New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Season

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

But it will be asy to get the 5500-6500 they get at every other series in there.

From page 2 of this thread:

The program has averaged, exactly, 7,318 fans per game over the entirety of its 17 season existence up to this season. Over those 17 seasons, the program has averaged more than 7,500 fans per game in 9 of those 17 seasons.

What do you suppose it might do with a good team? Because UNO has rarely had one. And, now the school has a new on-campus arena to recruit to. The student section in this building is larger than the one in the CenturyLink Center. The Clink is nowhere near the campus; presumably more students will now be at our homes games.

Further, the school is then publicly projecting, and I agree, that the arena will be sold out every game next season. In my conversation with the Athletic Department about 3 weeks ago, upwards of 4,500 season tickets are already spoken for and they have not even opened up availability to the general public as yet. Those 4,500 seats represent current season ticket holders, One Fund members, club seat owners, and suite holders. Throw a student section seating another 750 on top of that.

FYI, UNO has only averaged less than 6,000 fans per game twice in the history of the program.

And now you think that's all that will be there on a nightly basis, or even less, perhaps on the heels of conference title, in a brand new state-of-the-art-on-campus arena, with another excellent looking recruiting class coming in?

Really?

[Critical Thinker]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I think a sold out sign in front of a 7,500 seat arena will look better than empty seats in a 10,000 seat arena.

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I think a sold out sign in front of a 7,500 seat arena will look better than empty seats in a 10,000 seat arena.

Hard to argue with this. In talking with other local fans, though, at games, as well as at pre and postgame local watering holes, I think most people wanted something at least as big as the Omaha Civic Auditorium, which seated 8,314 and in which UNO sold out every single game they ever played, 131 straight sellouts, before moving into what is now the CenturyLink Center. I, personally, would have been O.K. with 9,000 or so, but I thought 10,000 would have been better. UNO has a demonstrable ability to put even more than that number of fannies in seats, having done so, twice, just this past weekend, one of which was while a huge snowstorm was going on.

The top 13 crowds in school history are all in excess of 10,000 people.

[5thYearFreshman]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

From page 2 of this thread:



What do you suppose it might do with a good team? Because UNO has rarely had one. And, now the school has a new on-campus arena to recruit to. The student section in this building is larger than the one in the CenturyLink Center. The Clink is nowhere near the campus; presumably more students will now be at our homes games.

Further, the school is then publicly projecting, and I agree, that the arena will be sold out every game next season. In my conversation with the Athletic Department about 3 weeks ago, upwards of 4,500 season tickets are already spoken for and they have not even opened up availability to the general public as yet. Those 4,500 seats represent current season ticket holders, One Fund members, club seat owners, and suite holders. Throw a student section seating another 750 on top of that.

FYI, UNO has only averaged less than 6,000 fans per game twice in the history of the program.

And now you think that's all that will be there on a nightly basis, or even less, perhaps on the heels of conference title, in a brand new state-of-the-art-on-campus arena, with another excellent looking recruiting class coming in?

Really?

Doing the math, 6 seasons at the Civic with an average attendance of 8314 would mean that the 11 seasons at the Q/CLink average is around 6774 fans per game. Since each season would include the likelihood of 2 "sellout" games or a premier series where we get 10,000+, I stick with my 5500-6500 number.

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Doing the math, 6 seasons at the Civic with an average attendance of 8314 would mean that the 11 seasons at the Q/CLink average is around 6774 fans per game. Since each season would include the likelihood of 2 "sellout" games or a premier series where we get 10,000+, I stick with my 5500-6500 number.

If you are correct, then the school will have revenue "problems" right out of the gate since the revenue projections they released are predicated on selling out every game, at least as far as next season is concerned.

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Local news story on the new arena from KMTV here in Omaha:

http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Take-an...html?lc=Tablet

If you watch this carefully, you can see the progress that has been made in the interior as far as concrete work for seating from other recent videos I have posted.

First sentence of report: ".......starting to take shape........"

LOL, it's 60% complete. Other news sources have said they will make test ice by the end of March.

At the end of the story they duly note this being the 4th facility opening (none of which are expressly for hockey but it is played in all of them) since 2002 here in Omaha, which seat, respectively, for hockey, 4,061, 6,924, 7,800, and 17,100 people. To say nothing of the Omaha Civic Auditorium that is still standing, about to be demolished, at 8,314. There are two other rinks (one of them is actually a dual rink facility with both NHL and Olympic ice that the Lancers used to play in the early days) in Omaha that seat 800 and 1,000 people, respectively.

Anybody need a spare arena?

[5thYearFreshman]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

If you are correct, then the school will have revenue "problems" right out of the gate since the revenue projections they released are predicated on selling out every game, at least as far as next season is concerned.

If that is the case, they would be even worse off if they had put 9-10K seats in the arena as there would be little chance of filling it more than twice a year.

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I spoke to Pat Morris of the Athletic Department again today. I needed some clarification to my "points" situation. He dropped several tidbits on me.

1. Pat tells me the arena design is very similar to that of AmSoil Arena in Duluth. He mentioned that Coach Kemp also made trips to Agganis Arena at BU, Kelley Rink at BC, as well as to Mathews Arena at Northeastern (a school UNO has never played) to look at their arenas. He said Coach Kemp was particularly impressed with Mathews. School officials also looked at the Ralph and, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I personally witnessed Coach Kemp looking over the facilities in Duluth.

2. I told Pat one of the things I personally don't like about AmSoil is that there are no concessions or restrooms on the upper level. Pat says our building is not going to have them, either.

3. They have held meetings with all donors of a 100 grand or more (there are 32 of these, alone), with all donors of 30 to 99 grand, as well as all that have donated 15 to 29 grand, and they are currently working on the next tier of donors below that. This is as it relates to seat quantities "desired" and where.

4. Almost all club seating is spoken for (but not all). 750 seats times $1,500.00, each

5. I'll reiterate that the first time I spoke to Pat, mentioned earlier in this thread, that he expected all 15 suites available to the "public" will likely be purchased by the 100 grand+ contributors. I've seen commentary (serious or not, I don't know) by UNO fans at Mavpuck who think they are going to put together a consortium of friends/fans and buy a suite. Ain't happenin', folks.

6. He indicated that all remaining individuals to be contacted (the remaining donors and season ticket holders) would have another mailing from the school in the next week or two about the purchasing of their specific seats.

As an aside, he did tell me that my t-17 ranking (meaning tied for 17th) at my donor and season ticket holder level should equate to seats that I'd be happy with.

For any body interested in the overall pricing structure, the 15 suites are 40K or 50K, depending on size, and require a 5 year minimum commitment. As already mentioned, the 750 club seats are 1500 bucks apiece. The other pricing is as follows:

Glass (green): $495.00
Lower "Premier" (orange): $495.00
Lower End Zone (yellow): $455.00
Upper "Premier" (blue): $295.00
Upper End Zone (lilac): $265.00
UNO Students (grey): Free (750 of theses seats in the building)

Seating chart (corresponding colors above):

https://www.facebook.com/MavpuckPage...type=1&theater

The suites are numbered 1 through 17 on the chart.

Parking will be freebie. Suite and club seating owners will receive "Premier" parking passes.

Once all the people on the current season ticket owner and donor lists have been taken care of (and this appears it will end up being upwards of 5,000 season ticket holders, Pat told me in prior communication), then, and only then will season tickets be made available to the general public. That number includes student tickets, by the way.

And, to reiterate, the school expects that every game next season will be a sell out.

[JoeGopher]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

1. Pat tells me the arena design is very similar to that of AmSoil Arena in Duluth. He mentioned that Coach Kemp also made trips to Agganis Arena at BU, Kelley Rink at BC, as well as to Mathews Arena at Northeastern (a school UNO has never played) to look at their arenas. He said Coach Kemp was particularly impressed with Mathews. School officials also looked at the Ralph and, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I personally witnessed Coach Kemp looking over the facilities in Duluth.

Are you sure he was talking about being impressed with Matthews? I was out there this past November to watch a game and while the place has a fresh coat of paint, it is perhaps one of the worst arena's I have been in for hockey. It's old, has virtually no concessions or bathrooms (it was built in 1910 for crissakes) and I would estimate about 60 - 70% of the seats have either obstructed or terrible views of the ice. It took us about 5 attempts (The arena was pretty empty) to find a seat where we could see about 80% of the ice/action.

I can't imagine anyone would be looking at that place as a model of good.

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Are you sure he was talking about being impressed with Matthews? I was out there this past November to watch a game and while the place has a fresh coat of paint, it is perhaps one of the worst arena's I have been in for hockey. It's old, has virtually no concessions or bathrooms (it was built in 1910 for crissakes) and I would estimate about 60 - 70% of the seats have either obstructed or terrible views of the ice. It took us about 5 attempts (The arena was pretty empty) to find a seat where we could see about 80% of the ice/action.

I can't imagine anyone would be looking at that place as a model of good.

I couldn't speak to this, having never been in this facility.

I can tell you that Pat Morris of the UNO's Athletic Department was quite emphatic about this, however. He really went out of his way to mention this particular arena standing out to Coach Kemp during our conversation.

It might not be aesthetically pleasing but, perhaps, there was something about the overall design of Mathews or one particular thing that stuck out to him, even if it is, to paraphrase your comments "lipstick on a pig". It is certainly quite a bit smaller than what UNO is building.

Maybe a Northeastern fan can weigh in, here?

I know Northeastern completed a renovation of the facility in late 2009. That said, the place is about 6 weeks shy of being 105 years old.

It doesn't look awful in this historical timeline on the school's web site:

http://gonu.com/sports/2010/1/28/matthewsarena.aspx

[TheRevengeance]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

The NU thread was linked in here, so I'll throw my opinion in. First of all, this is Matthews. The picture is probably a good 5-10 years old and predates the most recent round of renovations and the big new jumbotron, but the basic function of everything about the place remains unchanged. http://www.campusrec.neu.edu/images/matthews.jpg

I've only been to Matthews, UNH, and BC as far as college rinks go (BU is getting added on Friday) but I see the reason for the critical perspective. Matthews is a 100 year old cramped arena with no concessions or bathrooms and a bunch of oddly shaped intricacies. Nobody should build Matthews down to a T ever again. If you're building an arena, I coudn't think of a better place to base it on for a hockey watching experience than starting with Matthews and modernizing it by removing the oddball parts that exist in a 100 year old arena that's also used for basketball and has an abnormally sized ice sheet. You can make the footprint bigger and throw more concessions and bathrooms around the outside, that's no problem. We just don't have the physical space to expand because we'd be expanding into the street. What makes Matthews special to me, and the reason it blows Kelley and Agganis out of the water, is the intimacy of the crowd to the game and in my humble opinion the best view in college hockey. The balcony/higher level starts out at barely twice the height of the glass and is offset only a few feet behind the boards at each goal. It actually starts hoizontally closer to the end boards than the lower bowl does (On the sides of the rink it is curves further out as you can see.) It gives a new meaning to the word "on top of the action" and there isn't a bad place to watch a game the entire way around it. We can and do have conversations with our players from the first row of the upper level while they wait to get on the ice for warmups/each period, to show how close it is for an upper level. As for the lower bowl, "between the 20's" I think the views and sightlines down there are pretty standard. The reason it gets a bad rap is because near and behind the goals, the lower bowl has some odd angles and views, as well as the giant pillars that are staples of 1900 sports stadium architecture (Looking at you, Fenway) that cut into the seating area at some points. But I think all the problems down there are easily fixed by just building a 21st century hockey rink. The cause of most of the problems is that the seating area down there doesn't actually extend all the way to the boards everywhere, and some of the first row-to-boards gaps are easily ten feet. That affects the viewing angle the whole way back when it happens, and frankly it's terrible and reminds me of the sightlines when they have hockey games at Fenway/other baseball stadiums. But that distance issue is easily fixed by just building a rink that fits in the arena (or building an arena that fits around the rink.) The pillars you can get rid of by just using modern engineering. And just like that you're good to go and have views that are no different than the lower bowls everywhere else, while maintaining the uniqueness that the upper level provides.

tl:dr: Matthews has some old quirky parts that can cause just criticism, but a Matthews built in 2015 would be amazing.

And looking at this picture from the news article in post 81 http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Take-an...html?lc=Tablet
It looks a lot like what I have pictured in my head and what you guys are building are really similar. So if it really was Matthews influenced, I can certainly see where it came through. For comparison, Kelley and Agganis are both one level of seating that goes up and up like high school gym bleachers. They're newer and shinier, but I'd rather watch a game at an arena that's made for actually watching the game.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...anis_Arena.jpg

[HumRsky]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Some good pics of Matthews here too: http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiu...a-s1128/images

[supertacks]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I couldn't speak to this, having never been in this facility.

I can tell you that Pat Morris of the UNO's Athletic Department was quite emphatic about this, however. He really went out of his way to mention this particular arena standing out to Coach Kemp during our conversation.

It might not be aesthetically pleasing but, perhaps, there was something about the overall design of Mathews or one particular thing that stuck out to him, even if it is, to paraphrase your comments "lipstick on a pig". It is certainly quite a bit smaller than what UNO is building.

Maybe a Northeastern fan can weigh in, here?

I know Northeastern completed a renovation of the facility in late 2009. That said, the place is about 6 weeks shy of being 105 years old.

It doesn't look awful in this historical timeline on the school's web site:

http://gonu.com/sports/2010/1/28/matthewsarena.aspx

Matthews Arena was originally built for boxing. If you walk around the arena, and sit in several seats, you will quickly realize that every seat has an unobstructed view to center ice. Many seats have poor sightlines to either end of the ice surface. A few seats are next to a large concrete support beam that completely obstructs half the ice, but would be ok for viewing a boxing match at center ice. One of the best features of the building is the first row balcony. You are on top of the action with an excellent view of the entire ice surface. (I recall that many of the balcony seats do not have backs) The way the roof is built and braced, creates an amazing amount of noise, when the building is near capacity. Matthews is a great old barn with a large ice surface (I think it is 200 x 90). If Northeastern could figure out a way to fill it to near capacity (like in the 1980's), it really creates a home ice advantage.

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Here and now, I publicly air my desire that UNO call our new barn the "Orena".

Catchy, huh?

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Here is video from inside the new arena from yesterday from WOWT, the NBC affiliate here in Omaha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtIkBDuj-n0

The interior is coming along nicely. First look we've had in a month or so.

Its some measure of how out of touch the local news media here is with UNO hockey, really. The school long ago announced the actual capacity of the new arena is going to be 7,800, instead of the originally announced 7,500, which is the number stated in this piece.