utpotts Wrote:

Rightupinthere Wrote:

Schadenfreude Wrote:

H2Oville Rocket Wrote:BG just got the green light on a new Convo center to replace AA. Very much in the planning stages. Don't know much about it but it has a completion date of 2010, I think. BG fans can fill in detail. Should be a huge boost for their program.

A new basketball building is a go. There was an announcement a couple weeks ago. Construction would start in 2010. No design yet. Few details are out there.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this is that BGSU seems committed to learning from other schools' experiences and trying to maintain what's great about Anderson Arena.

(Insert jokes here if you must, but, for big games, that barn really rocks like no other place in the league).

Rumor is, they are looking at building a place with 5,500 seats. This has been the subject of some debate among fans, some of whom want more seats. But I think it's the right way to go.

I've been to UB's arena. Nice place, but it's just way too big. My sense is that a lot of our programs have over built, and it looks like we are going to avoid that mistake.

This is technically not MAC related, but BG is also looking at major improvements to the BGSU Ice Arena starting in 2009. This is a big deal as it could help get our hockey program back to where it was during the 1980s and early 1990s.

To add, I think 5,500 is the way to go. The funds are already dedicated and the architect has been named.

Half of the hockey funds are earmarked with the remaining coming from private donations. Rumor has it that they are going to take seats away and upgrade quite a bit of infrastructure.

Also, Field Turf is being installed in the indoor practice facility in the spring.

I have a feeling there will be more announcements in the next 12 months.

Isn't BG planning on working the Ice Arena too????

I was perhaps a bit vague in my bolded sentence. It should have read "Half of the hockey arena funds......."

I sometimes refer to the ice arena as the hockey arena. One of my many foibles.

Please stop with this TV stuff. There may be a few more games on locally but overall it is neutral at best and not a positive in my opinion.

I don't know what the TV situation is in other MAC markets, but I have to respectfully disagree with you Robert. The Big 10 transitioning their games to an in house network has benefited the MAC is 2 ways:

1) Since the MAC is the Big 10 conference's most frequent opponent in OOC games, MAC teams get growing national exposure on another conference's network without having to build it's own infrastructure.

2) With Big 10 games no longer available outside of the ABC/ESPN/BTN framework; local broadcast networks that had aired B10 have switched to MAC games. WPWR(channel 50 Chicago) broadcast a MAC game nearly every Saturday, the fact that it's a traditional broadcast channel also means that the 15-20% of the viewing public that doesn't have cable/satellite in Chicago gets exposed to MAC football.

onlinepole Wrote:15-20% of the viewing public that doesn't have cable/satellite in Chicago gets exposed to MAC football.

I think it would be great for our football teams to expose themselves to all of Chicago on cable TV.

H2Oville Rocket Wrote:

onlinepole Wrote:15-20% of the viewing public that doesn't have cable/satellite in Chicago gets exposed to MAC football.

I think it would be great for our football teams to expose themselves to all of Chicago on cable TV.

They do in a way, but only when another MAC team plays at NIU.

Rightupinthere Wrote:

utpotts Wrote:

Rightupinthere Wrote:

Schadenfreude Wrote:

H2Oville Rocket Wrote:BG just got the green light on a new Convo center to replace AA. Very much in the planning stages. Don't know much about it but it has a completion date of 2010, I think. BG fans can fill in detail. Should be a huge boost for their program.

A new basketball building is a go. There was an announcement a couple weeks ago. Construction would start in 2010. No design yet. Few details are out there.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this is that BGSU seems committed to learning from other schools' experiences and trying to maintain what's great about Anderson Arena.

(Insert jokes here if you must, but, for big games, that barn really rocks like no other place in the league).

Rumor is, they are looking at building a place with 5,500 seats. This has been the subject of some debate among fans, some of whom want more seats. But I think it's the right way to go.

I've been to UB's arena. Nice place, but it's just way too big. My sense is that a lot of our programs have over built, and it looks like we are going to avoid that mistake.

This is technically not MAC related, but BG is also looking at major improvements to the BGSU Ice Arena starting in 2009. This is a big deal as it could help get our hockey program back to where it was during the 1980s and early 1990s.

To add, I think 5,500 is the way to go. The funds are already dedicated and the architect has been named.

Half of the hockey funds are earmarked with the remaining coming from private donations. Rumor has it that they are going to take seats away and upgrade quite a bit of infrastructure.

Also, Field Turf is being installed in the indoor practice facility in the spring.

I have a feeling there will be more announcements in the next 12 months.

Isn't BG planning on working the Ice Arena too????

I was perhaps a bit vague in my bolded sentence. It should have read "Half of the hockey arena funds......."

I sometimes refer to the ice arena as the hockey arena. One of my many foibles.

oh its cool, i just remember playing there when i was in HS.

If BG's hockey program wants to take that next step, they need to do something with that buliding.

utpotts Wrote:oh its cool, i just remember playing there when i was in HS.

If BG's hockey program wants to take that next step, they need to do something with that buliding.

That's the consensus on azz.com. It's more about "how we can get back." I believe the sum dedicated to the ice arena is in the $5mil range.

I'm glad to see them updating the ice arena versus laying a sheet of ice in the convo center. I wouldn't want a new barn either. There's a L-O-T of history in that old place.

Seems Akron has found MORE $ for their new FB stadium.

http://www.uakron.edu/stadium/news/newsbrief_81307.php

New endzone facility, etc.

I like this one:

"The final upgrade is for premium, movable glass windows in the 16 luxury suites to allow each suite holder to control the amount of outdoor exposure and atmosphere during games and events. "

I still remember the Thanksgiving Day game in '05 and thought how nice it would be to control 'outdoor exposure'.

For those who didn't see the game on ESPN2, it was almost as bad as the CLE Browns game vs. Buffalo last Sunday. Lot of snow and wind.

The stadium will be ready Sept 12, '09 for a game vs. Kentucky (that will go in the unofficial '09 OOC schedule thread'. ;-)