here sit on the BOT. I would put up a 1k to have Explorer Steve become a trustee and be relentless about this issue haha. I just got private messages from former La Salle-Explorers.com beat writers "Jack" and the "Chinkster" pledging donations for this. Will you be next?!
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Post by stlexplorer on Feb 20, 2015 23:47:28 GMT -5
Yeah the arena will not be coming for probably several years now.. The BOT did not see the arena as a priority when our financial condition dictated a decision to be made (this has been well discussed before over the last couple years).. I believe the A-10 is going to force La Salle's hand. That is the rumblings. We can only hope
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Post by stlexplorer on Feb 20, 2015 23:50:46 GMT -5
LaSalle should be working on a sponser for the name of the facility NOW. Tom Gola Court at the WaWa Arena has a nice ring to it. I would not make it multipurpose. If you don't have to build on the same land as Hayman, then Hayman should be for everything else while the new one should be just basketball games. If you want to have a basketball-centric practice facility / weight room in there as well, great, but basketball should have this one. And this from a former non-basketball athlete. My dream of the Tastykake Arena with the Butterscotch Krimpet Race, Snowball shuffle and Kandy Kakes Kiss Kam dies a little bit every day
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Post by luhoopsfan on Feb 21, 2015 9:36:37 GMT -5
The WaWa center would be absolutely fantastic. Plus, they could put a super WaWa as part of it that would absolutely kill it in that neighborhood.
Agree that it needs to be a basketball game facility but I think it might be possible to put a track in there for training purposes too that goes away when the demand for tickets is so high they need to open additional bleachers.
It should regularly be about 4500 and maybe expandable up to 6000
As for attendance, unless we remain a top 40 program weeknight attendance will always struggle. LS is not easily accessible from highways and parking during the week is a disaster with all the night class cars taking the good parking. The new facility will need to offer a lot more convenient parking options. Not saying parking cures all that ails weeknight attendance. The game production will have to improve also but I'm not sure it will and that's ok.. I like sporting events that are about the game not all the other distractions
Bottom line is - better recruits mean better players and better players mean better teams. The biggest roadblock in our recruiting is our facility - not saying we haven't overcome it in the past but how many players have we missed as a result?
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 21, 2015 9:51:27 GMT -5
Plus, they could put a super WaWa as part of it that would absolutely kill it in that neighborhood. This. Everyone here does, but you're never going to get 100% serious basketball fans. Especially on the student side.
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Post by luhoopsfan on Feb 21, 2015 10:38:41 GMT -5
Plus, they could put a super WaWa as part of it that would absolutely kill it in that neighborhood. This. Everyone here does, but you're never going to get 100% serious basketball fans. Especially on the student side. Point 1: Further consideration is that a Super WaWa would provide at least 20 FTEs in that neighborhood and it would be a decent check mark in the "pros" column of the pros/cons evaluated by the city council Nd may even help secure some state funding or tax credits especially since the new PA guv likely has his primary voting pool in the neighborhood Point B: That's the segment that is missing for sure, most sporting events consist of 40% people there to actually watch the game, 30% like the sport and game but only like it when their team is winning. 20% are there for the social and entertainment aspect, 10% have no business being there We get the 40% every year no matter how good or bad the team is and what day/Time the game is played. We saw the 30% increase late 2013 and early in the 2013/14 season. The last 30% comes with a better game production and gameday experience because 20% are there socially and that last 10% just shows up at that point. It's like Villanova games at the WF center or Phillies games up until 2012
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 21, 2015 10:56:50 GMT -5
Exactly.
Wawa doesn't build in what could be considered sketchy areas....the Germantown location closest to La Salle probably being their worst. A location on La Salle's campus would open up the neighborhood while also meeting the above standard.
I envision a giant storefront below an arena. A super giant sign becoming one of their 'flagship' stores that is close to their Chester co. HQ.
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Post by luhoopsfan on Feb 21, 2015 12:34:08 GMT -5
Can there be an entrance to the facility from the WaWa? No re-entry would be fair to the inside vendors that Aramark would likely provide
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 21, 2015 13:26:36 GMT -5
Can there be an entrance to the facility from the WaWa? No re-entry would be fair to the inside vendors that Aramark would likely provide I'd assume the entrances would be separate in this hypothetical arena that will likely never happen this way.
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Post by thehawkisdead on Feb 22, 2015 18:02:02 GMT -5
Al Gore just called; he's deeply concerned about his most brilliant invention. Apparently the Internet is about to go over its capacity because of these endless arena threads in which everyone always says the same thing!
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Post by Kovy on Feb 23, 2015 9:13:04 GMT -5
I'll be at the Rhode Island game on Saturday, which will finally be my first game back at Gola in about 6 years. I'm one of the few on here who has the mindset that a new facility wouldn't improve the program as much as some on here think it will. After living on the west coast for the past 5.5 years and now in Texas for the past 6 months and attending various college events from Pac-12 to Southland conference games I'm interested to see if my opinion of a new facility will change after being at the game.
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Post by lasalle89 on Feb 23, 2015 12:18:47 GMT -5
Is St Mary's getting a new gym? I saw their gym on TV vs Ganzaga and it wasn't to much nicer then ours.
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Post by calidelphia on Feb 23, 2015 12:53:43 GMT -5
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 23, 2015 13:04:06 GMT -5
I'd give March's paycheck for that.
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Post by manayunk53 on Feb 23, 2015 13:23:10 GMT -5
Jackie Treehorn seems to have deep pockets. Maybe we could hit him up for a donation. Is there a Ralph's near here?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2015 13:38:14 GMT -5
Wrong St Mary's. That's a D-2 school in Texas. That arena is larger (3,800 capacity) and nicer than both Gola and the D-1 St Mary's arena pictured below(3,500 capacity). [
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Post by jellybean on Feb 23, 2015 13:47:00 GMT -5
Looks like everyone is nice and cozy together. I want to buy seats right behind the opponents bench.
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Post by thelasallelunatic on Feb 23, 2015 13:53:41 GMT -5
quote author=" JoeFedorowicz" source="/post/39670/thread" timestamp="1424714646"] I'd give March's paycheck for that. Wrong St Mary's. That's a D-2 school in Texas. That arena is larger (3,800 capacity) and nicer than both Gola and the D-1 St Mary's arena (3,500 capacity). [ [/quote] Morega, CA...also a Christian Brothers school. Bennett has a nice program there.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 23, 2015 14:12:43 GMT -5
Bill Greehey is the chairman of a 3.5B$ Revenue oil company.
He gave 3.1M$ to build this...dont know the actual building cost.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 23, 2015 14:19:34 GMT -5
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Post by 23won on Feb 23, 2015 14:20:07 GMT -5
That St. Mary facility was built on the back of a relatively small donation per their website:
"The center is named in recognition of the largest capital gift of $3.1 million made by the St. Mary's Alumni"
Either St. Mary has a big endowment they tapped into, or you can build them big and cheap in Texas. If the latter, it's the damn Philly unions that are keeping us down.
This is, of course, part comedy, part fact. Look at most BCS football schools and they are in the middle of nowhere. The more remote and the less metropolitan you get, the cheaper the build costs. Just imagine what Baylor's new football shrine or even PSU's capital projects would be in a union town. It would not shock me if the final bill is 2x or more in Philly as compared to Podunk USA.
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 23, 2015 14:24:38 GMT -5
If it cost $22M to build what appears to be a great center with a nice 3800 seat arena in it (LS would probably need to bump that to 4500 to appease A10) then it should be started already.
Add 50% for union costs and we're still talking less than the 50M number that was thrown around. Like 60% of it.
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Post by luhoopsfan on Feb 23, 2015 14:35:10 GMT -5
there's no need for La Salle to spend $50MM on a facility - $25-$30MM should be the cap and should get exactly what is necessary.
I like that facility shown in the link, but the permanent capacity would need to be 4,500 and I will hold onto the idea of having additional bleacher seating available for games with excess demand and only when the first 4500 seats are sold out. Plus, Bleacher seats are cheap to install and maintain and can increase capacity PSF more so than chair backs so it's a cost effective way of adding seating for the Johnny-come-lately fans when we are good enough to be an NCAA team.
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Post by aswjr on Feb 23, 2015 15:08:52 GMT -5
I look at that and was looking at the Hofstra facility yesterday since that game was on after. I wonder the cost of the "shell" of a facility would cost. I'm thinking building and parking. A facility that holds 4500 to appease A10 I suppose. I say shell because of you can build the building the parking and the basics I.e locker rooms training rooms bathrooms and some basic concessions then you are on the road. Much like many other facilities you add as needed. But if the place is presentable at the very least it looks attractive on TV and when recruits walk in it doesn't look worse than their high school then possible you start grabbing some of those guys that are on the fence.
I talk the basics because I see the mentions of boxes and things like that really aren't necessary until you see an increase in attendance or a consistent winning program that grabs the "bandwagon" fans
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Post by luhoopsfan on Feb 23, 2015 16:13:23 GMT -5
A 45,000 SF building would likely hold 4,500 people for a basketball game pretty comfortably. Based on some projects I've worked on and seen around here, if we went with a simple shell, i think you could come in somewhere around $100 - $120 PSF to construct the base building, call it somewhere between $4.5 - $5.5MM to put up the box that is probably something like 235 ft x 190 ft. This would allow you to have approximately 70 rows on your sidelines and 30 rows on your baselines (total) plus corner seating depending on how you did the layout and allows for 10 feet of space on each side of the court for benches, scorers table, cheerleaders, media, etc. you then need probably another 5,000 SF for locker rooms, showers, etc., 2,500 SF for bathrooms, 2,500 SF for concessions/kitchens, not to mention some sort of entrance/ticket area, call ti another 5,000 SF, in all you need a building roughly 60,000 SF give or take in terms of footprint, so probably $7 MM to make the box you need. if you had a budget of $25MM, that leaves you with $18MM to get the job done. I have no idea how to price seating configurations, lockers, etc. but you need a space that's at least 300 feet by 200 feet...plus exterior walkways, etc. Fortunately, we have video boards already in stock A parking garage/deck will cost you $50 PSF, but hopefully we could find a spot with enough surface parking that this would be unnecessary.
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Post by aswjr on Feb 23, 2015 16:41:28 GMT -5
Kind of what I was looking for luhoopsfan...reality is facilities upgrade yearly...every few years. If you get the basics built and it looks better and is more functional then what is in place then you can start to integrate the luxuries later on..through a as-needed-basis
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Post by JoeFedorowicz on Feb 23, 2015 17:08:36 GMT -5
Are you guys really proposing a barn with renovations coming after?
Come on...
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