Better Facilities Paying Dividends For College Hoops Program

[Hoya Hoya Hoya]

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/20 ... difference

Great article but I did want to point out one interesting statement:

"While schools like Ole Miss and Butler are in power conferences, a school such as Dayton can sometimes fight a perception problem being in the Atlantic 10."

[stever20]

http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2016/10/20/college-basketball-recruiting-improved-facilities-make-all-difference

Great article but I did want to point out one interesting statement:

"While schools like Ole Miss and Butler are in power conferences, a school such as Dayton can sometimes fight a perception problem being in the Atlantic 10."

yeah but then you left out the next 2
Clearly the Flyers have one of the best young coaches in the sport and one of the biggest and most passionate fan bases around, but recruits might not know how committed Dayton is.
That is, until recruits are able to get on campus, and they see the re-done locker rooms, meeting rooms, and offices.

[xu1990]

Yes, yes we all know Dayton has a cute little program. Nice practice facilities. Rabid fans

I am sure if we played on a neutral court each year they would occasionally keep it within 30

In all seriousness, we all know X and UD are similar schools. Say what you want about how successful we have both been lately and that the rivalry is not needed, but I miss those games.

Jimmy Carter to Hillary Clinton Era Lives!

[ivet]

Guess the perception of the Big East is that we are a Power Conference. Seems like yesterday people were quick to say that we were just a bunch of small mid-major schools and we'd never make it without Football Money.

[SJHooper]

1) We can thank Villanova for having SI refer to us as a power conference in this article. They wanted us to fail and show that you need football to be a major hoops program. We knew that didn't make sense. We knew we were a power conference all along. So thank you Nova for ending the criticism immediately after the championship. Now we need other teams to step up and join them on the national stage.

2) Can someone please forward this article to the St. John's administration? They don't seem to get the memo. Carnesecca has a nice lobby, but that's about it. Our basketball facilities are similar to that of a nice high school or average DIII school. I'm sick of sitting in Carnesecca on a bleacher with no seat back and having to feel my back ache. Mind you, I'm 27 so if I have back pain from sitting there I can only imagine how some of the older guys feel. Wouldn't you want to have an inviting environment for fans? I understand there are bleachers at other schools too, but in our arena it's like 80% and maybe 20% have actual seat backs with cushion. I get that we play at the Garden for our bigger games, but that does not excuse a hot, disgusting, industrial, glorified DIII level arena on campus. We are a basketball school but you wouldn't know that by seeing our facilities. It should be a shrine. They basically sell popcorn at a stand...great concessions! Then the school wonders why fans will go to the Garden but not Carnesecca. Who in their right mind would want to go into a hot, sticky arena to sit on rock hard bleachers with no seat backs and what amounts to an 8 yr old at a lemonade stand for our concessions? We also re-branded recently and removed the black from our color way. It's now red, navy blue, and white. You would think our court at Carnesecca would reflect the changes, right? Wrong. There is still a black border on the court.

I've probably said this a million times but it bears repeating. I went to Binghamton maybe 5 years ago to watch a basketball game and they have a brand new facility that looks like it can host a pro team. They have concessions like most pro arenas with real food, big selections, etc. They have seat back chairs with cushions to make the fan experience as comfortable as possible. They have a gorgeous court, a professional half time show, etc. Binghamton sucked. The place was PACKED. All over you could hear people talking about how nice the arena was and how they love going to games. I had the same experience at Boston University who also has a terrible hoops program. Then I come home to games at SJ and it makes me realize how far behind we are with our facilities. You would think that being right in NYC with some famous alumni and plenty of big-pocketed alumni, that we could build a nice cozy updated arena with modern amenities for our basketball program which is what our school is known for. Carnesecca is what I would call modern if it was 1980. It seems everyone is building facilities except us.

[Xudash]

1) We can thank Villanova for having SI refer to us as a power conference in this article. They wanted us to fail and show that you need football to be a major hoops program. We knew that didn't make sense. We knew we were a power conference all along. So thank you Nova for ending the criticism immediately after the championship. Now we need other teams to step up and join them on the national stage.

2) Can someone please forward this article to the St. John's administration? They don't seem to get the memo. Carnesecca has a nice lobby, but that's about it. Our basketball facilities are similar to that of a nice high school or average DIII school. I'm sick of sitting in Carnesecca on a bleacher with no seat back and having to feel my back ache. Mind you, I'm 27 so if I have back pain from sitting there I can only imagine how some of the older guys feel. Wouldn't you want to have an inviting environment for fans? I understand there are bleachers at other schools too, but in our arena it's like 80% and maybe 20% have actual seat backs with cushion. I get that we play at the Garden for our bigger games, but that does not excuse a hot, disgusting, industrial, glorified DIII level arena on campus. We are a basketball school but you wouldn't know that by seeing our facilities. It should be a shrine. They basically sell popcorn at a stand...great concessions! Then the school wonders why fans will go to the Garden but not Carnesecca. Who in their right mind would want to go into a hot, sticky arena to sit on rock hard bleachers with no seat backs and what amounts to an 8 yr old at a lemonade stand for our concessions? We also re-branded recently and removed the black from our color way. It's now red, navy blue, and white. You would think our court at Carnesecca would reflect the changes, right? Wrong. There is still a black border on the court.

I've probably said this a million times but it bears repeating. I went to Binghamton maybe 5 years ago to watch a basketball game and they have a brand new facility that looks like it can host a pro team. They have concessions like most pro arenas with real food, big selections, etc. They have seat back chairs with cushions to make the fan experience as comfortable as possible. They have a gorgeous court, a professional half time show, etc. Binghamton sucked. The place was PACKED. All over you could hear people talking about how nice the arena was and how they love going to games. I had the same experience at Boston University who also has a terrible hoops program. Then I come home to games at SJ and it makes me realize how far behind we are with our facilities. You would think that being right in NYC with some famous alumni and plenty of big-pocketed alumni, that we could build a nice cozy updated arena with modern amenities for our basketball program which is what our school is known for. Carnesecca is what I would call modern if it was 1980. It seems everyone is building facilities except us.

Excellent post.

You would think (or at least hope) that the Big East leadership has put some form of strategic plan in place for the conference that contains critical objectives for it, and that they're managing and monitoring results against plan goals through some kind of dashboard reporting process. In other words: strategy 101 stuff. One of those critical objectives has to be facility investments at each school.

Georgetown just nailed it.

Nova just announced that the Pavilion is going to be refurbished.

The Dunk has been greatly improved for Providence, plus Providence I believe just announced or opened a major on campus athletic complex.

I'm not sure what the Hall is up to with respect to facilities - practice/training facilities.

DePaul finally woke up.

Marquette has the Al coupled with an NBA Arena solution.

Creighton plays in a beautiful facility.

Butler nailed it with the Hinkle renovation. I'm not sure what their practice/training profile is about, but Hinkle now looks the part for being in a major conference. It has working clocks and water fountains that are not ancient and barely hanging from the walls anymore (sorry, couldn't resist).

Xavier just opened its 5,000 sq. ft. training facility integrated into the Cintas Center as part of the Cintas Center's ongoing $25 million upgrade plan.

You would think that this kind of stuff would be covered during Big East meetings. You would hope that invitations would be extended to the St. John's leadership team to fly around to the various league locations, outside of game day experiences, to evaluate and develop ideas for what would work best for St. John's.

St. John's is too important to the long-term health of this conference to fall behind in an area that has become known and obvious to everyone in sports management circles. The facilities arms race hasn't gone away, and won't go away, and it will always be an issue for any school that didn't properly engage in it initially - during the relevant recent past.

[Hall2012]

1) We can thank Villanova for having SI refer to us as a power conference in this article. They wanted us to fail and show that you need football to be a major hoops program. We knew that didn't make sense. We knew we were a power conference all along. So thank you Nova for ending the criticism immediately after the championship. Now we need other teams to step up and join them on the national stage.

2) Can someone please forward this article to the St. John's administration? They don't seem to get the memo. Carnesecca has a nice lobby, but that's about it. Our basketball facilities are similar to that of a nice high school or average DIII school. I'm sick of sitting in Carnesecca on a bleacher with no seat back and having to feel my back ache. Mind you, I'm 27 so if I have back pain from sitting there I can only imagine how some of the older guys feel. Wouldn't you want to have an inviting environment for fans? I understand there are bleachers at other schools too, but in our arena it's like 80% and maybe 20% have actual seat backs with cushion. I get that we play at the Garden for our bigger games, but that does not excuse a hot, disgusting, industrial, glorified DIII level arena on campus. We are a basketball school but you wouldn't know that by seeing our facilities. It should be a shrine. They basically sell popcorn at a stand...great concessions! Then the school wonders why fans will go to the Garden but not Carnesecca. Who in their right mind would want to go into a hot, sticky arena to sit on rock hard bleachers with no seat backs and what amounts to an 8 yr old at a lemonade stand for our concessions? We also re-branded recently and removed the black from our color way. It's now red, navy blue, and white. You would think our court at Carnesecca would reflect the changes, right? Wrong. There is still a black border on the court.

I've probably said this a million times but it bears repeating. I went to Binghamton maybe 5 years ago to watch a basketball game and they have a brand new facility that looks like it can host a pro team. They have concessions like most pro arenas with real food, big selections, etc. They have seat back chairs with cushions to make the fan experience as comfortable as possible. They have a gorgeous court, a professional half time show, etc. Binghamton sucked. The place was PACKED. All over you could hear people talking about how nice the arena was and how they love going to games. I had the same experience at Boston University who also has a terrible hoops program. Then I come home to games at SJ and it makes me realize how far behind we are with our facilities. You would think that being right in NYC with some famous alumni and plenty of big-pocketed alumni, that we could build a nice cozy updated arena with modern amenities for our basketball program which is what our school is known for. Carnesecca is what I would call modern if it was 1980. It seems everyone is building facilities except us.

I'm not sure what the Hall is up to with respect to facilities - practice/training facilities.
quote]

Seton Hall completely renovated its athletic center over past few years, so practice/training facilities are modern and in good shape. For their arena, as you already know they're a tenant at the Prudential Center so they really don't have control over what happens there. It's still a fairly new professional building, so it should also be positives. I also believe (though not 100% sure) that with the Nets move to Brooklyn, the Pirates moved into the NBA locker room.

Of course, they still lack an on campus facility capable of hosting a Big East game and that likely won't ever change. Walsh Gym hosts 1 OOC game a year against a low-major opponent, which is really all it's capable of with a seating capacity of only 2,600.

[FenwayFriar]

XUDash- You a correct that PC recently announced (and had the official ground breaking) of a new $37.5 million on-campus practice facility. In addition to the two-court practice facility, it will also house a new PC Athletics Hall of Fame, athletic training center, new dining facility, locker rooms, and coaches & administrative offices. Phase I will be completed in summer of 2017 while Phase II (basically a new career and professional development center for all students) will be completed sometime after that. Some more info and pictures:

http://www.providence.edu/alumni/support/Pages/ruane-fdc.aspx

[NJRedman]

1) We can thank Villanova for having SI refer to us as a power conference in this article. They wanted us to fail and show that you need football to be a major hoops program. We knew that didn't make sense. We knew we were a power conference all along. So thank you Nova for ending the criticism immediately after the championship. Now we need other teams to step up and join them on the national stage.

2) Can someone please forward this article to the St. John's administration? They don't seem to get the memo. Carnesecca has a nice lobby, but that's about it. Our basketball facilities are similar to that of a nice high school or average DIII school. I'm sick of sitting in Carnesecca on a bleacher with no seat back and having to feel my back ache. Mind you, I'm 27 so if I have back pain from sitting there I can only imagine how some of the older guys feel. Wouldn't you want to have an inviting environment for fans? I understand there are bleachers at other schools too, but in our arena it's like 80% and maybe 20% have actual seat backs with cushion. I get that we play at the Garden for our bigger games, but that does not excuse a hot, disgusting, industrial, glorified DIII level arena on campus. We are a basketball school but you wouldn't know that by seeing our facilities. It should be a shrine. They basically sell popcorn at a stand...great concessions! Then the school wonders why fans will go to the Garden but not Carnesecca. Who in their right mind would want to go into a hot, sticky arena to sit on rock hard bleachers with no seat backs and what amounts to an 8 yr old at a lemonade stand for our concessions? We also re-branded recently and removed the black from our color way. It's now red, navy blue, and white. You would think our court at Carnesecca would reflect the changes, right? Wrong. There is still a black border on the court.

I've probably said this a million times but it bears repeating. I went to Binghamton maybe 5 years ago to watch a basketball game and they have a brand new facility that looks like it can host a pro team. They have concessions like most pro arenas with real food, big selections, etc. They have seat back chairs with cushions to make the fan experience as comfortable as possible. They have a gorgeous court, a professional half time show, etc. Binghamton sucked. The place was PACKED. All over you could hear people talking about how nice the arena was and how they love going to games. I had the same experience at Boston University who also has a terrible hoops program. Then I come home to games at SJ and it makes me realize how far behind we are with our facilities. You would think that being right in NYC with some famous alumni and plenty of big-pocketed alumni, that we could build a nice cozy updated arena with modern amenities for our basketball program which is what our school is known for. Carnesecca is what I would call modern if it was 1980. It seems everyone is building facilities except us.

Okay Hooper, just to set the record straight. It is damn near impossible to build anything in Queens. The neighborhood fights the school on any construction project the school wants to do. It's easier to build in Binghamton than it is in the middle of Jamaica Queens.

You also conveniently leave out the Taffner Field House where the practice facility and weight rooms are. It was built in 2005 and upgraded in 2015. So quit acting like we don't build anything.

http://www.redstormsports.com/facilitie ... house.html

Quit putting the school in a negative light when you leave out things like facts. My favorite that you left out about Carnesecca was the 30 million dollar renovation that started in 2005 and was completed in 2008.

http://www.redstormsports.com/facilitie ... arena.html

[NJRedman]

Whats the issue with the facilities? The arenas face lift is less than 10 years old and the renovations on our 10 year old practice facility are less than a year old.