(01-31-2018 10:13 AM)WM Beancounter Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 08:30 AM)nogretheogre Wrote:  

(01-31-2018 07:18 AM)BigTribe3 Wrote:  The announcement of Zable as the new graduation location also mentioned having Kaplan Arena as the official backup facility in case of heavy rain or thunder storms/warnings. So they still need Kaplan as a back up for 10,000 people.

That would possibly put a crimp in the renovations being discussed here.

Id be surprised they avoid shrinking the seating simply to have a rarely needed rain-date backup venue. I think that quoted number is largely given to help quantify the changes. What do other universities do? My guess is they send the families to their respective departmental ceremonies and livestream the speech.

Regardless, Im sure a creative architect could maintain much of the temporary seating #s, even with many of the changes.

Forgive me if I've missed some news, but is anyone other than a few posters on this board seriously discussing altering Kaplan in any way for any purpose?

While I am far from an insider, I believe that there is a general discussion going on about how to improve the game-day experience at Kaplan. The discussion about altering Kaplan appears to be a derivative of that discussion.

As an example the score board is video capable, but as I understand it the roof/cabellling of Kaplan needs some modifications in order to support that. Another example might be to add an area for premium seating/amenities.

As one goes to other arenas that have been updated such as the Robbins Center, the trend is to reduce seating to add game-day enhancing areas. I don't know for sure, but it seems that these types of observations are driving the discussion.

I could be wrong, but from a very old understanding, not all of the original plan for Kaplan has ever been installed.