It is my understanding that Memorial Center was modeled after Holt Arena at Idaho State University. I wonder if ISU has to take out all their seating like the mini dome has had to, and if not, why.

No they haven't taken out any seating and don't plan to.

Quote:Seating in Memorial Center, the airiest of basketball arenas, is about to get more intimate for East Tennessee State fans.
University officials are making plans to tighten seating designations for the upcoming basketball season to meet state fire codes. Capacity will shrink by more than half, to about 5,740 seats

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Holt Arena isn't in Tennessee so they don't have to meet Tennessee fire codes.

RZ

Nor do they have an athletic adminstration gunning to get rid of their football team.

I could be dreaming, but wasn't it modeled after the dome at Northern Iowa University? They sure look exactly the same (except N.I. got 16,000 seats squeezed into theirs).

Nope UNI's dome is much different. Look at those pictures, the domes are basically identical. The thing that gets me, it the mini dome has 6 exits on each side. ISU has only 4. How are they complying and we arent?

kevster Wrote:I could be dreaming, but wasn't it modeled after the dome at Northern Iowa University? They sure look exactly the same (except N.I. got 16,000 seats squeezed into theirs).

No not at all Northern Iowa got idea for a Dome from Idaho State but went in a totally different direction. The North Iowa Uni-Dome is more round then the Mini-Dome and the first roof was made out of air supported fabric. The changed out the roof in 1998 but they don't look much a like but the Holt (which was originally called the Mini-Dome) and the Memorial Center look just a like. Also we started building our Dome (73)before Northern Iowa did (74). They "finished" before we did(NI 76, ETSU 77) but had lots of problems with the roof that plagued them for years.

Also interesting to note the Northen Iowa basketball team will open the 2006 season in a brand new 6500 seat arena and Idaho State doesn't use the Holt for basketball they play in Reed Gym which seats around 3,000. Lol now I have to take that last part back. Idaho State had moved to Reed for 4 seasons but are moving back to the Holt this season. The seating is 8,000 for basketball.

Pitt will love this part.

Quote:Holt Arena has a capacity of 8,000 for men's basketball, compared to just over 3,000 in Reed Gym. Holt Arena also has more accessible parking and full concessions, as well as wider concourses and more restrooms. Holt Arena will also allow ISU's students to have more seats closer to the action then at Reed Gym.

"I believe Holt Arena can provide a good Division I basketball experience, for the fans as well as the players, and I am excited about the move back to Holt," said Bubb. "Having played in Holt before allows us to know the challenges that sometimes face us, and we have a plan to address those challenges and concerns. We also faced a number of challenges at Reed, including lack of parking, challenging fan amenities such as concessions and rest rooms, and we know those same challenges do not exist at Holt."

The Bengals have been tremendous in Holt over the years, going 262-107 since the 1970-71 season, a .710 winning percentage. Idaho State has posted a winning mark in Holt 29 times, including 11 seasons of double-digit wins.

Added Bubb, "We are also excited to have our students be closer to the action and more a part of building that home court advantage. Holt Arena will allow us to do just that."

ISU head coach Joe O'Brien said, "I don't see any negatives. At Holt, we'll provide a much better Division I atmosphere and help our recruiting as well."

R

Fan1

Again go back and look at the article. It talks about Tennessee fire codes
and safety planning, not National, The Holt operates under different rules in Idaho.

Quote:Seating in Memorial Center, the airiest of basketball arenas, is about to get more intimate for East Tennessee State fans.
University officials are making plans to tighten seating designations for the upcoming basketball season to meet state fire codes. Capacity will shrink by more than half, to about 5,740 seats.
Jo Ann Paty, ETSU?s associate athletic director for advancement, says the old arrangement simply wouldn?t fly anymore in the 29-year-old building.
?The Dome really started as a football facility and they just kind of started playing basketball,? Paty said Friday. ?In the early days, people sat up on the sides and there wasn?t any floor seating to speak of. When we added seats on the floor to make it more fan friendly, and then started having concerts, we were pushing the envelope.
?The state of Tennessee realized we didn?t have a life safety plan, which means how many people can get out in a specified amount of time. All the codes were reworked and revamped after 9/11. This is the existing code and we now have to comply.

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Who cares? Maybe it'll look a little better on TV, and force some of the old, rich people to open up their wallets some so ETSU can stop this bush league nickel and dime stuff. I'm starting to believe that UNICEF did start a college athletic department, they call themselves ETSU.

Who cares?? This whole thing is rediculous. Maybe if we had built anything new on campus in the past 30 years, this wouldnt be a problem. This is, using a "Pittism", BushLeague. Ripping out the seats from row 20 up. Lets hope they approve the seating plan where the middle will get most of the seats, because if they say no to that, the dome will absolutely be terrible. Yeah they say the new capacity will be just under 6000, but to get that many people in there, people will have to be sitting in section A, where u cant see the court from your seat. Who cares?...I think every ETSU fan should.

You're right, the whole thing is ridiculous... I agree wholeheartedly that facilities should have been built. We're about 10 years behind EVERYBODY as far as building new arenas, fields, etc... If they use the three center sections though, maybe it won't be as bad, but still a joke. Like I said previously, maybe it'll make everyone open up their wallets and help get a new arena, otherwise I see playing in Freedom Hall in ETSU's future.

Except that we cant play in Freedom Hall, cause after we played our last game in there, the NCAA said we couldnt play there anymore. Plus who knows if they even comply with the new fire codes.

Why can't we play there? 94 feet of floor, paint the lines right and put up two goals, what's the problem? Aside from some lighting issues they've had at previous events there. Eh, I wouldn't want to play in there, it's a dump.
Time to get a new arena.

From what I hear, its issues with restrooms or something. But yeah, its a dump. Brooks anyone??

I still don't get that though. They have running water and toilet paper. Granted Freedom Hall isn't an ideal thing, but still... And it's not like ETSU is blessed with restroom facilities.
As I've said before, hopefully this will open up some checkbooks/wallets and a new arena can get pushed to the forefront.

One of Stanton's revolving ADs looked at playing in Freedom Hall in the late 90s and found out to get it to NCAA standards- whatever they are- it would cost approximately the same amount of money building a new arena would.

Freedom Hall should be torn down.

Aren't there also recruiting issues with playing an NCAA game on a high school campus?

Maybe not, I'm not sure.

I'd guess no, because I know what Pitt does is they play their Blue-Gold football game at various high school stadiums every spring.

In fact, didn't ETSU play their Blue-Gold game every year at Memorial Stadium?

Not to mention the fact ETSU occassionally plays games at Brooks Gym, which is officially UH's home venue.

I'm not sure Freedom Hall is technically a "high school" facility. I've seen ETSU play there before in 1996.

In fact, Doctor, maybe you could shed some light on this. I know that in 1975 Freedom Hall hosted a ETSU-North Carolina basketball game.

At that time Freedom Hall was shiny and new and got a lot of events.

As a result, I am a bit puzzled at how Freedom Hall gets built in 1974 and Memorial Center in 1977 and wonder if the hatred the latter venue has received is in part because ETSU decided their basketball team would play there instead of Freedom Hall.

Was Freedom Hall originally signed off on with some faint promise of ETSU hoops playing there as a home venue, and then after it's committed to, the school says "GUESS WHAT! WE'LL BUILD OUR OWN PLACE!"?

It could be that there are no recruiting issues because Freedom Hall isn't the home court of Science Hill. I think the rules for basketball recruiting have changed lately (although I could be wrong). I believe this is a basketball only recruiting issue, but again I could be wrong. Maybe someone with more knowledge could help out.

There haven't been any "big orange caravan" games at local high schools in quite a few years. If you remember at one time even ETSU was playing Intersquad games at Van Huss, etc. Not any more.

UHigh is using ETSU's facility, not the other way around.

I have no idea of the politics regarding Freedom Hall vs Memorial Center, that was before I was in this area.

The might be some issues with playing on a HS campus. However, one of the Las Vegas exempt tourneys is played in a HS gym in the HS. I think the name of the school is Valley School. I remember when Cincy played Illinois there two years ago. Two top 10 teams playing on a HS court with a packed house proved interesting.