RE: Let's Talk New Arena
Nothing is impossible in regards to location. Everyone has a price. I've said for years that's the ideal location for an arena that could be classified as off campus, meaning they could sell alcohol and make more money to pay it off. ETSU's attendance warrants a 5,000 seat venue with some loge seating/boxes lumped in. I would personally think they should build something that's 10,000 fixed, with around 4,000 in the lower bowl so it'll look filled. You can always light the court as such and tarp off an upper level to make it look full. It should house multiple locker rooms so it can play host to tournament type settings (NAIA, AAU, high school basketball, Division II, Division III, etc...) I'd make the ends retractable so it can be large enough to host concerts, hockey, monster truck, and rodeo events.
If they had to have it a little further towards downtown, that's okay, too. I would just ensure that you could turn West Walnut and downtown into an "it" part of the region, where the arena served as a centerpiece for downtown entertainment where bars, clubs, restaurants, coffee houses, etc... dominate the landscape. Think the love child between State Street in Bristol, Broadway in Nashville, and downtown Franklin. It's not just an arena, it's an entire renaissance of the downtown sector that needs to happen.
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