(02-13-2014 12:37 PM)bearcatmill Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 10:30 AM)dossbig Wrote:  People keep wanting a new arena. Fine but how will you pay for it? It's not like the current arena is full for most games. I had premium seats from the day the Shoe opened until a few years ago when I could no longer endure paying for lame excuses and lack of effort or watching Born Not Quite Ready dribble and 4 players stand around.

I have bought premium seats at Nip along with others that will pay for those improvements. Would the BB program be able to sell up seats to pay for remodeling 5/3? If they will I am sure it will be done. All of you folks who want that contact UCATS and tell them you are ready to agree to contribute $15,000 to $100,000+. Put your money where your mouth is.

Its going to take more than individual UCATS donations. A project such as this needs corp and community support. If the local corps/community are unwilling to help, this is very telling on their vision for this city.

For many and various reasons the situation is what it is...

[The City of] Louisville has a love affair with the University of Louisville. The UL band highlights the Kentucky Derby by playing "My Old Kentucky Home..." and the City uses the University to highlight the city.

As far as UK goes, it is the "State" (OK, Commonwealth) University and is the main driver for Lexington in terms of image and economy. Lexington IS a "University City" in that, if UK weren't there, Lexington would be a shadow of itself. So it makes sense that the City and the University be partners in almost everything. (I live in Morgantown, WV, and it is a similar dynamic...)

But [the City of] Cincinnati has no such love affair with the University of Cincinnati. And let's face it, while the University is the largest single employer in the City, if the University were to suddenly disappear, the City of Cincinnati would go on. The City's image is not bound up with the University like Lexington is. In fact, for most of it's history, the City of Cincinnati has shown either a mild adversarial relationship with the University or a stance of contempt and disregard towards UC. If the Bengals should threaten to move, the City will literally bend over backwards to give them a deal that they cannot refuse, likewise with the Reds. But honestly, if the University said "We cannot continue collegiate athletics without a new stadium/arena..." I honestly most of the leaders and citizens would say "Yup, you should do that."

Does it reflect upon the "vision" of the City? Perhaps. But it is what it is. Louisville will fund the YUM! Center because they see UL basketball as a shining part of their city. Lexington will renovate and expand Rupp because what is good for UK is literally good for the City. Cincinnati? Not so much.

Jerry - As previously stated the city has no modern arena. A modern arena, with UC as the main tenant, greatly benefits the city. Of course it benefits UC too. Aside from any tension or dislike the city may have for its largest employer, a new arena will help attact other events, which the city cannot currently, ie NCAA games, among other events. A move, such as this, economically benefits the city.

This is where I feel the city is very short cited and lacks vision. Vision other cities possess.

(02-13-2014 01:26 PM)bearcatmill Wrote:  Jerry - As previously stated the city has no modern arena. A modern arena, with UC as the main tenant, greatly benefits the city. Of course it benefits UC too. Aside from any tension or dislike the city may have for its largest employer, a new arena will help attact other events, which the city cannot currently, ie NCAA games, among other events. A move, such as this, economically benefits the city.

This is where I feel the city is very short cited and lacks vision. Vision other cities possess.

I do not disagree... I just don't think you'll find the city or county anteing up to build a new arena thinking UC will be the main tennant.

(02-13-2014 12:30 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 11:24 AM)JackieTreehorn Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 10:52 AM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 10:30 AM)dossbig Wrote:  People keep wanting a new arena. Fine but how will you pay for it? It's not like the current arena is full for most games. I had premium seats from the day the Shoe opened until a few years ago when I could no longer endure paying for lame excuses and lack of effort or watching Born Not Quite Ready dribble and 4 players stand around.

I have bought premium seats at Nip along with others that will pay for those improvements. Would the BB program be able to sell up seats to pay for remodeling 5/3? If they will I am sure it will be done. All of you folks who want that contact UCATS and tell them you are ready to agree to contribute $15,000 to $100,000+. Put your money where your mouth is.

Hopefully AEG pays for a renovation of US Bank and that is good to go for UC.
One of the reasons 5/3 is not full for most games is because the Arena sucks.
The common areas and concession areas are a joke. Ville has a palace, UK is getting a 310 Million renovation of Rupp. Moody has been fully renovated, same with the Sun Dome. Houston's Hofheinz Pavillion is going to get a full renovation. Memphis plays in an NBA Arena.

Besides the fans, The head coach wants a renovated Arena also.

If anyone is expecting AEG to foot the bill to the tune of $100+ million to renovate that turd, IMO don't expect anything soon. It seems that over the last several decades that often nothing like this gets done without at least some public money and after the Bob Bengalhaus lease debacle there is no appetite in this community to invest city or county money in such a project.
Also not buying the notion that attendance is bad just because the arena sucks. Sure The Shoe is outdated and has it's problems but not exactly the dungeon of horrors it's now described as. There's always an excuse. When attendance started lagging near the end of Huggin's tenure it was because the team wasn't ranked high enough, then when he was forced out it was because people were pissed at UC administration and the team sucked. Now that they are winning and highly ranked the excuse is that the arena is poor. More likely a segment of the fan base is just fickle, lazy or cheap. The place sure seems to fill up and rock when UC plays a big game against a marquee opponent (UL, UConn, XU, etc...).
You could put the Yum Center down on the river and I fear the attendance would still suck for the OOC schedule. In fact it might be even worse after the newness wears off. Ticket prices in a new arena are bound to be a lot higher than the bargains they currently offer. Like The Dude said, you gotta feed the monkey, man...

Where did you get that number? The last renovation to the Arena was in 1997, about $14 Million and that was 100% private money. I have never heard or seen any numbers or proposals about how much a renovation would cost there and who pays for what. All of this is 100% speculation.

I read that number ballparked elsewhere but due to my senile dementia I can't recall where. It seems like people envision a modern NBA style arena and in today's dollars that's probably what it will cost. Remember that the "renovation" in '97 wasn't much more than putting in new seats, maybe a scoreboard and tweaking the restrooms. That place needs a big stripdown to make it acceptable because it suffers from many of the same problems as The Shoe, but just has more seats. Concourses too small, no club seats, crappy suites, sightlines for basketball suck because it was primarily built as a hockey rink, poor concession areas, limited number of restrooms, media facilities woefully inadequate for big events like the NCAA Tournament, etc...
All this on an inflexible footprint wedged into downtown by GABP. People talk about issues of cost bring 5th/3rd up to code if renovated. Well unfortunately the same issue holds downtown.

Jackie, I have heard around 100 M for 5/3, think Ono even tweeted something like that. US Bank has 2 concourses,
1 is semi exterior, and 1 is in the interior (and wide) where the court can be seen. The exterior concourse is not wide by modern standards but at least it it contiguous all the way around the Arena. It has many more restrooms and concession areas than
5/3. 5/3 has what 4 entrances/exits from the concession/restroom areas into the seating area? US Bank has ? maybe 40.

I would imagine that a renovation of US Bank would take out seats and put in suites in the lower section of the upper deck,
open up areas and connect the interior and exterior concourses with restaurant-sports bar areas with flat screens and
tables/chairs/bars. The media room is very small at US Bank (lower level) and it needs work. 5/3 footprint is inflexible also, not
sure what that has to do with anything. You think the sightlines are bad at US Bank? Behind the baskets there is a gap
of space until you get to the permanent seats, but the views from the seats are fine. The chairbacks are leather like with cupholders and much more leg room than 5/3.

5/3 opened in 1989...Rupp opened in what, 1975?

5/3 just needs to be renovated...it's a nice on campus arena.

(02-13-2014 12:55 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 12:37 PM)bearcatmill Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 10:30 AM)dossbig Wrote:  People keep wanting a new arena. Fine but how will you pay for it? It's not like the current arena is full for most games. I had premium seats from the day the Shoe opened until a few years ago when I could no longer endure paying for lame excuses and lack of effort or watching Born Not Quite Ready dribble and 4 players stand around.

I have bought premium seats at Nip along with others that will pay for those improvements. Would the BB program be able to sell up seats to pay for remodeling 5/3? If they will I am sure it will be done. All of you folks who want that contact UCATS and tell them you are ready to agree to contribute $15,000 to $100,000+. Put your money where your mouth is.

Its going to take more than individual UCATS donations. A project such as this needs corp and community support. If the local corps/community are unwilling to help, this is very telling on their vision for this city.

For many and various reasons the situation is what it is...

[The City of] Louisville has a love affair with the University of Louisville. The UL band highlights the Kentucky Derby by playing "My Old Kentucky Home..." and the City uses the University to highlight the city.

As far as UK goes, it is the "State" (OK, Commonwealth) University and is the main driver for Lexington in terms of image and economy. Lexington IS a "University City" in that, if UK weren't there, Lexington would be a shadow of itself. So it makes sense that the City and the University be partners in almost everything. (I live in Morgantown, WV, and it is a similar dynamic...)

But [the City of] Cincinnati has no such love affair with the University of Cincinnati. And let's face it, while the University is the largest single employer in the City, if the University were to suddenly disappear, the City of Cincinnati would go on. The City's image is not bound up with the University like Lexington is. In fact, for most of it's history, the City of Cincinnati has shown either a mild adversarial relationship with the University or a stance of contempt and disregard towards UC. If the Bengals should threaten to move, the City will literally bend over backwards to give them a deal that they cannot refuse, likewise with the Reds. But honestly, if the University said "We cannot continue collegiate athletics without a new stadium/arena..." I honestly most of the leaders and citizens would say "Yup, you should do that."

Does it reflect upon the "vision" of the City? Perhaps. But it is what it is. Louisville will fund the YUM! Center because they see UL basketball as a shining part of their city. Lexington will renovate and expand Rupp because what is good for UK is literally good for the City. Cincinnati? Not so much.

I have never understood the city's (and the county's) indifference toward the University of Cincinnati. The economic impact UC has on the region dwarfs the combined impact of the Reds and Bengals.

(02-11-2014 07:28 AM)subflea Wrote:  Where are you from that you call the building where basketball is played a stadium?

thought same thing....

I assumed "bball stadium" meant "baseball stadium" when I first saw the title.

(02-13-2014 04:40 PM)chatcat Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 12:55 PM)BearcatJerry Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 12:37 PM)bearcatmill Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 10:30 AM)dossbig Wrote:  People keep wanting a new arena. Fine but how will you pay for it? It's not like the current arena is full for most games. I had premium seats from the day the Shoe opened until a few years ago when I could no longer endure paying for lame excuses and lack of effort or watching Born Not Quite Ready dribble and 4 players stand around.

I have bought premium seats at Nip along with others that will pay for those improvements. Would the BB program be able to sell up seats to pay for remodeling 5/3? If they will I am sure it will be done. All of you folks who want that contact UCATS and tell them you are ready to agree to contribute $15,000 to $100,000+. Put your money where your mouth is.

Its going to take more than individual UCATS donations. A project such as this needs corp and community support. If the local corps/community are unwilling to help, this is very telling on their vision for this city.

For many and various reasons the situation is what it is...

[The City of] Louisville has a love affair with the University of Louisville. The UL band highlights the Kentucky Derby by playing "My Old Kentucky Home..." and the City uses the University to highlight the city.

As far as UK goes, it is the "State" (OK, Commonwealth) University and is the main driver for Lexington in terms of image and economy. Lexington IS a "University City" in that, if UK weren't there, Lexington would be a shadow of itself. So it makes sense that the City and the University be partners in almost everything. (I live in Morgantown, WV, and it is a similar dynamic...)

But [the City of] Cincinnati has no such love affair with the University of Cincinnati. And let's face it, while the University is the largest single employer in the City, if the University were to suddenly disappear, the City of Cincinnati would go on. The City's image is not bound up with the University like Lexington is. In fact, for most of it's history, the City of Cincinnati has shown either a mild adversarial relationship with the University or a stance of contempt and disregard towards UC. If the Bengals should threaten to move, the City will literally bend over backwards to give them a deal that they cannot refuse, likewise with the Reds. But honestly, if the University said "We cannot continue collegiate athletics without a new stadium/arena..." I honestly most of the leaders and citizens would say "Yup, you should do that."

Does it reflect upon the "vision" of the City? Perhaps. But it is what it is. Louisville will fund the YUM! Center because they see UL basketball as a shining part of their city. Lexington will renovate and expand Rupp because what is good for UK is literally good for the City. Cincinnati? Not so much.

I have never understood the city's (and the county's) indifference toward the University of Cincinnati. The economic impact UC has on the region dwarfs the combined impact of the Reds and Bengals.

Part of it is the leverage they have of moving. What is UC going to do - become the University of Indianapolis - haha?

(02-13-2014 12:17 PM)dossbig Wrote:  Also what about the students?

They will get downtown in the same manner they get there now for whatever the hot downtown club at the time is. Many of them have these things with engines and wheels called cars. Very few of the students I went to school with in the last few years were without cars.

(02-13-2014 10:06 PM)subflea Wrote:  

(02-13-2014 12:17 PM)dossbig Wrote:  Also what about the students?

They will get downtown in the same manner they get there now for whatever the hot downtown club at the time is. Many of them have these things with engines and wheels called cars. Very few of the students I went to school with in the last few years were without cars.

I do think this will hurt attendance for buy games unless UC continues with an incentive structure for students to go to games so they can win a reward.