New Stadium

Didn't SJU recently update the arena?  Would adding a few thousand more seats really make a big difference? The goal is to get better sell more tickets and have more games at MSG.

I recently saw/heard somewhere that Mullin wanted to look into renovating the arena. I think this is much needed and would go a long way into getting more interest from recruits. I don't really see much room to renovate it thought to add adequate seating. I mean we seat just over 5,500 right now. I think we need to get closer to 10,000 and provide a more updated fan experience.

I'm wondering what people think about this? I like the idea of building an arena in nearby Cunningham Park. At most a mile from campus, right of the parkway, ample space, plenty of area for parking lot/structure. You could then make like an athlete's dorm in place of Carnesecca arena or improve the facilities as a better workout facility for the players.

We have to do a lot to pique the interest of students. Why does Soccer draw so well but College Basketball doesn't. Soccer has been more successful but so has baseball and yet that NEVER draws.

Would a new arena help garner interest? Is it moving it the best idea? A lot of kids live off campus but keeping it on campus and enticing the freshman to come out would help in long run.

I'm taking advantage of the $35 reception and game ticket as a graduate of last decade for the Providence game. I'll be doing it A LOT more next season. They have great offers for Alumni, but there's very little offer for students. Maybe make the student section bigger?

I'm curious to hear what people think. What's the best plan for a new arena? How do we gain more interst?

Quote from: nudginator59 on March 04, 2016, 02:03:33 PM

Didn't SJU recently update the arena?  Would adding a few thousand more seats really make a big difference? The goal is to get better sell more tickets and have more games at MSG.

Yeah they put in seat backs for a privileged few and ass cups for the rest of us if you want to call that an updating.

Those seatbacks were not cheap. At least the bathroom doesn't smell any more .

Didn't SJU recently update the arena?  Would adding a few thousand more seats really make a big difference? The goal is to get better sell more tickets and have more games at MSG.

Obviously the Garden is great. But you're never going to get all Big East games there and if St. John's could build an arena that holds about 10,000 (roughly the capacity for MSG games) but somehow also manage to keep it contained and have a similar feel to the tightness of a Cameron Indoor or one of the typical college arenas, they would have a big recruiting edge. Obviously that feel is only going to come from winning, but if you can have the closeness and also be on or very close to campus, it makes the campus life that much better too. Imagine having like #12 St. John's (if we ever get that far) playing #4 Villanova in the middle of February and having sold out packed arena where you're right on top of each other and it's not very big so the sound bounces more. You would have the best of both worlds if you can somehow get both of these arenas.

No, as far as I know, SJU was never like that. But I think it would be smart to build that. And that's what I mean, as much as I think Arthur Ashe is cool, I think building a smaller 8-10,000 seat arena that is kind of packed in (although with comfortable seating) would be very smart. Obviously it's going to take winning in order for that feel to come in to play.

And I agree that teams should eventually consider it an honor that SJU chose to play them at MSG. But at the same time, for those games not scheduled at MSG, it shouldn't feel like you're playing at a top flight mid-major program's arena.

I think it would be kind of cool to expand Carnesecca. Bring both student sections down to the court level, wrap the seating around so it forms a circle around the court, and also build an overhanging mezzanine over each student sections for say recent alumni. Raise the roof maybe a little as well. I'm no architect but I would think it'd be pretty cool to see something like that.

I also think it would be funny if they built like a mini MSG. Same outside design, same seating arrangement but yet smaller and more packed in. I think that would be pretty funny/cool.

And I don't think we should start building a new arena now. Mullin has to prove himself and start building a rep as does the Big East.

But I'm interested to hear people's opinions on the matter. For instance I once thought about what if they built the arena on the Great Lawn. Or took out the Townhouses and put it there (move the townhouses to some fancier complex where the arena is now) what if they moved the lacrosse field to the soccer stadium and put it there?

I think eventually we will have to do it. DePaul is renovating their arena, I think Xavier just built a new stadium, and I'm sure others may follow suit. We will need an upgrade eventually to keep up with the times.

Students go to soccer because it's free and soccer is sort of hot in America now. For like sports hipsters. Make the bball games free and they will come. The Niagara game this year was free for students and it was packed. They just don't want to spend the money.