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Post by una04 on Mar 7, 2020 7:21:19 GMT -6
www.timesdaily.com/news/local/authority-negotiates-with-volkert-on-ag-center-project/article_a09a7f9a-5a93-5161-9115-d28e0b068f23.htmlFLORENCE — The Lauderdale County Agricultural Authority agreed Friday to negotiate with Birmingham construction firm Volkert Inc. to be construction manager for the Lauderdale County Agricultural and Events Center. Board member Joe Hackworth recommended Volkert during the authority meeting, and it received unanimous approval. "We were pleased with the quality of the firms that showed interest," Hackworth said. "I feel comfortable that multiple companies could have done a great job, but in the end, the board felt that Volkert was the best fit at this point." The $45 million project off U.S. 72 is being paid for through Tennessee Valley Authority in-lieu-of-tax funds, amounting to some $1.2 million annually, as well as a 2-cent-per-gallon gas tax that had been set to expire but was extended for use by the authority.
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Post by unafied on Mar 10, 2020 6:23:50 GMT -6
I still want to see shovels in the ground to believe it will actually happen, but it does seem to be getting closer.
I'd love to know if this place is even on the radar for folks at the university. I honestly don't see much of a reason to hold basketball games there unless there is a day when attendance is overflowing at Flowers. Maybe an early season game against a big-name opponent, if it can be scheduled, but otherwise it just doesn't make a lot of sense. The ASUN doesn't seem to be interested in changing the conference tournament to one location, either. I suppose if (and it's a big if) the "UAC" happens one day they might be persuaded to hold a tournament in a shiny new arena. We are a LONG way from that being a reality though.
As for Florence and the Shoals, I really hope this thing turns out to be a money-making arena a lot of people have wanted for years. I know the rules wouldn't allow it, but it's a shame it couldn't be downtown. Florence is my hometown, a great place to live, and I'm all something that improves quality of life for the people there.
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Post by brandon on Mar 10, 2020 7:14:34 GMT -6
I still want to see shovels in the ground to believe it will actually happen, but it does seem to be getting closer. I'd love to know if this place is even on the radar for folks at the university. I honestly don't see much of a reason to hold basketball games there unless there is a day when attendance is overflowing at Flowers. Maybe an early season game against a big-name opponent, if it can be scheduled, but otherwise it just doesn't make a lot of sense. The ASUN doesn't seem to be interested in changing the conference tournament to one location, either. I suppose if (and it's a big if) the "UAC" happens one day they might be persuaded to hold a tournament in a shiny new arena. We are a LONG way from that being a reality though. As for Florence and the Shoals, I really hope this thing turns out to be a money-making arena a lot of people have wanted for years. I know the rules wouldn't allow it, but it's a shame it couldn't be downtown. Florence is my hometown, a great place to live, and I'm all something that improves quality of life for the people there. I could see something like South Carolina coming to Florence that there may be a need to use a bigger arena. But unless we get better student and general fan/alumni attendance, there is no need. On the flip side, and I am very glad that UNA has put money into Flowers Hall, and hopefully they keep upgrading it. I may be in the minority, but I really love the feel at Flowers. I think the only thing that needs to be done is, take out the main entrance on Pine Street, expand that area into a nice, modernized space, and tear out the wall to the basketball court, and put stands from the court floor to the top. I think that would look good, and still keep the feel. If a game was big enough, use the new arena if it happens. Liberty is almost done with their new arena, it only going to seat 4k. They will still use the Vines center for bigger games. We could use the new ag center they same way... |
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Post by unafied on Mar 10, 2020 8:35:45 GMT -6
I still want to see shovels in the ground to believe it will actually happen, but it does seem to be getting closer. I'd love to know if this place is even on the radar for folks at the university. I honestly don't see much of a reason to hold basketball games there unless there is a day when attendance is overflowing at Flowers. Maybe an early season game against a big-name opponent, if it can be scheduled, but otherwise it just doesn't make a lot of sense. The ASUN doesn't seem to be interested in changing the conference tournament to one location, either. I suppose if (and it's a big if) the "UAC" happens one day they might be persuaded to hold a tournament in a shiny new arena. We are a LONG way from that being a reality though. As for Florence and the Shoals, I really hope this thing turns out to be a money-making arena a lot of people have wanted for years. I know the rules wouldn't allow it, but it's a shame it couldn't be downtown. Florence is my hometown, a great place to live, and I'm all something that improves quality of life for the people there. I could see something like South Carolina coming to Florence that there may be a need to use a bigger arena. But unless we get better student and general fan/alumni attendance, there is no need. On the flip side, and I am very glad that UNA has put money into Flowers Hall, and hopefully they keep upgrading it. I may be in the minority, but I really love the feel at Flowers. I think the only thing that needs to be done is, take out the main entrance on Pine Street, expand that area into a nice, modernized space, and tear out the wall to the basketball court, and put stands from the court floor to the top. I think that would look good, and still keep the feel. If a game was big enough, use the new arena if it happens. Liberty is almost done with their new arena, it only going to seat 4k. They will still use the Vines center for bigger games. We could use the new ag center they same way... Yeah I agree with all of that. Intimate arenas are not a bad thing and I don't think it will necessarily hold us back. And a one-off deal every year at the ag center won't be a bad thing, unless we can't draw more than a 1000 fans and the arena is mostly empty. That's not a good look. The front lobby and concession area at Flowers definitely needs to be upgraded. I hope that's on the agenda. It's the one thing left that feels too D2. If expanding that area out towards Pine Street created more "endzone" seating on the lobby side, that would be great. Actually that area would be an ideal spot for a student section, if we could get them to show up. I always like seeing students behind an opponent's goal, whooping it up during free throws. |
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Mar 12, 2020 13:04:29 GMT -6
I still want to see shovels in the ground to believe it will actually happen, but it does seem to be getting closer. I'd love to know if this place is even on the radar for folks at the university. I honestly don't see much of a reason to hold basketball games there unless there is a day when attendance is overflowing at Flowers. Maybe an early season game against a big-name opponent, if it can be scheduled, but otherwise it just doesn't make a lot of sense. The ASUN doesn't seem to be interested in changing the conference tournament to one location, either. I suppose if (and it's a big if) the "UAC" happens one day they might be persuaded to hold a tournament in a shiny new arena. We are a LONG way from that being a reality though. As for Florence and the Shoals, I really hope this thing turns out to be a money-making arena a lot of people have wanted for years. I know the rules wouldn't allow it, but it's a shame it couldn't be downtown. Florence is my hometown, a great place to live, and I'm all something that improves quality of life for the people there. I could see something like South Carolina coming to Florence that there may be a need to use a bigger arena. But unless we get better student and general fan/alumni attendance, there is no need. On the flip side, and I am very glad that UNA has put money into Flowers Hall, and hopefully they keep upgrading it. I may be in the minority, but I really love the feel at Flowers. I think the only thing that needs to be done is, take out the main entrance on Pine Street, expand that area into a nice, modernized space, and tear out the wall to the basketball court, and put stands from the court floor to the top. I think that would look good, and still keep the feel. If a game was big enough, use the new arena if it happens. Liberty is almost done with their new arena, it only going to seat 4k. They will still use the Vines center for bigger games. We could use the new ag center they same way... I'm a believer in, If you build it, they will come. I know The Shoals is saddled with too many backwards thinking people these days but the poff is in the pudding. The first expansion of Braly excited fans greatly and crowds jumped from 2 or 3 thousand to many as 13,000. When Flowers Hall was opened, the crows of less than a thousand at the Coliseum turned into more than 5000 and it would have been more if there was anywhere to put them. The second expansion of Braly pumped the Shoals area and attendance shot up higher than the crowds during our Championship runs . I don't know how many times I heard stuff like ... I can't believe we have a stadium like this! Or , this reminds me of a pro stadium! Just adding those ramps gave the place the look of a big stadium if only a smaller scale. I'm pretty sure the Shoals is the kind of place that has to be butt-whiped into acting on something good. The At Center would definitely kick start big crowd which makers the team play MUCH better and it builds from there. Do you think UNA would have become the National power in basketball we were for 20 years without the NEW Flowers Hall kick start? Dont kid yourself. |
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Mar 12, 2020 13:12:03 GMT -6
I still want to see shovels in the ground to believe it will actually happen, but it does seem to be getting closer. I'd love to know if this place is even on the radar for folks at the university. I honestly don't see much of a reason to hold basketball games there unless there is a day when attendance is overflowing at Flowers. Maybe an early season game against a big-name opponent, if it can be scheduled, but otherwise it just doesn't make a lot of sense. The ASUN doesn't seem to be interested in changing the conference tournament to one location, either. I suppose if (and it's a big if) the "UAC" happens one day they might be persuaded to hold a tournament in a shiny new arena. We are a LONG way from that being a reality though. As for Florence and the Shoals, I really hope this thing turns out to be a money-making arena a lot of people have wanted for years. I know the rules wouldn't allow it, but it's a shame it couldn't be downtown. Florence is my hometown, a great place to live, and I'm all something that improves quality of life for the people there. I could see something like South Carolina coming to Florence that there may be a need to use a bigger arena. But unless we get better student and general fan/alumni attendance, there is no need. On the flip side, and I am very glad that UNA has put money into Flowers Hall, and hopefully they keep upgrading it. I may be in the minority, but I really love the feel at Flowers. I think the only thing that needs to be done is, take out the main entrance on Pine Street, expand that area into a nice, modernized space, and tear out the wall to the basketball court, and put stands from the court floor to the top. I think that would look good, and still keep the feel. If a game was big enough, use the new arena if it happens. Liberty is almost done with their new arena, it only going to seat 4k. They will still use the Vines center for bigger games. We could use the new ag center they same way... I'm a believer in,If you build it,they will come. I know The Shoals is saddled with too many backwards thinking people these days but the proof is in the pudding. The first expansion of Braly excited fans greatly and crowds jumped from 2 or 3 thousand to as many as 13,000. When Flowers Hall was opened, the crowds of less than a thousand at the Coliseum turned into more than 5000 at Flowers Hall and it would have been more if there was anywhere to put them. The second expansion of Braly pumped the Shoals area and attendance shot up higher than the crowds during our Championship runs . I don't know how many times I heard stuff like ... I can't believe we have a stadium like this! Or , this reminds me of a pro stadium! Just adding those ramps gave the place the look of a big stadium if only a smaller scale. I'm pretty sure the Shoals is the kind of place that has to be butt-whipped into acting on something good. The Ag Center would definitely kick start big crowds which makes the team play MUCH better which makes the crowds even bigger and it builds from there. Do you think UNA would have become the National power in basketball we were for 20 years without the NEW Flowers Hall kick start? Dont kid yourself. No. |
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Post by brandon on Mar 12, 2020 14:26:43 GMT -6
I could see something like South Carolina coming to Florence that there may be a need to use a bigger arena. But unless we get better student and general fan/alumni attendance, there is no need. On the flip side, and I am very glad that UNA has put money into Flowers Hall, and hopefully they keep upgrading it. I may be in the minority, but I really love the feel at Flowers. I think the only thing that needs to be done is, take out the main entrance on Pine Street, expand that area into a nice, modernized space, and tear out the wall to the basketball court, and put stands from the court floor to the top. I think that would look good, and still keep the feel. If a game was big enough, use the new arena if it happens. Liberty is almost done with their new arena, it only going to seat 4k. They will still use the Vines center for bigger games. We could use the new ag center they same way... I'm a believer in,If you build it,they will come. I know The Shoals is saddled with too many backwards thinking people these days but the proof is in the pudding. The first expansion of Braly excited fans greatly and crowds jumped from 2 or 3 thousand to as many as 13,000. When Flowers Hall was opened, the crowds of less than a thousand at the Coliseum turned into more than 5000 at Flowers Hall and it would have been more if there was anywhere to put them. The second expansion of Braly pumped the Shoals area and attendance shot up higher than the crowds during our Championship runs . I don't know how many times I heard stuff like ... I can't believe we have a stadium like this! Or , this reminds me of a pro stadium! Just adding those ramps gave the place the look of a big stadium if only a smaller scale. I'm pretty sure the Shoals is the kind of place that has to be butt-whipped into acting on something good. The Ag Center would definitely kick start big crowds which makes the team play MUCH better which makes the crowds even bigger and it builds from there. Do you think UNA would have become the National power in basketball we were for 20 years without the NEW Flowers Hall kick start? Dont kid yourself. No. As for the Ag Center, I am greatly on board with it, not just for UNA. I think UNA should play there, but only for big ticket games. I (like I said in my post) would like to see even more upgrades (expansion, updating and so forth) to Flowers as well. I dont see a need in it being over 4500 to 5000 seats though (for Flowers) the average game will not sell out for a long time, and if it does, move it to the Ag Center. As for Braly, it's done, expanding it will not draw people anymore. A new, state of the art stadium with decent seating will. And by studying a little, I have found that going smaller in seats is trending. It can have a big deal, with less seating. If, buy the original rendering of the stadium, they go with the 12k, that's just seats, the standing room at the endzone area will probably hold a few thousand more, say it's only 2k more, that's 14k, same size as Braly. If they go with the 15k to start, the standing room would make it around 17k. I understand entirely about the "Build it and they will come" concept, but it still dont make sense to build bigger, if the need isnt there. Hopefully, we can pull crowds that would demand expansion. And hopefully they plan for expansion. |
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Post by northalaspectator on Mar 12, 2020 16:41:47 GMT -6
I could see something like South Carolina coming to Florence that there may be a need to use a bigger arena. But unless we get better student and general fan/alumni attendance, there is no need. On the flip side, and I am very glad that UNA has put money into Flowers Hall, and hopefully they keep upgrading it. I may be in the minority, but I really love the feel at Flowers. I think the only thing that needs to be done is, take out the main entrance on Pine Street, expand that area into a nice, modernized space, and tear out the wall to the basketball court, and put stands from the court floor to the top. I think that would look good, and still keep the feel. If a game was big enough, use the new arena if it happens. Liberty is almost done with their new arena, it only going to seat 4k. They will still use the Vines center for bigger games. We could use the new ag center they same way... I'm a believer in,If you build it,they will come. I know The Shoals is saddled with too many backwards thinking people these days but the proof is in the pudding. The first expansion of Braly excited fans greatly and crowds jumped from 2 or 3 thousand to as many as 13,000. When Flowers Hall was opened, the crowds of less than a thousand at the Coliseum turned into more than 5000 at Flowers Hall and it would have been more if there was anywhere to put them. The second expansion of Braly pumped the Shoals area and attendance shot up higher than the crowds during our Championship runs . I don't know how many times I heard stuff like ... I can't believe we have a stadium like this! Or , this reminds me of a pro stadium! Just adding those ramps gave the place the look of a big stadium if only a smaller scale. I'm pretty sure the Shoals is the kind of place that has to be butt-whipped into acting on something good. The Ag Center would definitely kick start big crowds which makes the team play MUCH better which makes the crowds even bigger and it builds from there. Do you think UNA would have become the National power in basketball we were for 20 years without the NEW Flowers Hall kick start? Dont kid yourself. No. [Kenny there is a difference now and when You and I were in school. The biggest difference being the capability of games being available on TV or the streaming of games over the internet. It has been over 20 years since there has been even close to a sellout at Flowers Hall. This season both the Men’s team and Women’s teams average less than 800 in attendance. Even if there was a completely new gym with seating of 2,000 the average might have been around 1,000 at the most. I know there is something special about attending a game in person. As a season ticket holder that had a ticket for every game, for a few of the pre conference games I took advantage of ESPN+. Also having the ability to watch away games without having to travel. For families with small children they now have the ability to watch the game without the hassle of trying to find a babysitter. Kenny as you know in post season games students have to pay to attend and at the Women’s game on March 7 the school was offering free tickets to the first 100 students, but less than 100 students took advantage of it. If students aren’t interested now, do you think by the time they are parents or grandparents their interest will increase enough to fill a gym for sellouts. |
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Post by catscratchfever4 on Mar 13, 2020 21:50:52 GMT -6
I don't know. I never thought the Lions would draw 5,00 back then and they didn't immediately. We had good crowds but not 5,000 but enthusiasm was high after watching the Atlanta Hawks knock off the Boston Celtics to christen Flowers Hall. The Lions were pretty good in Bill E. Jones first year. Add his flair to the mix where they had Globe Trotter type warm up drills with Sweet Georgia Brown playing over the speakers and the crowd loved that and more and more people started coming to watch the kids play and buy cokes, hotdogs, programs . At halftime, a couple of youth teams got to play a quick game and the next home game, the kids were all over the place, dragging their parents to the game with them and buying those tickets and within no time, both ends of the court was full of Young talented kids going through Pete Maravich kinds of drills and the fans loved it! By the time Bill L. Jones took over, the Show of the Shoals was taking hold.
In the last couple of decades, UNA has shown how clueless they are about successful athletics. For every one kid who comes in, they will bring at least 2 or 3 people with them. With the thousands of empty seats in Braly, they just don't understand that letting the kids,10 and under in for free WOULD MAKE MONEY, create a louder crowd which makes the team play better. It's not like we will run out of seats anytime soon. Basketball is just as clueless. With the couple of thousands of empty seats, they could get creative. How much money does an empty seat bring in? That's right so why not do something about it? It's just shocking that this dead wood gets paid for being inept at practically everything. I can't believe the Shoals is nothing but wussies. With the right kind of promotion, it wouldn't seem like a morgue in there anymore.
As far as TV goes, in the 70s and early 80s, Teleprompter Cable would record the Lions home games and show them on Teleprompter Cable at 9:30 that night. That sure didn't hold down the crowds. To UNA fans, it was the icing on the cake. It was wedge yourself into the sellout crowd, holler your brains out, watch the Lions Roar, speed home and watch it again! But that kind of atmosphere doesn't just happen. It has to be promoted, cultivated and taken seriously.
I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe the Shoals is a worthless turd that had rather lock themselves in their houses every night. You rarely see any evidence to show it isn't a lazy turd.
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Post by northalaspectator on Mar 15, 2020 9:32:00 GMT -6
From the TimesDaily Sunday March 15, 2020
The presentation also featured a conceptual drawing for a basketball tournament with six courts in the arena.
The arena has 4,400 fixed seats, as well as portable bleachers. When floor seating is included for events like a concert, it seats some 10,000, Butler said.
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Post by brandon on Mar 15, 2020 10:36:02 GMT -6
From the TimesDaily Sunday March 15, 2020 The presentation also featured a conceptual drawing for a basketball tournament with six courts in the arena. The arena has 4,400 fixed seats, as well as portable bleachers. When floor seating is included for events like a concert, it seats some 10,000, Butler said. That is not conducive for college basketball... |
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Post by unalions on Oct 8, 2021 9:11:40 GMT -6
From the TimesDaily Sunday March 15, 2020 The presentation also featured a conceptual drawing for a basketball tournament with six courts in the arena. The arena has 4,400 fixed seats, as well as portable bleachers. When floor seating is included for events like a concert, it seats some 10,000, Butler said. That is not conducive for college basketball... I just recalled seeing this post in the past. So, looks like UNA playing at the Ag Center won’t be an option. |
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