Plans for the AA?

[WyoExpat]

I saw this posted on the K2 television website: http://www.k2tv.com/sports.php?id=1049

This sounds exciting but one question I have is: What will this do to the maximum capacity of the AA?

I have long been convinced that size of our arena is an indication of the potential of our program--and we are able to sell it out. 15,000 seems to be a magic number when you look around the country.

 

[whyoh]

i read a report on the uni-wyo website detailing the future expansion plans through out the campus, they had specifics listed like a center hung scoreboard and luxury suites.....but it did say it would bring the capacity down to somewhere like 12-13

 

[Wyolie Coyote]

Luxury Suites? I think that is absurd. Why would we need any suites? Burman needs to priortize the spending on capital improvements to something that gives us a competitive edge, not catering to a few donors. Stupid to even consider luxury suites if you ask me. :thumbdown:

 

[WYCowboy]

I hear they will have to do major structural strengthening to the top of the AA if they want a center hung scoreboard. Why not raise the roof some to make room for the suites without reducing the number of seats. I don't understand the need for suites either, but wth if there are those that want to contribute a lot of money to sit in them - good for them and more money for UW Athletics.

 

[TSpoke]

Suites are a great idea and a great money maker. People will have to spend a lot of money to have them. just like the wildcatter. It will only reduce the number of people that can attend the game at most once or twice a year.(haven't come close in many years) So the money made by selling those suites will more than make up for loss in seating. It will give us a competitive advantage by bringing in more money to the program and also give us the look of a major program.
Im not sure how they plan on doing this but I am all for it.

 

[laxwyo]

I hear they will have to do major structural strengthening to the top of the AA if they want a center hung scoreboard. Why not raise the roof some to make room for the suites without reducing the number of seats. I don't understand the need for suites either, but wth if there are those that want to contribute a lot of money to sit in them - good for them and more money for UW Athletics.

one word.....booze. people in suites get to drink booze.

 

[whyoh]

I hear they will have to do major structural strengthening to the top of the AA if they want a center hung scoreboard. Why not raise the roof some to make room for the suites without reducing the number of seats. I don't understand the need for suites either, but wth if there are those that want to contribute a lot of money to sit in them - good for them and more money for UW Athletics.

one word.....booze. people in suites get to drink booze.

you, sir, are a fucking genius!

 

[Cowboy Junky]

I've read just about every piece of information to come out on this subject.

I didn't realize they are looking at expanding the court area to include a bigger surface for practice. That's interesting.

Expect the same things you see on the renovated concourse of the War. There will be bigger and better bathrooms, concessions areas, flatscreen t.v.s on the concourse, center hung video board, club seating, luxury boxes....The seating capacity is likely to be between 12-13, but the ability to generate revenue will increase greatly as club seating and luxury seating involves booz.

 

[whyoh]

I've read just about every piece of information to come out on this subject.

I didn't realize they are looking at expanding the court area to include a bigger surface for practice. That's interesting.

Expect the same things you see on the renovated concourse of the War. There will be bigger and better bathrooms, concessions areas, flatscreen t.v.s on the concourse, center hung video board, club seating, luxury boxes....The seating capacity is likely to be between 12-13, but the ability to generate revenue will increase greatly as club seating and luxury seating involves booz.

 

[whyoh]

i'm guessing that the luxury boxes would be set up similarly to the pepsi center wherein they are @ floor level with the concourse, open air, with private entrances

 

[TheBuckhole]

Expanding the court area?!? Ah...what??

That's what's wrong the AA in my opinion. We need to bring the fans closer to the action on both sides of the court, similar to the big basketball schools, like Kansas, Duke, etc. Get rid of that circular pattern of seating around the entire court, and bring the seating down on both sides to make rectangular area, with seats almost court side. Yeah, yeah, the scorers tables and media seats are there, yes, but some how all these other schools have managed to do it. Of course, we're not any other school, I get that. But the AA needs a more intimate feeling, that's college basketball. I just watched Kentucky at Indiana on Saturday, a great example.

The AA is similar to the huge football stadiums built in the late 70's, early 80's. Where no one is close, but everyone has a great seat. Well, that's all fine and dandy in theory, but guess what? All those stadiums have been torn down to create a more intimate feel. Three Rivers Stadium being replaced by Heinz Field is a perfect example.

 

[whyoh]

Expanding the court area?!? Ah...what??

That's what's wrong the AA in my opinion. We need to bring the fans closer to the action on both sides of the court, similar to the big basketball schools, like Kansas, Duke, etc. Get rid of that circular pattern of seating around the entire court, and bring the seating down on both sides to make rectangular area, with seats almost court side. Yeah, yeah, the scorers tables and media seats are there, yes, but some how all these other schools have managed to do it. Of course, we're not any other school, I get that. But the AA needs a more intimate feeling, that's college basketball. I just watched Kentucky at Indiana on Saturday, a great example.

The AA is similar to the huge football stadiums built in the late 70's, early 80's. Where no one is close, but everyone has a great seat. Well, that's all fine and dandy in theory, but guess what? All those stadiums have been torn down to create a more intimate feel. Three Rivers Stadium being replaced by Heinz Field is a perfect example.

this....i would be happier seeing a dedicated practice facility instead of making our arena more practice friendly

 

[NowherePoke]

Agree with others on the dedicated practice facility and the goal of making the AA more intimate.

I don't mind reducing capacity, in fact I think that is a positive. One of the things that hurt our attendance over time is that we never developed a culture of season ticket holders and must see games. Because there were almost always a seat available, people could pick and choose which games to attend. We probably never should have had more than a 10k arena. We did have one year where we averaged 13k (1987-88), but aside form that, just over 10k has been our high water mark for season average. A little scarcity might help.

Still excited to hear plans to improve the AA. Definitely an important step.

 

[nwpoke]

Gotta say: must see poke games - any time Tubs and Garnett played BYWho and the whiner ainge. In an indoor rodeo arena no less. Nothing like a winning team to make a gym rock. The AA will be packed this season - these guys are young and have to learn consistency, but they are fun, with a huge upside. BTW in those days we didnt worry about luxbox and booze are you guys slipping?

 

[kansasCowboy]

You know, what gets me is we have sold out "The WAR" several times before our renovations began. that's an average of 33,877. Back when it held 33,500. Mind you, just so we have no arguements here, I'm talking about sellout games. Since renovations started we have dropped the capacity down to 29,086. That is 4,414 difference. Our sellouts since this time are 2,000+ short of what they used to be as well. The largest being the Nebraska game this year at 32,617 and Virginia 31,620. I believe Texas was only 31,117. We are the only stadium that I know of that loses capacity while being renovated. I don't get the understanding of that. Not to mention the structure of the Wildcatter and how it was accepted. If you sit in the stands right next to the suits you can't see but maybe 1/3 of the field.
Now we have to Do renovations to the AA. Granted i've always wanted to see a hanging scoreboard there. But, They will be taking seating away for making the court bigger and also by adding suits? Do we really need suites? It's so dumb. So, now we will take our 15,000 seat arena which has been sold out several times as well including 16,000+ against Utah about 8 years back. We'll go from 15,000 to probably 11,000. How Dumb is that!
So we either lose money or we up the ticket prices to compensate for losing so much seating.

 

[wyo 1]

Suites will make big money , just like the wildcatter does. With the bigger court space, it will probably have retractable seating and may actually make the seating go down to the court side,not further away.

 

[TheBuckhole]

....With the bigger court space, it will probably have retractable seating and may actually make the seating go down to the court side,not further away.

I actually thought about that the other day, but didn't mention it. I hope you're right.

 

[Aaron]

I think the AA is perfect the way it is

 

[calpoke25]

You know, what gets me is we have sold out "The WAR" several times before our renovations began. that's an average of 33,877. Back when it held 33,500. Mind you, just so we have no arguements here, I'm talking about sellout games. Since renovations started we have dropped the capacity down to 29,086. That is 4,414 difference. Our sellouts since this time are 2,000+ short of what they used to be as well. The largest being the Nebraska game this year at 32,617 and Virginia 31,620. I believe Texas was only 31,117. We are the only stadium that I know of that loses capacity while being renovated. I don't get the understanding of that. Not to mention the structure of the Wildcatter and how it was accepted. If you sit in the stands right next to the suits you can't see but maybe 1/3 of the field.
Now we have to Do renovations to the AA. Granted i've always wanted to see a hanging scoreboard there. But, They will be taking seating away for making the court bigger and also by adding suits? Do we really need suites? It's so dumb. So, now we will take our 15,000 seat arena which has been sold out several times as well including 16,000+ against Utah about 8 years back. We'll go from 15,000 to probably 11,000. How Dumb is that!
So we either lose money or we up the ticket prices to compensate for losing so much seating.

I agree reducing capacity for really big games sucks, but lets be realistic. We have the demand for max capacity maybe a couple times a decade. It's much more profitable to have the suites which you can sell as a reliable steady stream of supplemental income than worry about the 3 times a decade we sell out. With our current pathetic attendance max capacity is the least of our concerns. First the fans need to show up, which they aren't.

 

[WyoExpat]

With our current pathetic attendance max capacity is the least of our concerns. First the fans need to show up, which they aren't.

I an not convinced that the recent attendance trends are helpful for projecting future capacity needs. I think that, based on Coach Shyatt's prior tenure in Laramie, we should expect fan interest and intensity to grow into the conference season. I expect that next year we will see non-conference attendance top 8,000 for non-marquee games and that we will even break 12,000 by the end of this conference season. From 1997-2002 we saw that crowds steadily grew to a point when we could expect to sell out the current facility once or twice per year. Good basketball at Wyoming does a better job of selling tickets at the AA than good football does at War Memorial.

The recent past performance at the box office might not indicate future results.