|
Post by kperk1959 on Apr 14, 2018 20:08:47 GMT -6
.
|
|
|
Post by brandon on Apr 14, 2018 20:20:21 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by kperk1959 on Apr 14, 2018 20:27:44 GMT -6
I just realized photobucket is all fouled up.
|
|
|
Post by unafied on May 20, 2018 7:37:24 GMT -6
Y’all have probably seen me being pessimistic on this thing lately. Hadn’t had an update from any news source since last October. Thankfully there’s finally a new article in the TimesDaily today. Unfortunately, whereas previously they had said ground would be broken in the “spring”, it’s now August. Hopefully it will be the last delay. I plan to remain skeptical until dirt is being turned. “ Work on ag center could begin in August”
|
|
|
Post by brandon on May 20, 2018 11:00:03 GMT -6
I have heard that Huntsville and parties associated with the VBCC is pushing against the Ag Center. They don't want any competitive venues that close I guess. But I am being told that it will happen.
|
|
|
Post by unafied on May 20, 2018 13:16:37 GMT -6
I have heard that Huntsville and parties associated with the VBCC is pushing against the Ag Center. They don't want any competitive venues that close I guess. But I am being told that it will happen. I can see Huntsville pushing back some I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point the arena is “scaled back”. How far, would be my question. What if goes to 5000 seats? For a market the Shoals’ size, that might not be so bad. Perhaps 7500, though that may still be close for Huntsville to not worry. If it ends up being 5000 and one or both of our basketball teams outgrows that, well, that will be a good problem to have. I won’t necessarily be upset if it’s scaled back. Guess we’ll just have to see.
|
|
|
Post by northalaspectator on May 20, 2018 14:16:38 GMT -6
First I thank it will be built, but the number of permanent seating will be scale back from 10,000 not sure how much.
To my knowledge anything dealing with the University is NOT set in stone. They were trying to get the University to put up some money on helping built it and one politician previous said the University was committed, but NO word has Officially came from the University.
I believe that the University has possibly said that they would consider it. I believe that the full Board of Trustees will have to vote at least one time giving the University the right to use it for sports or any other functions and that has not happen yet. It probably will in the future.
Not even sure if the University is even committed to being included in the technical center that is supposed to be built.
|
|
|
Post by brandon on May 20, 2018 14:56:08 GMT -6
I have heard that Huntsville and parties associated with the VBCC is pushing against the Ag Center. They don't want any competitive venues that close I guess. But I am being told that it will happen. I can see Huntsville pushing back some I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point the arena is “scaled back”. How far, would be my question. What if goes to 5000 seats? For a market the Shoals’ size, that might not be so bad. Perhaps 7500, though that may still be close for Huntsville to not worry. If it ends up being 5000 and one or both of our basketball teams outgrows that, well, that will be a good problem to have. I won’t necessarily be upset if it’s scaled back. Guess we’ll just have to see. 7500 to 8000 would probably be the right number.
|
|
|
Post by unafied on May 20, 2018 15:44:11 GMT -6
First I thank it will be built, but the number of permanent seating will be scale back from 10,000 not sure how much. To my knowledge anything dealing with the University is NOT set in stone. They were trying to get the University to put up some money on helping built it and one politician previous said the University was committed, but NO word has Officially came from the University. I believe that the University has possibly said that they would consider it. I believe that the full Board of Trustees will have to vote at least one time giving the University the right to use it for sports or any other functions and that has not happen yet. It probably will in the future. Not even sure if the University is even committed to being included in the technical center that is supposed to be built. 10,000 has always sounded like an aggressive number to me, again, considering the size of the area. I’m not sure there would be an incentive for a music act or a monster truck show or what have you to pass up Huntsville to come here, when Huntsville has the same population as Lauderdale and Colbert counties within their city limits. Heck, I don’t even see a lot of popular concerts scheduled in cities the size of Huntsville or Chattanooga anymore. They just go to Nashville or Atlanta, and maybe sometimes Birmingham. Seems like it’s been that way since the economic crash in 2008. Not that any of that is relevant to UNA. Honestly, as nice as it sounds to have a shiny new arena, I’m hoping the Flowers renovations make IT a shiny new arena. Basketball on campus is always better since you have the chance of more students showing up. I don’t think UNA really “needs” the arena at the moment, so maybe they can be in a position to ask for a good cut of profit if/when some games happen there.
|
|
|
Post by willsfc on May 20, 2018 15:56:46 GMT -6
Officials in HSV are always against us getting stuff here, Huntsville Hospital was/is against the new hospital being built and tries to stop everything they are trying to do to help healthcare in the area. All they care about is people going to their place, Same with a expo center.
|
|
|
Post by catscratchfever4 on May 20, 2018 21:34:26 GMT -6
First I thank it will be built, but the number of permanent seating will be scale back from 10,000 not sure how much. To my knowledge anything dealing with the University is NOT set in stone. They were trying to get the University to put up some money on helping built it and one politician previous said the University was committed, but NO word has Officially came from the University. I believe that the University has possibly said that they would consider it. I believe that the full Board of Trustees will have to vote at least one time giving the University the right to use it for sports or any other functions and that has not happen yet. It probably will in the future. Not even sure if the University is even committed to being included in the technical center that is supposed to be built. 10,000 has always sounded like an aggressive number to me, again, considering the size of the area. I’m not sure there would be an incentive for a music act or a monster truck show or what have you to pass up Huntsville to come here, when Huntsville has the same population as Lauderdale and Colbert counties within their city limits. Heck, I don’t even see a lot of popular concerts scheduled in cities the size of Huntsville or Chattanooga anymore. They just go to Nashville or Atlanta, and maybe sometimes Birmingham. Seems like it’s been that way since the economic crash in 2008. Not that any of that is relevant to UNA. Honestly, as nice as it sounds to have a shiny new arena, I’m hoping the Flowers renovations make IT a shiny new arena. Basketball on campus is always better since you have the chance of more students showing up. I don’t think UNA really “needs” the arena at the moment, so maybe they can be in a position to ask for a good cut of profit if/when some games happen there. If we are going to do it, do it right. Let's not do like Florence did with the space needle. Their first plans would have made it a great tourist attraction but they decided to build it a lot shorter and without a revolving deck. That made it nothing special and it became known as "hamburger on a stick" until it closed for a few years. If not for the Marriott, it would now be a fancy looking, low income ghetto. They probaby won't save that much money cutting the seating. Tupelo is doing great with their 10000 seat arena and they don't have near the population in close range that Florence has. With a 10000 seat arena we could get big concerts and NBA preseason games which would be pretty good for everyone.
|
|
|
Post by unafied on May 21, 2018 9:15:12 GMT -6
10,000 has always sounded like an aggressive number to me, again, considering the size of the area. I’m not sure there would be an incentive for a music act or a monster truck show or what have you to pass up Huntsville to come here, when Huntsville has the same population as Lauderdale and Colbert counties within their city limits. Heck, I don’t even see a lot of popular concerts scheduled in cities the size of Huntsville or Chattanooga anymore. They just go to Nashville or Atlanta, and maybe sometimes Birmingham. Seems like it’s been that way since the economic crash in 2008. Not that any of that is relevant to UNA. Honestly, as nice as it sounds to have a shiny new arena, I’m hoping the Flowers renovations make IT a shiny new arena. Basketball on campus is always better since you have the chance of more students showing up. I don’t think UNA really “needs” the arena at the moment, so maybe they can be in a position to ask for a good cut of profit if/when some games happen there. If we are going to do it, do it right. Let's not do like Florence did with the space needle. Their first plans would have made it a great tourist attraction but they decided to build it a lot shorter and without a revolving deck. That made it nothing special and it became known as "hamburger on a stick" until it closed for a few years. If not for the Marriott, it would now be a fancy looking, low income ghetto. They probaby won't save that much money cutting the seating. Tupelo is doing great with their 10000 seat arena and they don't have near the population in close range that Florence has. With a 10000 seat arena we could get big concerts and NBA preseason games which would be pretty good for everyone. Renaissance Tower is actually a great example that they hopefully learned from. If the place had had the conference center, hotel, and the revolving aspect of the restaurant there from the very beginning, it wouldn't have taken so long to be "successful". I think they even tried to put an aquarium in the lower floors during the first couple of years, but it was a half-hearted effort. Something smaller but the same quality of the Tennessee Aquarium would've been great. But I digress. The piecemeal way all of that came together was why the tower was a joke for so long. If this "ag center" happens, they need to make sure ALL of it is fully funded and built from the get-go. Wouldn't hurt to also get the supposed hotel(s) and retail out there finalized as well, as that would especially help the arena. Maybe 10k seats can work, but I do think they will need a motivated team in place to go after some of these events who might initially not consider the Shoals simply due to size. I honestly don't think it will be a "if you build it, they will come" deal. That's why I think they'll need UNA more than we'll need them. Here's a thought. The ASUN basketball tournaments (men and women) currently happen on campus. Priority #1 for the arena management should be trying to convince them to bring one of the two to the Shoals when the it opens. Might not happen, but doesn't hurt to try.
|
|
|
Post by 1949lions on May 21, 2018 12:21:50 GMT -6
I seriously doubt the ASUN goes away from hosting tournament games on campus. The games were pretty exciting with a great atmosphere. In contrast to the neutral-site GSC tourney which literally had crickets louder than the few dozen fans.
|
|
|
Post by kperk1959 on May 21, 2018 15:28:13 GMT -6
I seriously doubt the ASUN goes away from hosting tournament games on campus. The games were pretty exciting with a great atmosphere. In contrast to the neutral-site GSC tourney which literally had crickets louder than the few dozen fans. If we go full bore to become a real factor in basketball, we could declare the Ag Center as our home arena and steal Liberty's thunder.
Liberty’s Vines Center will take the throne for the ASUN’s largest basketball facility, with a capacity of 9,511 as the @libertymbb team joins the league in 2018-19 #ThisIsLiberty
The girls could call Flowers Hall home or they could also play at the AC and Flowers Hall could be for volleyball and intramural. The more I look at Pujol, I think he has enough status, drive and charisma to make UNA into a player in D1 and the crowds will come and I think he would stay. If we do well, with a 10,000 capacity, we could get the occasional home and homes with mid-major teams.
Auburn's gym holds only 9,100, UAB 8,500, USA 10,041, Ole Miss 9,500, 10,575, Georgia 10,523, Georgia Tech 8,600, Florida 10,133. That's not to mention probably every school at the level we'll be playing at this coming season. And we would have the newest facility in the nation at that time!
I would beg the people in charge to PLEASE be serious and ambitious. Success in big time sports does wonders for the school and the towns where they are located. I'm not demanding we win the national championship but we should aspire to more than just being competitive as a lot of move ups are. The odds of becoming a player in big time basketball are quadruple that of football due to the number of top flight athletes needed. And let's face it, we're never gonna build a 100,000 seat football stadium unless something MAJOR happens in the Shoals and if it does it won't be during my lifetime so Alabama and Auburn have nothing to worry about. But basketball? THAT could be done. You don't have to have a 100,000 seat stadium or 85 scholarships or a $50,000,000 training facility (would be nice though) like you do in the top level of football.
Here are a few successful small schools in D1 college basketball.
Gonzaga - 7,421 Butler - 4,034 Jacksonville - 4200 Albany - 7,700 Belmont - 8,012 Saint Mary's 3,908 Saint Joseph's 8,415 Davidson 1,950 Valparaiso 4,540 Iona - 3,792 They had a 6-11 future NBA All Star but it took a last second half court shot for the New Yorkers to beat the Lions.
|
|
|
Post by tuna85 on May 21, 2018 16:17:26 GMT -6
Duke University Cameron Indoor Stadium - Capacity 9,314 Student Population - 14,832 (undergrads + grads) .....just saying
|
|