CHA Fact Check

Saturdays game is officially a sellout, wish I would have bought tickets when I had the chance. Hopefully the crowd is into it and those old farts will get off their butts, including you @HuckFinn ! :)
 
The area northwest of Carver is basically a 45 degree drop off to highway six. if you have actually been downtown, there is no way in hell you could build an arena the size of Carver. Carver was built so that there would not be any obstructions for fans and they would be close to the floor. If you attended the Field House the students, including the pep band were seated in the upper metal deck. We paid $50 in the sixties for admission to all athletic events and packed it. Dorms were next door no assigned seating. Illinois,Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota to name a few have older arenas. It is not the arena that is the problem it's the configuration of the seating with students and catering to people that can't make noise and the product on the floor. Mackey has bleachers! Maybe we didn't need comfy seats. It seems like schools in the eastern time zone seem to pack their arenas when the product is competitive. Maybe a new visionary athletic director and staff would help. Missing the the days of Bump.
 
The area northwest of Carver is basically a 45 degree drop off to highway six. if you have actually been downtown, there is no way in hell you could build an arena the size of Carver. Carver was built so that there would not be any obstructions for fans and they would be close to the floor. If you attended the Field House the students, including the pep band were seated in the upper metal deck. We paid $50 in the sixties for admission to all athletic events and packed it. Dorms were next door no assigned seating. Illinois,Purdue, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota to name a few have older arenas. It is not the arena that is the problem it's the configuration of the seating with students and catering to people that can't make noise and the product on the floor. Mackey has bleachers! Maybe we didn't need comfy seats. It seems like schools in the eastern time zone seem to pack their arenas when the product is competitive. Maybe a new visionary athletic director and staff would help. Missing the the days of Bump.
No way could a downtown arena seat 15,500. Unless you built it on the Pentacrest. It would have to be the size of Cedar Rapids' downtown arena or perhaps 1-1.5k bigger. But we don't need a 15,500 arena if we're averaging around 11,000 for most games. All those empty seats absorb some of the noise.
 
Getting back to attendance, start times a major factor.
Not having set start times a minor one, but matters.

Being involved in high school sports - playing games on Tues & Fri has diminished interest in massive amounts. Majority of HS players don't talk about college ball, players, watch it even. They still watch football.

Was a time where Big10 had travel partners and league games were Thu/Sat or Sat/Mon.
That doesn't make as much TV money, so attendance is the tradeoff.
 
Tip off times are not going to change. This is a product of the Big Ten Network, which has made Iowa a ton of money. I don't know if they saw the dollars vs butts in the seats tradeoff coming, but it has.

The days of 7 pm tips with broadcasts by Raycom with Larry and Mac brought to you by Pursuit herbicide and Old Milwaukee beer are long gone.
 
The area northwest of Carver is basically a 45 degree drop off to highway six.
Point being? You talk like buildings have never been put on ground that had to be excavated. And 45 degree drop is a little exaggerated.

Carver was built so that there would not be any obstructions for fans and they would be close to the floor.
Carver fans are definitely not close to the floor. The bowl design is outdated an inferior to the sharply sloped, multi-deck arenas being built in recent times. It's like Michigan Stadium and the Rose Bowl. Huge venues, but dogshit to watch a game from.

Mackey has bleachers! Maybe we didn't need comfy seats.
Bleachers suck. Bleacher capacity (and #of tickets sold) is based on 18-20". Welp, most American's asses are way wider than that in 2021. Going with bleachers would do the same thing as football, it'd squeeze people out of their section because it's cumulative. If you have 30 people in a row with an average width of 23", well, you can do the math. Football it can work because there are a ton of people standing. I totally understand that seats give you the same narrow area, but at least there's a seat there so some 400lb wide ride doesn't absorb my spot. If he doesn't fit he doesn't fit and other than arm room it's not my problem.
 
Tip off times are not going to change. This is a product of the Big Ten Network, which has made Iowa a ton of money. I don't know if they saw the dollars vs butts in the seats tradeoff coming, but it has.

The days of 7 pm tips with broadcasts by Raycom with Larry and Mac brought to you by Pursuit herbicide and Old Milwaukee beer are long gone.

Thank God no more hearing "It's chips and salsa time.".
 

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