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Post by oudrummer on May 5, 2015 17:25:23 GMT -5
Rumor has it that HL basketball championships may be moving to a neutral site... At Joe Louis?!
Would hate that move. Yes it's close but that's about all it has going for it. The place is a dump. It will look awful on tv. Will have as many empty seats as Calihan does most nights. Really hoping this doesn't come to fruition.
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Post by darthnater19 on May 5, 2015 18:41:29 GMT -5
I don't like it either. I like that the 1 seed gets rewarded with home games. Also, you're right in that it would look awful with an empty stadium. When the HL championship game is on ESPN2 it looks great because you have a great home atmosphere of the top seed that's playing. If you turn on other conference tournaments that are played on neutral sites, they look horrible. The HL doesn't have the popularity, or the fanbases to make a neutral site look exciting.
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Post by Pioneer on May 5, 2015 22:48:17 GMT -5
I agree that large, half empty arenas for mid major basketball look bad. If this is a done deal, this should be an advantage for Mercy and Oakland. Remember, Tom Wilson, former president of Palace Sports, now runs Olympia. He is definitely familiar with Oakland. Back in the SL days, the Palace was strongly considered to host the tournament but Disney was too lucrative to free up the dates. Although the Palace is a far superior venue to JLA, Tom Wilson really believes that a new venue will attract bigger and more frequent events to take advantage of the restaurants/hotels etc planned to be built. Let's just hope that the incompetent city council doesn't screw it up for their own selfish benefits.
A new venue might attract casual basketball fans because they want to see the arena and experience the new district. Hopefully this is where the Horizon League and Oakland can find a way to capitalize on this. I just hope there are a lot of creative ways to attract fans to those initial years at the JLA.
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Post by ougradbob on May 6, 2015 7:52:11 GMT -5
Agree - stupid idea.
Valpo hosted the final at the ARC, which seats 5000, and had a total attendance of 4700 for the final....not even a sellout for the FINAL!
I wonder if their concern is with OU, if we become the #1 seed, make the final, and demand for finals tickets well exceeds the 4000 we'd have available for the tourney?
I am curious as to whether or not OU would have a contingency plan in place with the Palace? BTW, I am going to go off on a bit of a tangent here...I think any of our games at the Palace need to be Lower Bowl only, including the game with State. The last game we played against MSU at the Palace was reported at almost 14k in attendance...it didn't look like that to me. They should limit ticket sales to the lower bowl - fill that up first, then open the upper bowl minus the baseline seats until the middle fills up --- ok, I will get off my soapbox now.
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Post by ouxcalum on May 6, 2015 8:33:49 GMT -5
bad idea. detroit is not a strong market for college athletics.
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Post by PantherU on May 6, 2015 9:22:51 GMT -5
Where is the new arena going?
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Post by ouxcalum on May 6, 2015 9:33:36 GMT -5
Where is the new arena going? a bit north of comerica park, off woodward. wedged in between midtown & downtown.
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Post by sportsdoctor05 on May 6, 2015 10:07:35 GMT -5
I think this is a great opportunity for OU & UDM! Getting to play in the HL tourney with all games about 30 mins away from campus. This can be huge for our present students & proud alums, & it generates more excitement from your casual college hoops fan. Think about it, we play a somewhat exciting brand of basketball for a mid major team. Most people are not going to drive to the Orena to see that, but if we're in the heart of downtown we have an opportunity to win over more fans. The glass is half full guys.
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Post by ougradbob on May 6, 2015 10:43:34 GMT -5
Ahhh --- I now see the article -- (potential)5 year agreement split between the current JLA and new JLA
The only way it will look good on TV is if they close off the upper bowl --- if tickets are in high demand, then go ahead and sell upper bowl once the lowers sell out.
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Post by co2005 on May 6, 2015 11:50:12 GMT -5
Hello everyone,
I believe this is a great idea and could work really well for our university if we play to potential. What I want us to be careful with is how we position ourselves. I understand that social media is a great form of communication and gives us rapid access, but the deal isn't done as of yet. How does it look when members of our fanbase is bashing Joe Louis Arena via Twitter? If we don't like the idea, we don't like it. But, we can carry ourselves a little better than what I've seen. Many of us love the Joe. I wouldn't call it a "dump" just outdated which is why we are getting a new arena.
The new arena will be great. As someone who lives in the midtown neighborhood, the tournament will be the perfect setting because of its proximity to downtown (2 mins) and a number of restaurants/bars in midtown and downtown. I also believe that Detroit is great for the college sports. The Frozen Four, The Big 10 hockey tournament (both at the Joe) and the bowl games and NCAA tournament games were great successes.
Another question, is @grizztalkou a representation of one person's thoughts or should it be used as a forum to get conversation going? The twitter account is cool and it was a great idea. Kudos to the person that created it. I just don't know if it's being voiced in the best way for social media presence.
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