(10-20-2021 09:23 AM)Luckeyone Wrote: (10-20-2021 08:41 AM)emu steve Wrote: Watching this "Madness" scrimmage I really appreciate how much EMU misses an on campus arena.
https://twitter.com/HowardU/status/14506...64/video/1
Okay to have a FB stadium off main campus because it is 5 or 6 times a year + there is tailgating, etc.
But for basketball best to have a small, modern (which Howard's Burr is NOT, though) arena in the middle of campus where students WALK to the game, many within 5 minutes.
And the big differences between Howard and EMU:
1). EMU has a significant number of commuter students.
2). EMU has a significant number of students who live off campus. In the case of Howard, few students can afford to live off campus (say 2K/month for a one bedroom apartment) so they stay in university housing. Howard has two dorms literally equivalent to Brown Munson which borders Bowen. At Howard those students can walk out of their building and be at either the FB stadium or basketball arena.
3). And D.C. weather is much milder than S.E. MI. No below zero wind chills.
Steve, I’m trying to understand the objective of your post. EMU has commuter students, it is cold in the winter and we still packed Bowen because it was convenient for the on campus students and for those who drove to games did so regardless that Bowen was on campus. Whoever made the decision to build the convo off campus misfired!
I guess I'm re-thinking the decision to build bigger and off campus.
Couple of salient points:
1). EMU was drawing big crowds and the hope (expectation) that we would draw bigger crowds and big name schools. We were riding a wave. Everyone was building bigger, BSU, EMU, NIU, etc. in the 90s. And later free TV and streaming killed a lot of the walk up crowd. The Howard students who packed their gym last night did so for the atmosphere. What atmosphere can there be in a mostly empty arena?
2). EMU wanted a CONVOCATION CENTER. Hint: Not a field house or gym.
3). I now believe that many student came to Bowen games because they could walk across campus, or even out their doors at Brown, Munson, etc. They don't want to take a shuttle to the Convo.
4). Dr. Shelton told me the city would not have permitted the Convo to be built where Bowen is.
The salient question is: IF EMU wanted to tear down Bowen and build say a 5K seat arena at it's location (and using some of the adjacent surface parking) would the city permit it?
The city had real issues with traffic on Oakwood. I know the times I attended games that traffic and parking was really bad. Oakwood was never designed to handle traffic for an event with 5K attendance.
I believe when Bowen was built and used for basketball it had a capacity of only a few thousand. The placement of the bleachers was different way back when.
Would the city have okayed the permit if the plan was to have almost 5K seats?