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Greg Byrne: Alabama working on new arena 'every single day'

Ok GB, got it!

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Let‘s wait 10 more years when the price doubles. Build the damn arena, now. They continue to have excuse after excuse. They locked up Oats, now give him an advantage The barn has had for over a decade.
 
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pfaud001 said:
Let‘s wait 10 more years when the price doubles. Build the damn arena, now. They continue to have excuse after excuse. They locked up Oats, now give him an advantage The barn has had for over a decade.
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This the price that is paid for being so “ football centric”.
Agree with you completely.
 
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Watching College Game Day at Auburn this morning:
Modern arena/ students down on floor all around the court and great publicity for the program on a Saturday morning.

Novel idea folks.
 
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Anyone know what the current thinking is about the size of a new arena. I know there has been fan support for a smallish venue, say in the 9-10,000 range. I think that’s too small, particularly if we can hold onto Oats. We seem to be packing Coleman out now and have a student enrolled approaching 40,000. I am thinking 15,000+or- with a design that puts the crowd hanging right over the floor. Now, if some of you big money guys will pry open your wallets. . . Naming rights no doubt are available.
 
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btr said:
Anyone know what the current thinking is about the size of a new arena. I know there has been fan support for a smallish venue, say in the 9-10,000 range. I think that’s too small, particularly if we can hold onto Oats. We seem to be packing Coleman out now and have a student enrolled approaching 40,000. I am thinking 15,000+or- with a design that puts the crowd hanging right over the floor. Now, if some of you big money guys will pry open your wallets. . . Naming rights no doubt are available.
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Totally agree. 10,000 capacity isn’t nearly enough. The current 15,000 isn’t enough for Saturday home games now.
 
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Somehow it is a minority opinion but we shouldn't try to copy the barn by building a tiny shoebox of a gym. Fair enough if we don't go to 15k again but the gym needs to be capable of seating 13k or more. Maybe regular seat area around 11.5 to 12k with temp seats or standing areas that can push it over 13k.

The thing that needed addressing more than anything was getting a good product on the court. Oats has done that. The next thing is finding a way to get more energy around the court. That's hard to do without pissing off the few folks that were continuing to donate to and support the program even in the down years. The seating size did NOT need addressing. We've proven this season that we can fill 14k easily.

I HATE the push to make a tiny 9k seat gym that looks like something where a big high school might play ball. Acknowledge that the barn got something right for them and their program. Don't copy it and try to shoehorn what fit their program but might not fit our program.
 
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I go to most of the games, and we usually aren’t sold out. Especially against the crap teams at the beginning of the year. I understand the thought process, but that is why they are going smaller. I went to the Vandy game and it was not even close to packed.
 
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TideFever said:
Somehow it is a minority opinion but we shouldn't try to copy the barn by building a tiny shoebox of a gym. Fair enough if we don't go to 15k again but the gym needs to be capable of seating 13k or more. Maybe regular seat area around 11.5 to 12k with temp seats or standing areas that can push it over 13k.

The thing that needed addressing more than anything was getting a good product on the court. Oats has done that. The next thing is finding a way to get more energy around the court. That's hard to do without pissing off the few folks that were continuing to donate to and support the program even in the down years. The seating size did NOT need addressing. We've proven this season that we can fill 14k easily.

I HATE the push to make a tiny 9k seat gym that looks like something where a big high school might play ball. Acknowledge that the barn got something right for them and their program. Don't copy it and try to shoehorn what fit their program but might not fit our program.
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Do not need to worry about entitled 60 plus Tide Pride people if the betterment of the program is involved.

They will get over it and enjoy their new seats.
 
jtr4dad said:
Totally agree. 10,000 capacity isn’t nearly enough. The current 15,000 isn’t enough for Saturday home games now.
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You guys got $400 million laying around? We can have a 15K seater. We're just going to have to pony up big time for it.

$250 million will buy a nice 10K arena. The bad news is, about 5K fans are going to lose seating. The good news is, the arena will be mostly packed every night.

The bottom line is, there will be trade offs for the new arena, and no, Alabama doesn't have endless resources to do it and everything else we want to do. It's not excuses, it's fiscal reality of modern major universities in a country run on late stage capitalism.
 
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Charlie Tango said:
You guys got $400 million laying around? We can have a 15K seater. We're just going to have to pony up big time for it.

$250 million will buy a nice 10K arena. The bad news is, about 5K fans are going to lose seating. The good news is, the arena will be mostly packed every night.

The bottom line is, there will be trade offs for the new arena, and no, Alabama doesn't have endless resources to do it and everything else we want to do. It's not excuses, it's fiscal reality of modern major universities in a country run on late stage capitalism.
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Its been made very clear that the capacity sought is all about creating a consistent appearance of the gym being full or mostly full and not about how much more it might cost to build for a higher capacity.

If planned from the beginning, adding a couple thousand to capacity wouldn't have a dramatic impact on the overall cost. It would likely bump it up but we're talking more along the lines of $250 million to $265 million or so. It certainly wouldn't almost double the cost. This makes it sound like they would have to make the structure fifty feet taller and a few hundred square feet wider to accommodate it resulting in 10s of millions of extra costs.

Regardless we apparently don't have $200 million. So unless someone wills a substantial fortune to the building of a new gym this will be a holding pattern at any size. At the rate inflation is spiraling up it may soon cost $400 million for a 5000 seat gym with the old high school gym bleachers that retract like Foster Aud.
 
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Whatever we end up with for a new gym I hope/pray they get it right the first time. I don't know what right ultimately will be but given how long it's taken to even get to this point it might be 2100 before a new one is considered again.

I have a fear that we go small and Bama basketball really blows up and two years into it everyone is echoing "why didn't they build it big enough for demand? It's too small!".

This isn't going to be an outdoor arena where you can build up to expand. It will be what it's built to be and there won't be a real chance at expanding. IMO better to make it capable of being bigger instead of going for a small gym and regretting it. I don't know that I've ever heard anyone who has had a house built or a business built and said "man, we really shoulda made it smaller". Almost everyone wishes they'd added that extra corner or room.

Most of the gripes about Coleman boil down to the way the seats are arranged. The 2 to 3 thousand seats in the rafters where no one wants to sit tends to keep some folks away from all but the biggest games. How many more would show for Bama games today if those weird corner seats didn't face about 45 degrees away from the court and the side court above row 35 didn't feel like you were on a crane looking into the gym from the front steps of the Bryant Museum?

I have zero doubt the program could support 13 to 13.5k and if done right it wouldn't look empty for regular games.

Even if they go for 10k those Dec games against some awful team are never going to be well attended. They could play in Foster with today's team and it still wouldn't look "full" against a Jackson St. That's just Bama basketball.
 
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jtr4dad said:
You obviously weren't at the Kentucky or LSU games this year. Coleman was packed liked sardines for both of those games.
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Plus so far this year almost all our home games have been during the week at 8:00pm. Trying to remember who we have played at home on a Saturday, besides Kentucky.

l know we have 2 more Saturday games and its about time. We had to play West Ga. at their place on Saturday and now we get them in Coleman on a damn week night. Of course we will pack it for them, whenever it is.
 
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lainey2020 said:
Plus so far this year almost all our home games have been during the week at 8:00pm. Trying to remember who we have played at home on a Saturday, besides Kentucky.

l know we have 2 more Saturday games and its about time. We had to play West Ga. at their place on Saturday and now we get them in Coleman on a damn week night. Of course we will pack it for them, whenever it is.
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Those weekday 8 p.m. starts are rough on fans, whether you're at home (having to work the next day) or attended and have to travel a good distance to get home. Some may have kids that have to go to school the next day, etc..
 
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lainey2020 said:
Plus so far this year almost all our home games have been during the week at 8:00pm. Trying to remember who we have played at home on a Saturday, besides Kentucky.

l know we have 2 more Saturday games and its about time. We had to play West Ga. at their place on Saturday and now we get them in Coleman on a damn week night. Of course we will pack it for them, whenever it is.
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Kentucky and LSU have been our only Saturday home games so far. The Georgia and Arkansas games will also each be played on a Saturday. Both have been sold out for weeks.
 
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What is our paid attendance average over the last 5 years?

I always think we'll have a 10k arena and the same people won't show and we'll still be half full.
 
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