(06-01-2011 02:20 PM)MU88 Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 01:37 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 10:13 AM)MU88 Wrote:  As I have said over and over, DePaul needs to know what it is. Its a big, inner city, commuter college.

Do you consider Lincoln Park "inner city" in economic terms? The average price of a home there exceeds $1 million.

DePaul may not be in Evanston, but it's not exactly Englewood, either.

DePaul is still an inner city school, even though the neighborhood has changed. Income in Lincoln Park has doubled over the past 20 years, and the average home price has increased to $335,000 (not a million). But, that includes the homes on the so-called gold coast. Inland, its is still an inner city neighborhood with a crime rate 3 times the national average, with almost 4 times the national rate for rape. The neighborhood around DePaul's main campus can be rough.

But, more importantly, DePaul is a commuter college, unlike a school like Northwestern. For the 25,000 students, the campus provides student housing for 3000. It has 6 campuses around town. They have tried to develop the main campus, but it is still a patchwork of buildings. Not so long ago, the President was talking about offering associates degrees. Almost 40% of its students have parents who both don't have a college degree. In many respects its more like UIC (although UIC has developed that campus nicely) than a school like Georgetown. It needs to recruit athletes who similar to its traditional student body.

Replace 'DePaul' with 'Marquette' and you just described that campus and school.

(06-01-2011 11:11 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 07:31 PM)KnightLight Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 04:55 PM)ivet Wrote:  the debate about an arena closer to the campus is still going on and there is land that might be suitable (J Finkl Steelmill) near campus that has come available, that is if investors, both form the school and private, were willing to go after it...other than that the school is pretty landlocked.

Thats great news (that its even being talked about/debated) as I had no idea that was even going on.

A new smaller (than the giant United Center or the "box" All-State Arena) arena could probably be very useful...as if DePaul had a right-sized downtown "home", it might bring DePaul Hoops back to some of their glory days.

It's probably the last hope for a near-campus DePaul arena. The Finkl site looks good on paper because it definitely has enough space for a stadium (my understanding is that it has a bigger footprint than the United Center), it can act as a bridge between Lincoln Park (yuppies) and Wicker Park (hipsters), and since it was a polluting factory site, there won't be NIMBY protests to replace it (as no one lives in there and an arena would be a neighborhood upgrade compared to an industrial property). The main problem is the environmental cleanup, which would be a massive undertaking. The Finkl factory was named one of the 10 worst polluters in the country before it moved. That's actually the critical item for DePaul - who's going to do the cleanup if it buys the property?

I'd say if DePaul doesn't have any more committment to their basketball program than they're showing now, they probably won't get that property. They'll be outbid for the property. Somebody will fail to come up with promised money. Or some other reason as yet unknown will arise to derail things...

I just don't see DePaul becoming viable, unless a miracle of biblical proportions occurs...

(06-02-2011 12:23 AM)CuseKid Wrote:  Replace 'DePaul' with 'Marquette' and you just described that campus and school.

Nope. Marquette's neighborhood is crappier than DePaul, but the school and the makeup of the student body is significantly different. MU is not a commuter college. The single campus is mostly suburban kids and foreigners. Its more like SLU and Xavier, than DePaul.

(06-02-2011 07:59 AM)bitcruncher Wrote:  I'd say if DePaul doesn't have any more committment to their basketball program than they're showing now, they probably won't get that property. They'll be outbid for the property. Somebody will fail to come up with promised money. Or some other reason as yet unknown will arise to derail things...

I just don't see DePaul becoming viable, unless a miracle of biblical proportions occurs...

DePaul is definitely showing financial commitment in the form of paying Purnell a crapload of money. Now, whether that's money well-spent is a different matter, but it 's definitely not for a lack of money. The low overall expense figure by DePaul is mostly explained by the low rent that they have to pay at Allstate Arena compared to even Marquette (much less St. John's renting out MSG). In terms of actual basketball operations, DePaul isn't being cheap if that's the argument.

The question now is whether or not Purnell is a last ditch effort. If he comes up short, he may very well be...

(06-01-2011 08:55 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  Best case scenario for DePaul would be if there was a 10,000 seat arena in DOWNTOWN Chicago (where DePaul's main campus is located)...but since they play way out by O'Hare International in the HUGE old box that was initially called the "Rosemont Horizon", aka All-State Arena...that hurts DePaul's ability to draw major support (i.e. HUGE building, almost impossible for them to sellout...which hurts season tix sales since tix to virtually every game can be had), plus, its a pain in the ASTRO to get to on a weeknight (rush hour traffic in that area by the airport is insane).

United Center is way too big (22,000 plus seats) and way too expensive to rent...as I think DePaul could take-off again if they had a 10,000 seat arena (season tix would sellout ASAP) in the DOWNTOWN AREA, that would be easily accessible to students, locals, etc...

Allstate Arena is easy to get to. There is RTA bus service direct to North side entrance from the CTA Blue Line which stops near OHare Airport(Rosemont). There is also RTA bus service via the Rosemont Blue Line stop from Woodfield Mall(Schaumburg) and west/northwest suburban Chicago.

Have a competitive team and DePaul will draw well. Northwestern drew 5K per game last year and Evanston is no easier to get to from downtown Chicago than DePaul and much harded to get to from any of the suburbs except the northern suburbs. Considering that DePaul has won 1 conference home game in 2 years, their average attendance last year was not bad(7676, #67), the last year DePaul went to a tourney (2005) their average attendance was 9159(#55), (2004) 9041(#53). Good numbers when you consider the Blue Demons compete with the Bulls(#1 NBA attendance), Blackhawks(#1 NHL attendance), Bears, Cubs, White Sox, Chicago Wolves(#3 Minor League Hockey attendance) plus Northwestern, UIC, Loyola, NIU and Chicago State for college hoops in metro Chicago.

(06-06-2011 04:40 PM)onlinepole Wrote:  

(06-01-2011 08:55 AM)KnightLight Wrote:  Best case scenario for DePaul would be if there was a 10,000 seat arena in DOWNTOWN Chicago (where DePaul's main campus is located)...but since they play way out by O'Hare International in the HUGE old box that was initially called the "Rosemont Horizon", aka All-State Arena...that hurts DePaul's ability to draw major support (i.e. HUGE building, almost impossible for them to sellout...which hurts season tix sales since tix to virtually every game can be had), plus, its a pain in the ASTRO to get to on a weeknight (rush hour traffic in that area by the airport is insane).

United Center is way too big (22,000 plus seats) and way too expensive to rent...as I think DePaul could take-off again if they had a 10,000 seat arena (season tix would sellout ASAP) in the DOWNTOWN AREA, that would be easily accessible to students, locals, etc...

Allstate Arena is easy to get to. There is RTA bus service direct to North side entrance from the CTA Blue Line which stops near OHare Airport(Rosemont). There is also RTA bus service via the Rosemont Blue Line stop from Woodfield Mall(Schaumburg) and west/northwest suburban Chicago.

Have a competitive team and DePaul will draw well. Northwestern drew 5K per game last year and Evanston is no easier to get to from downtown Chicago than DePaul and much harded to get to from any of the suburbs except the northern suburbs. Considering that DePaul has won 1 conference home game in 2 years, their average attendance last year was not bad(7676, #67), the last year DePaul went to a tourney (2005) their average attendance was 9159(#55), (2004) 9041(#53). Good numbers when you consider the Blue Demons compete with the Bulls(#1 NBA attendance), Blackhawks(#1 NHL attendance), Bears, Cubs, White Sox, Chicago Wolves(#3 Minor League Hockey attendance) plus Northwestern, UIC, Loyola, NIU and Chicago State for college hoops in metro Chicago.

I believe posters got a good taste of what St. John's can bring to the league when they were finally NCAA good last year. I hope DePaul proves us wrong in the very near future. Hopefully Purnell does for them what Lavin has done for the Red Storm.

Cheers,
Neil

Not knowing that much about St John's but with the competition they have for fans in the NYC area, I'm sure if they're not winning they don't draw well. That holds true for most college programs that have to compete with Pro Sports franchises in their market area. There are exceptions with Memphis hoops, Texas football, North Carolina College hoops; but in most metro areas where there is pro sports, college takes a back seat.