Carver is a wonderful place, but basketball teams could use a new place to play home games.

[Knight78]

Leistikow's 5 thoughts after Iowa beats Utah State: Murray twins need to play together more often

The Hawkeyes outscored the Aggies, 34-13, in the 10:49 that Keegan and Kris Murray (52 combined points) played together.

www.hawkcentral.com

Leisikow makes mention it was the best home environment all year for Iowa basketball at the Pentagon. 3,250 Iowa fans made more noise than we typically see at Carver. Even on TV, fans felt much closer to the action on the court.

Kinnick puts the fans right on top of the opposing teams. Our basketball team could use an advantage like that as well.

Now, it could very well be the fans as the 80s and 90s were loud, the NIT Game there was a blast (that started the NIT run), and of course Wrestling thrives.

But, imagine a better design for the basketball team. Like how loud it would get at the Field House.

Call it the Hawkeye Armstrong Center or something like that.

I've said this before, but I believe we need to change the seating setup for CHA. The lowest area, the non-permanent seating, should be nothing but students. There is even a rail there that separates, which could be used so the students could stand the entire game if they want. It's what places like Crisler Arena, Breslin Center and a few others in the Big 10 do.

 

[99topdawg]

Remember the Davis shot (wasn't it actually a tip in?) but didn't see it live. We were 25 miles up the road in Cedar Rapids for Bad Company and Damn Yankees and by the time the concert ended and we could get to a bar the game was over.

Mick Ralphs of Bad Company did make a mention, however, of the football team's impending Rose Bowl game. That got a rousing cheer from the patrons.

Here's the video of the game.

https://youtu.be/gGs-_e8rlTY?t=6423

 

[HaydenHawk56]

I've said this before, but I believe we need to change the seating setup for CHA. The lowest area, the non-permanent seating, should be nothing but students. There is even a rail there that separates, which could be used so the students could stand the entire game if they want. It's what places like Crisler Arena, Breslin Center and a few others in the Big 10 do.

Agreed. Almost anything has to be better than what is happening now. I do agree with others in this thread that the product on the floor also influences the fan participation. But, even so, if we got the students closer to the floor, the ones that are most likely to be up on their feet cheering the whole game (as opposed to Betty and Gretchen knitting and talking about next week's bridge card game).

It is just another thing about how we run our basketball programs from a macro and micro perspective. We just can't get out of our own way and this should be easy enough to fix.

I'm sure we can still find some good seating for the "blue hair donors" who want to kick back at Carver on a cold winter night without taking to much away from the game noise wise.

 

[ssckelley]

First you gotta get the students to the game. Give them free pizza again?

 

[Northside Hawk]

First you gotta get the students to the game. Give them free pizza again?

They'd probably prefer clear WiFi instead.

 

[Northside Hawk]

Here's the video of the game.

https://youtu.be/gGs-_e8rlTY?t=6423

At least two players in that shot are no longer with us. Chris Street, of course, and Iowa State's Brian Pearson.

And wasn't Julius Michalik in a serious car accident?

Pearson was a high school teammate of Troy Skinner. Two D1 players on the same prep team from tiny Palmer Iowa, somewhere between Fort Dodge and the end of the earth. And yes they lit up some scoreboards in their high school days. Todd Berkanpas and Randy Kraayenbrink came out of that same general area a few years earlier.

 

[Fryowa]

Asking for a continual 15K CHA BB sellout is a lot to ask.

Agreed.

 

[Fryowa]

At least two players in that shot are no longer with us. Chris Street, of course, and Iowa State's Brian Pearson.

And wasn't Julius Michalik in a serious car accident?

Pearson was a high school teammate of Troy Skinner. Two D1 players on the same prep team from tiny Palmer Iowa, somewhere between Fort Dodge and the end of the earth. And yes they lit up some scoreboards in their high school days. Todd Berkanpas and Randy Kraayenbrink came out of that same general area a few years earlier.

Kraayenbrink was a couple hours west of there. Paullina.

 

[guffus]

Maybe there is a good reason for it, but I never understood why all the aisles need to go all the way down the floor. Instead about half of aisles should stop about 25 rows down, and have seats fill in the bottom 20 rows. That would get more fans sitting close to the court.

 

[Seth53]

Hate to bag on CHA, but there are a few things that could be done better.

CHA, not unlike Kinnick, is difficult to get to...then....
...parking around CHA totally sucks. Not much to be done about that I guess.
(Best thing UI needs to keep doing is running the free buses from Hancher)

The cheap seats are narrow, uncomfortable, miserable.

Have they replaced the eye-bleeder analog side-monitors yet?

$40 per seat per game? Really? Wow.

 

[Scotttyd]

Alford tried some things, he moved the student section around and it failed pretty much like everything else in his tenure.

as much as I hate him - he did win the BIG 10 tourney - would be nice to have that again

 

[Scotttyd]

Maybe there is a good reason for it, but I never understood why all the aisles need to go all the way down the floor. Instead about half of aisles should stop about 25 rows down, and have seats fill in the bottom 20 rows. That would get more fans sitting close to the court.

that is the thing, close to the bottom - there is a much space used for aisles as seats - just seems to waste so much space.

Gotta get the students closer thou - I have been to games at Cameron Indoor- small place and a complete dump, but it is amazing to go to a game. NC State places which is the 8th biggest arena in college basketball, but it is not that cool of a place to see a game because it is just dead quite - and it isn't the arena's fault because I go the NHL games there and it can be deafening loud when full. You need an appropriate size, for the crowd - a place sold out at 9k is better atmosphere than 11 k in a 15k arena - at the very least, if it not sold out, move people down closer to the court

 

[Northside Hawk]

Kraayenbrink was a couple hours west of there. Paullina.

I'm just happy I got the named spelled correctly after all these years. You never know where a name of Dutch heritage is going to try and sneak in a double vowel on you.

 

[Ree4]

Just watching the game now, 2 things stick out.

IA sucks at the high screen and roll. And Perkins reminds me of a shorter Magic Johnson.

He reminds me of Vinnie Johnson - aka the microwave.

 

[Seth53]

First you gotta get the students to the game. Give them free pizza again?

I actually had season tix during the dark days of the Lick-liter era.

We could sit just about anywhere we wanted, and the dollar hotdog/coke nights were glorious!

 

[Hawkfnntn]

I'd be on board with a whole new facility for hoops. I just don't think it'll happen anytime soon. The adjoining practice facility isn't very old. They did that to stave off building a new one for a while. It wasn't to just appease FM. (I remember back when Alford was begging for it) My guess is covid will have to be less of a thing and revenue will have to be easier to predict before a new facility could possibly be on the table. It just can't be on the front burner right now

 

[Fryowa]

The cheap seats are narrow, uncomfortable, miserable.

Isn't that the case everywhere now, though?

Unless you pay a huge premium, in any arena/stadium in America you're only going to get about 18" of seat room no matter what. I can't think of any place I've ever been where you get more than that without paying for box/club level seats.

Think about it. If you went from 18" to even 20", that's an 11% increase in seating area, and an 11% decrease in capacity. Let's assume that Kinnick's bleacher capacity is 65,000 (I have no idea if it is or not). Adding 2" would remove about 7,000 seats from the stadium. Imagine how much they'd have to jack the seats up to cover that. Same thing in a basketball arena.

 

[Seth53]

Isn't that the case everywhere now, though?

Unless you pay a huge premium, in any arena/stadium in America you're only going to get about 18" of seat room no matter what. I can't think of any place I've ever been where you get more than that without paying for box/club level seats.

Think about it. If you went from 18" to even 20", that's an 11% increase in seating area, and an 11% decrease in capacity. Let's assume that Kinnick's bleacher capacity is 65,000 (I have no idea if it is or not). Adding 2" would remove about 7,000 seats from the stadium. Imagine how much they'd have to jack the seats up to cover that. Same thing in a basketball arena.

BB narrow across I can live with.
But there is little room for knees if you're over six foot tall @ CHA.
After all is said, Super-Max-Like concrete seats I cannot live with.

Kinnick has benches. I expect to be squeezed in tight at a FB game. At least there is adequate leg/knee room in front of you.

The old fieldhouse had benches and people squeezed in and weren't running to the chiro afterwards.

 

[Fryowa]

BB narrow across I can live with.
But there is little room for knees if you're over six foot tall @ CHA.

I'm 6'1" and a 34" inseam and I don't have much of an issue at CHA. It's tight, but my knees don't hit when I stand or sit. Not trying to be snarky, just my observation. My wrestling seats are in JJ, not premium.

What I really think they should do is get more vertical. I sat in the upper deck of Kinnick's north EZ once this year, and it's like climbing the Swiss Alps, but once you're their the view and leg room are much better. Yeah, you're higher up, but you're actually closer to the field than you would be in the south EZ. And the heads of the people in front of you are only about midway up your shin.

If they do put up a new arena in the next 20 years they need to make it at a steep angle.

 

[okeefe4prez]

$40 per seat per game? Really? Wow.

When I lived in IC if someone decent was coming, I would walk to CHA and offer a max of $10 per. Made it into every game I tried to go to. The problem is that unless the team is sustainably a top 25-ish team with maybe one down year every 3 or 4 it's really not a compelling travel destination. And the game times have gotten terrible with the new media deals.

I don't think even $10 tickets would cure the woes. I honestly don't think I'd drive to IC if I lived anywhere further than Solon. When my dad and I went in the '80's it really meant something and now it's like "meh." Now wrestling, look my son is an Illinois fan but even he wants to go to Carver to see an Iowa meet.