Basketball season is upon us! Let's hear what your favorite arenas are around the MAC.

Naturally my favorite is Worthen. It's huge, has excellent viewing angles, and can be loud if enough people show up.

I also really enjoy Savage Arena as well as the Convo at OU. I really like the design and size of EMU's convocation center, but the atmosphere is definitely lacking.

(11-11-2015 12:33 AM)BSU25 Wrote:  Basketball season is upon us! Let's hear what your favorite arenas are around the MAC.

Naturally my favorite is Worthen. It's huge, has excellent viewing angles, and can be loud if enough people show up.

I also really enjoy Savage Arena as well as the Convo at OU. I really like the design and size of EMU's convocation center, but the atmosphere is definitely lacking.

Anderson Arena. A great venue to watch college basketball...

(11-11-2015 12:33 AM)BSU25 Wrote:  Basketball season is upon us! Let's hear what your favorite arenas are around the MAC.

Naturally my favorite is Worthen. It's huge, has excellent viewing angles, and can be loud if enough people show up.

I also really enjoy Savage Arena as well as the Convo at OU. I really like the design and size of EMU's convocation center, but the atmosphere is definitely lacking.

Agree. EMU's Convo lacks fans.

Watch Friday when they have a 11:00 game attended by at least say 1,500 students.

It will be loud and great...

If you're talking about 'Favorite MAC Basketball Arena' - Kent State doesn't have one. What we got looks basically like a High School gym, from the 1940s.

Acorn is talking about replacing the JAR, but the JAR was built in the 80s; Kent's MACC center was built in the 1940s. Sitting in General Admission, you're up in the rafters. It needs to be replaced with a modern arena.

NIU's Convocation Center, because I can sit pretty much wherever I want. :-)

Been to EMU, CMU, WMU, BG, Akron, Toledo.
Ours is so far in front of those I can't take it. EMU is closeish. Our suites are far better than anything I have seen at even Michigan. Beline (sp?) their head coach spoke to UT a few weeks back and was amazed by our facilities. He said there is a reason they won't play us.

I bet BSU, NIU, OU would be in the converstion if I ever visited. Seen em all on TV and in pictures and they are large! Don't know a ton about UB or Kents places.

I attended an EMU game with my daughter a few years back. Ay a timeout, EMU cheerleaders threw t-shirts into the stands. About five minutes later my daughter walked down a couple of rows and picked one up. "I know, Dad, but it's FREE". It seemed to pick up a little last year and there was a loosely organized student cheering section.

OU's Convocation Center is the MAC's Grande Dame, so to speak. if you didn't know better, you would probably not be able to tell from looking at the outside or the arena that it is nearly 50 years old.

(11-11-2015 12:34 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Been to EMU, CMU, WMU, BG, Akron, Toledo.
Ours is so far in front of those I can't take it. EMU is closeish. Our suites are far better than anything I have seen at even Michigan. Beline (sp?) their head coach spoke to UT a few weeks back and was amazed by our facilities. He said there is a reason they won't play us.

I bet BSU, NIU, OU would be in the converstion if I ever visited. Seen em all on TV and in pictures and they are large! Don't know a ton about UB or Kents places.

OUr Convo seats 13,080.

(11-11-2015 01:04 PM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  

(11-11-2015 12:34 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Been to EMU, CMU, WMU, BG, Akron, Toledo.
Ours is so far in front of those I can't take it. EMU is closeish. Our suites are far better than anything I have seen at even Michigan. Beline (sp?) their head coach spoke to UT a few weeks back and was amazed by our facilities. He said there is a reason they won't play us.

I bet BSU, NIU, OU would be in the converstion if I ever visited. Seen em all on TV and in pictures and they are large! Don't know a ton about UB or Kents places.

OUr Convo seats 13,080.

Yep. Have some family members that go there. Should have made the trip in 2013 over winter break. Have never even been down there though because the last time we had you in football I was in high school.

Ohio's Convocation Center was built in 1968 and there are some areas where its age is showing, there aren't a lot of bells and whistles. Inside the arena the lack of a hanging scoreboard is the most glaring omission, rumor is there are plans to add one in the next couple of years. New seats were put in this summer, replacing the 3 shades of green that made up the old seats.

On the plus side the site lines are good and the game day atmosphere, student participation, pep band, and overall crowd size are arguably the best in the MAC.

(11-11-2015 01:02 PM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  OU's Convocation Center is the MAC's Grande Dame, so to speak. if you didn't know better, you would probably not be able to tell from looking at the outside or the arena that it is nearly 50 years old.

So it's pretty young, then? Kent State's Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center opened in 1952 - 63 years old. You can tell it's old from any angle.

Millett isn't a very good basketball arena, and that's just by design. At the last minute, our president around the time of construction had the BOT approve modifications to the design that expanded the room behind the south basket and between the long sides of the court and seats. The justification was that he wanted room for an indoor running track in case we wanted to start a program or host meets, yet it isn't anywhere close to regulation size. Utter stupidity.

When it used to be full, it was quite an atmosphere. During the Wally years we averaged about what OU does now, north of 6K in 1999. We've fallen off a cliff since then, but at least we replaced the puke-green seats and lighting a year ago with new locker rooms on the drawing board.

Truth be told, I still wish Ball State played in Irving Gym. That place could really get rocking and you were on top of the players.

(11-11-2015 11:02 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  If you're talking about 'Favorite MAC Basketball Arena' - Kent State doesn't have one. What we got looks basically like a High School gym, from the 1940s.

Acorn is talking about replacing the JAR, but the JAR was built in the 80s; Kent's MACC center was built in the 1940s. Sitting in General Admission, you're up in the rafters. It needs to be replaced with a modern arena.

A new Akron arena is likely on the back burner for now. Money side, a UA-city of Akron partnership is the only way UA could get something done immediately. However, UA isn't thrilled about a partnership with the city (even though the location would be just off campus in downtown). The bigger hurdle would be getting it passed by voters.

They had a sales tax increase that they were going to put on the ballot (along with county 911 upgrades). They eventually took the arena part off because voter backlash made it clear, the issue wouldn't have passed. And IIR, the issue, even without the arena, failed (don't live in Summit and stopped following once the arena was taken off the measure).

Unfortunately, UA is stuck with a rushed together JAR for the foreseeable future. It's been discussed on here before, but the only reason the JAR was rushed together and is so crappy is because UA was originally supposed to get CSU's Convocation Center. Cleveland politicians stepped in and got it moved to CSU (downtown Cleveland had no big arena at the time as the Cavs played at Richfield Coliseum outside of Akron).

Two years later, the Gateway project came about and the Q was built. Now leaving Cleveland with two big arenas a mile apart (with the Convo/Wolstein hardly ever used). And now, Akron/Summit County has none. The Richfield Coliseum was torn down, and UA had to rush together a big HS gym in the form of the JAR.

It was NEO politics at its finest. Anybody with any sort of forward thinking should've realized the Cavs (The Q) belonged downtown. CSU should've gotten the JAR (small on campus gym since the Q is a mile down the road for bigger games). And Akron should've gotten the 13,000 seat Convo to make up for Summit County losing the Coliseum.

Long story short, the JAR is horrible for a Division I basketball program, and that is thanks to narrow-minded politics.

Haven't been to the new BG arena...the old Anderson Arena was so cramped and tight, but what an atmosphere!

Taking gameday experience out of it, the nicest arena is probably BSU's. NIU and EMU's relatively new arenas are also very nice. Went to a couple of games at Savage before the renovations....fun place to watch a game as well. Never been to the Convo at OU, but it is the largest arena and typically has the best attendance.

Worthen is my #1 facility. The new Savage #2 (huge improvement over the old one) and Stroh #3. EMU's Convo is a great one, too. Any of the other 8 schools should be happy to trade theirs in and pick a new arena modeled after one of those.

I have never been to NIU, but the I'm not crazy about the other MAC arenas for a variety of reasons (Millett just poorly designed, OU's Convo has gotten rundown, etc. They all have their drawbacks.)

The irony is that over the last 15 years, KSU and Akron have had the best overall programs and have probably two of the worst arenas. Just shows that facilities is really not as important as some would believe. There have been some great college games with incredibly intense atmospheres in both the JAR and MACC. It's always amused me how good the MACC has looked on ESPN over the years when the place is rocking. Unless you are in the lower level, it's an awful place to watch a game. I have loved it as a long time fan with a lot of memories there, but as a facility?

(11-11-2015 01:28 PM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  

(11-11-2015 01:02 PM)bobcat_backer Wrote:  OU's Convocation Center is the MAC's Grande Dame, so to speak. if you didn't know better, you would probably not be able to tell from looking at the outside or the arena that it is nearly 50 years old.

So it's pretty young, then? Kent State's Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center opened in 1952 - 63 years old. You can tell it's old from any angle.

Honestly, I had no idea the MAC is 63 years old. I never would have thought that. I think it still looks good!

I think Millet Hall at MU dates from 1968.

I find it difficult to rank the arenas, other than good & bad:

Good:
Savage
Worthen
OUs Covo
EMUs Convo
Stroh (I guess it is better than not, maybe an okay category)

Bad:
JAR
MAC Center
Millett

Still need to attend:
WMU
CMU
NIU
Buffalo