@UofRfan and I thought this would be a heavy topic of interest from the jmuconvo website but havent seen it discussed yet.

Q&A

Quote:How does this facility impact the prospect of a move to an FBS conference?

At which time JMU is offered an invitation to an FBS-affiliated league, a thorough and thoughtful recommendation will be made to the JMU Board of Visitors. No such invitation has been extended. The new Convocation Center is about providing the highest level experience for our student-athletes and general student population.

See guys - we have never received an invitation

Very nice. If we play there, I'm coming up.

Video shows it being built right on top of blue ridge dorm. That was my freshman dorm. Oh well I tried to destroy it when I was living there. Onward and upward

Saw this cross twitter:

Quote: jmusuperfan retweeted


Nick Sunderland ‏@NSunderland4 · 3h3 hours ago
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne says the school has raised $2.5-million toward the $12 million fundraising goal for the new Convo.

(04-27-2015 03:57 PM)jmufan2008 Wrote:  That. Is. Beautiful.

Two questions:
1) I know it's been brought up before, but is there any purpose to the giant JMU logo wall? Is something being housed in that space? Did I miss that in the video?
2) Student seating. The FAQ has this nugget: "The students are a critical part of the gameday experience. We are exploring different options for lower bowl seating to further engage our students in order to enhance their positive impact on the game." I would love to see them take the bottom 4 or 5 rows all (or at least most of) the way around the court and give it to the students. Having them all centralized is AWESOME, but it'd be great to give them access to more seats surrounding the court.

Seriously. This is amazing work. Can't even explain how excited I am right now.

I love the look of it, it fits in well with that side of campus. Can easily walk to E-hall or Sheetz. The little retention pond and fountain are a nice touch. They took away about 1/3-1/2 of the parking lot across from Festival, but they're replacing it with a huge deck, which is sorely needed. When I was there it was already insane to get a parking spot over there and they've added a dorm, library, dining hall, and academic building since then. Not sure what else to say other than I need to make more money so I can give to this project.

Bourne and others can answer your questions above in more detail but it is my understanding that the student seats are still in flux and they may be around the entire floor or behind the benches and one goal like at JPJ. The wall with the logo can be more suites or more seats.

(04-27-2015 07:36 PM)QuinDuke Wrote:  Saw this cross twitter:

Quote: jmusuperfan retweeted


Nick Sunderland ‏@NSunderland4 · 3h3 hours ago
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne says the school has raised $2.5-million toward the $12 million fundraising goal for the new Convo.

Yikes. We'll never see the facility at that rate.

(04-27-2015 07:16 PM)Mad victory Wrote:  Video shows it being built right on top of blue ridge dorm. That was my freshman dorm. Oh well I tried to destroy it when I was living there. Onward and upward

I believe it is most recently used as offices. Either way, it was always awkwardly located.

(04-27-2015 08:08 PM)DoubleDDuke Wrote:  

(04-27-2015 07:36 PM)QuinDuke Wrote:  Saw this cross twitter:

Quote: jmusuperfan retweeted


Nick Sunderland ‏@NSunderland4 · 3h3 hours ago
JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne says the school has raised $2.5-million toward the $12 million fundraising goal for the new Convo.

Yikes. We'll never see the facility at that rate.

Construction starts at $3 mil in hand...not sure if the $2.5 mil is in hand or just pledged. I'm of the opinion the public roll out today means the gift money is in-hand, and construction is imminent.

Timeline was in the strategic plan too

(04-27-2015 07:52 PM)HotHamandCheese84 Wrote:  

(04-27-2015 03:57 PM)jmufan2008 Wrote:  That. Is. Beautiful.

Two questions:
1) I know it's been brought up before, but is there any purpose to the giant JMU logo wall? Is something being housed in that space? Did I miss that in the video?
2) Student seating. The FAQ has this nugget: "The students are a critical part of the gameday experience. We are exploring different options for lower bowl seating to further engage our students in order to enhance their positive impact on the game." I would love to see them take the bottom 4 or 5 rows all (or at least most of) the way around the court and give it to the students. Having them all centralized is AWESOME, but it'd be great to give them access to more seats surrounding the court.

Seriously. This is amazing work. Can't even explain how excited I am right now.

I love the look of it, it fits in well with that side of campus. Can easily walk to E-hall or Sheetz. The little retention pond and fountain are a nice touch. They took away about 1/3-1/2 of the parking lot across from Festival, but they're replacing it with a huge deck, which is sorely needed. When I was there it was already insane to get a parking spot over there and they've added a dorm, library, dining hall, and academic building since then. Not sure what else to say other than I need to make more money so I can give to this project.

Bourne and others can answer your questions above in more detail but it is my understanding that the student seats are still in flux and they may be around the entire floor or behind the benches and one goal like at JPJ. The wall with the logo can be more suites or more seats.

Then...no further comments. 10/10.

Get rid of the gold seats on the one side. Make it all purple. Period!

(04-27-2015 08:48 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  Construction starts at $3 mil in hand...not sure if the $2.5 mil is in hand or just pledged. I'm of the opinion the public roll out today means the gift money is in-hand, and construction is imminent.

Per the DNR the large majority of that $2.5M is merely pledged, and over the last eight or nine months. I don't know what to make of that. On the one hand, we have a long way to go; on the other, the fundraising has only now really begun in earnest, I guess.

We prob have 10,000 alums and that is just a guess off the top of my head. If each of those gave $200 (less than $17 a month for a year) we would have $2,000,000. Someone needs to start a kick starter campaign... Maybe JMU Alumni Association?

(04-27-2015 09:20 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  Get rid of the gold seats on the one side. Make it all purple. Period!

Love everything except this: No need to have the Club seats a different color. They can be cordoned off with gold railings or similar. Keep them purple. If they are gold, and that's the side that TV cameras see- this is not a good thing. The seats most likely not to be filled are the best seats in the house, corporate seats....see the current convo for examples. Lazy companies who don't make the effort to give unused tickets away. Everything else is a job well done.

(04-27-2015 09:53 PM)olddawg Wrote:  

(04-27-2015 09:20 PM)BSKB 24 Wrote:  Get rid of the gold seats on the one side. Make it all purple. Period!

Love everything except this: No need to have the Club seats a different color. They can be cordoned off with gold railings or similar. Keep them purple. If they are gold, and that's the side that TV cameras see- this is not a good thing. The seats most likely not to be filled are the best seats in the house, corporate seats....see the current convo for examples. Lazy companies who don't make the effort to give unused tickets away. Everything else is a job well done.

Yup. Give students some wraparound court side seating & make every seat purple.

(04-27-2015 09:42 PM)jmu-fan-1981 Wrote:  We prob have 10,000 alums and that is just a guess off the top of my head. If each of those gave $200 (less than $17 a month for a year) we would have $2,000,000. Someone needs to start a kick starter campaign... Maybe JMU Alumni Association?

Are you saying 10,000 that give? That's the 7 or 10 or whatever percent that give?

I work for a large bank, they match donations for a lot of causes so I'm going to check about higher education.

Another idea is much like NPR and other "telethon" type campaigns, get Alpha Dog or some big corp or some big donor to offer to match if other donors give a certain amount by a certain date. That sort of thing could create all kinds of PR and marketing opportunities, plus create some urgency.

Get our friggin marketing students to come up with ideas, make it a friggin course project!

Wow - love the plans. Glad they are taking the huge duke dog off of the floor and going with something more simplistic. My only beef is the 5 rows of floor seats behind the baskets. If you care about a home court advantage get rid of the chairs and unleash the rowdiest kids on both ends. You need fans on the baseline that are going to be loud and mix it up - not a bunch of blue hairs. This is huge for our program - very exciting.

(04-27-2015 09:42 PM)jmu-fan-1981 Wrote:  We prob have 10,000 alums and that is just a guess off the top of my head. If each of those gave $200 (less than $17 a month for a year) we would have $2,000,000. Someone needs to start a kick starter campaign... Maybe JMU Alumni Association?

JMU has over 112k living alums. The DC goal for members this year is 4,750.

They need to start a brick campaign for the new Convo just like they have for Bridgeforth. $50k+ gets you a plaque on the side of the Convo. Maybe $1k or $2k get you a paver out front. $200+ gets your name on a wall somewhere in the building if you give before the end of the year. Give people time some time to come up with the money, but also put a time priority on actually giving the money so we can get the shovels in the ground.

Donate for the right to have your name on each seat. 8000 seats at 1500 each is 12,000,000.

(04-27-2015 10:06 PM)Birdman33 Wrote:  My only beef is the 5 rows of floor seats behind the baskets. If you care about a home court advantage get rid of the chairs and unleash the rowdiest kids on both ends.

for the record, I agree with you. I will say, that the first thing I thought was "that's how we wound up with risers that people sit on in the existing convo."

risers are the worst.