(03-09-2018 10:42 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 10:34 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 09:44 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 09:25 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(03-09-2018 06:00 PM)Wedge Wrote:  They have about 7,000 students, and the Spokane metro area has only about half a million people. Not many universities of that size that have their own arena (i.e., not playing in someone else's building, like a municipal or NBA arena) have more seats in their building. Dayton, Duke, Wake Forest... anyone else?

Yeah but Gonzaga was huge back when they were first emerging. They had fans everywhere, not just in Spokane. They were Spokane's NBA team. You plan for the future, just in case things aren't as rosy later on. That's why I say 8k would probably be best because 10k may indeed be way too big. 6.5K left no room to grow. Anything below 8k is small time imo.

Spokane isn't large but what else exactly is going on out there? The only other notable schools nearby are Eastern Washington, Washington State and Idaho, two of which aren't in the metro area and one of which isn't even in the state. Never mind that EWU has never had a notable basketball team. I don't know of any minor league sports out there and even the Sonics no longer play in the State of Washington.

The Spokane Arena was just built with taxpayer dollars in 1995. It seats over 12,000 and used to host Gonzaga and some Washington State games and major concerts for the region. It replaced the Spokane Coliseum which only sat 5400. Gonzaga is far from a rich school with a limited endowment ($180 mill) and it probably was not in Gonzaga’s interest to get more events from the Spokane Arena that would alienate voters. The Spokane Arena was voted down four times so it was controversial.

So there’s a 12,000 seat Arena in Gonzaga’s town? How often does Gonzaga play games there these days?

Wiki says Gonzaga has only played in Spokane Arena once since 2012.

Ok...I thought I remember Gonzaga playing out of conference games in Seattle after the Sonics left....I think it was vs Memphis in the CUSA 2.0 years but I could be wrong...