Iowa's worst player!

Huck, you seem like a great guy and I hope to meet you some day but you see things from a glass half full perspective. Which isn’t a bad thing but you go out of your way to contradict anything negative about the university on this forum.

There are flaws inside Carver and this is the opinion of many Hawkeye fans and it’s not just on this site, HR has a huge thread on this as well. To not build the arena with at least one concourse was a huge mistake IMO. If you are sitting anywhere close to the floor you have a big climb of stairs just to relieve yourself and then fight the lines if you want anything. The seating is far back from the court, the arena was built for multi function use not just for basketball. A basketball only arena would give us a bigger home court advantage.

I do agree that success of the program overcomes some of the venue issues. People will show up when Iowa is winning but it doesn’t completely erase the problem.

I don’t see the issues with parking, plenty of it around the arena. My only gripe is that it can be a pain in the ass to get out of there when there is a huge crowd. But that is an accessibility issue and this isn’t an easy fix considering where the venues are located.
 
Also, concerning the aisles and the fire code. I'm sure the reason for all the aisles, again, comes down to not having even 1 concourse. I'm no expert but I'm sure you need an aisle every so many feet and in order to meet that criteria from the top of the bowl it leads to extra aisles at the bottom due to the configuration. I don't know of any other arena the size of Carver that has zero concourses so I'm sure all the other arenas meet the safety requirements as the need to have an aisle every so many feet gets reset with a concourse.

Having said this I love walking into Carver. I think it is so neat to walk in at ground level and look down into the arena. If they would have just added 1 concourse in the middle then it would have completely changes the seating configuration. This may have been excluded to save money on construction, if they would have dug in a concourse then you have to add steel beams to support everything overhead. I believe the economy was crap back when Carver was built in the early 80s. I'm guessing it was much cheaper to build Carver with no concourse and just pour concrete over the sides of the hill and put a roof over top of it.

Edit: I found this article on the early construction of Carver with some neat pictures.

www.hawkcentral.com

From the archives: Construction and early years of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City

University of Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena, built in 1983, has been home to basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling as well as concerts and other events.
www.hawkcentral.com
 
Last edited:
ssckelley said:
...I love walking into Carver. I think it is so neat to walk in at ground level and look down into the arena.
Click to expand...
My kid likes it too.

The first time I took him to Carver he was maybe 8 or 9, and he was pretty jazzed. I didn't tell him what the building was like and when we walked up I could see the excitement deflate from his face. He said something to the effect of, "Is this it? Why is it so small, it doesn't look that way on TV."

And he was right. To the unsuspecting person who isn't a sports fan, CHA looks like a little one-story office building or strip mall type thing.

Then we walked in the door and he got a big smile on his face and said (again, paraphrasing because I'm old), "Ohhhhh I see now...they made a big hole in the ground..."
 
ssckelley said:
Also, concerning the aisles and the fire code. I'm sure the reason for all the aisles, again, comes down to not having even 1 concourse. I'm no expert but I'm sure you need an aisle every so many feet and in order to meet that criteria from the top of the bowl it leads to extra aisles at the bottom due to the configuration. I don't know of any other arena the size of Carver that has zero concourses so I'm sure all the other arenas meet the safety requirements as the need to have an aisle every so many feet gets reset with a concourse.

Having said this I love walking into Carver. I think it is so neat to walk in at ground level and look down into the arena. If they would have just added 1 concourse in the middle then it would have completely changes the seating configuration. This may have been excluded to save money on construction, if they would have dug in a concourse then you have to add steel beams to support everything overhead. I believe the economy was crap back when Carver was built in the early 80s. I'm guessing it was much cheaper to build Carver with no concourse and just pour concrete over the sides of the hill and put a roof over top of it.

Edit: I found this article on the early construction of Carver with some neat pictures.

www.hawkcentral.com

From the archives: Construction and early years of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City

University of Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena, built in 1983, has been home to basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling as well as concerts and other events.
www.hawkcentral.com
Click to expand...
Great pictures!
 
SS…I plead guilty to being a glass half full person. Believe me, it is tough to maintain this stance in today’s world.
 
ssckelley said:
Also, concerning the aisles and the fire code. I'm sure the reason for all the aisles, again, comes down to not having even 1 concourse. I'm no expert but I'm sure you need an aisle every so many feet and in order to meet that criteria from the top of the bowl it leads to extra aisles at the bottom due to the configuration. I don't know of any other arena the size of Carver that has zero concourses so I'm sure all the other arenas meet the safety requirements as the need to have an aisle every so many feet gets reset with a concourse.

Having said this I love walking into Carver. I think it is so neat to walk in at ground level and look down into the arena. If they would have just added 1 concourse in the middle then it would have completely changes the seating configuration. This may have been excluded to save money on construction, if they would have dug in a concourse then you have to add steel beams to support everything overhead. I believe the economy was crap back when Carver was built in the early 80s. I'm guessing it was much cheaper to build Carver with no concourse and just pour concrete over the sides of the hill and put a roof over top of it.

Edit: I found this article on the early construction of Carver with some neat pictures.

www.hawkcentral.com

From the archives: Construction and early years of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City

University of Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena, built in 1983, has been home to basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling as well as concerts and other events.
www.hawkcentral.com
Click to expand...
I really liked your second paragraph. Yeah, another concourse would be a good plan. Could it still be done?
 
HuckFinn said:
I really liked your second paragraph. Yeah, another concourse would be a good plan. Could it still be done?
Click to expand...
I don’t think it could. CHA being dug into the ground limits things without starting over.

Ideally I say they should move the Hope Lodge and Ronald McDonald house and put a new arena in the woods to the west. Integrate it into the hill and trees and make it look cool. There’s room there for additional parking too which when added to the existing Carver parking would make things easier. Give bigger donors priority spots over there for a hefty fee and let us proles park at Carver for ten bucks or whatever.
 
HuckFinn said:
I really liked your second paragraph. Yeah, another concourse would be a good plan. Could it still be done?
Click to expand...

I've been asking myself this a lot over the past week. You would think it's possible, it's literally dirt underneath the seats after you get through the concrete. I would think they could dig it out and build a 2nd level concourse underneath the first one. But I'm no architect and my guess is it would be extremely expensive.
 
Fryowa said:
My kid likes it too.

The first time I took him to Carver he was maybe 8 or 9, and he was pretty jazzed. I didn't tell him what the building was like and when we walked up I could see the excitement deflate from his face. He said something to the effect of, "Is this it? Why is it so small, it doesn't look that way on TV."

And he was right. To the unsuspecting person who isn't a sports fan, CHA looks like a little one-story office building or strip mall type thing.

Then we walked in the door and he got a big smile on his face and said (again, paraphrasing because I'm old), "Ohhhhh I see now...they made a big hole in the ground..."
Click to expand...

I didn't get to go to Carver until I was an adult. The first time I went I was confused as to where the arena was, I was expecting this huge building and from watching games on TV I didn't realize the arena was built into the ground. So my first reactions walking into Carver was like 'wow, they built this in a hole'. I don't get to go to many games so I still marvel going in and looking down into the arena.
 
ssckelley said:
I didn't get to go to Carver until I was an adult. The first time I went I was confused as to where the arena was, I was expecting this huge building and from watching games on TV I didn't realize the arena was built into the ground. So my first reactions walking into Carver was like 'wow, they built this in a hole'. I don't get to go to many games so I still marvel going in and looking down into the arena.
Click to expand...
If you really want a mind-blower go check out Penn State sometime. It was the most "not what I expected" experience of my life. That place is a teeny little town out in the absolute middle of frickin nowhere. It makes Iowa City look like Des Moines. You have to drive for at minimum a couple hours from any direction through mountainous forest area, and then all of a sudden you break out into flat pasture land, and there's State College. It's like 3 miles wide and really the only thing there is the college, a Walmart and some other other businesses on their main drag. I mean they have a downtown and what not, but it's crazy small.

But when you get to Beaver Stadium.....holy SHIT is that thing huge. The field is at ground level unlike Kinnick, and it's just fucking astoundingly big. It's cartoonish.

The Bryce Jordan center is right kitty corner from the football stadium and it's gigantic as well. It's like someone said, "Well, this little town is dinky and out in the middle of BFE, so we might as well make a statement and make some gigantic stuff for contrast."

Bryce Jordan is weird in that it's only like 1,300 people more capacity than Carver, but it looks 3 times the size. You can get a feel for it on Google maps.
 
I have a vague recollection of discussions about CHA being sunk into the ground to protect the area from having a huge building skyrocketing above the neighborhood. Also, it was a bit reminiscent of the “earth home” concept as environmentally friendly. Obviously we recognize that it’s hardly intrusive as it stands. Anyone else recall?
 
Fans are apathetic as most havent seen a final four in their life. The aging demographic has and we continually hope for one more opportunity. Unfortunately generations of children could give a rats ass at this point.
 
You know it’s going to be a long year when fans are talking about about buildings and not the team.

Life after Garza is going to be rough. Can you imagine how bad it would be if Murray didn’t explode onto the scene? Yikes!

If Murray goes pro after this season who is the future of this program and Fran ball?
 
ssckelley said:
Huck, you seem like a great guy and I hope to meet you some day but you see things from a glass half full perspective. Which isn’t a bad thing but you go out of your way to contradict anything negative about the university on this forum.

There are flaws inside Carver and this is the opinion of many Hawkeye fans and it’s not just on this site, HR has a huge thread on this as well. To not build the arena with at least one concourse was a huge mistake IMO. If you are sitting anywhere close to the floor you have a big climb of stairs just to relieve yourself and then fight the lines if you want anything. The seating is far back from the court, the arena was built for multi function use not just for basketball. A basketball only arena would give us a bigger home court advantage.

I do agree that success of the program overcomes some of the venue issues. People will show up when Iowa is winning but it doesn’t completely erase the problem.

I don’t see the issues with parking, plenty of it around the arena. My only gripe is that it can be a pain in the ass to get out of there when there is a huge crowd. But that is an accessibility issue and this isn’t an easy fix considering where the venues are located.
Click to expand...
Yea, this is not really a university issue that can really be helped. Those that have been to Iowa City realize it is a stop and go city when navigating. Stop light to stop light. It does not have any loop I-280 or beltway or major highways going thru the city for easy access. It literally takes 1/2 hour to go across town on any given day. Stop and go. Stop and go.

It is what it is.
 
BigD said:
You know it’s going to be a long year when fans are talking about about buildings and not the team.

Life after Garza is going to be rough. Can you imagine how bad it would be if Murray didn’t explode onto the scene? Yikes!

If Murray goes pro after this season who is the future of this program and Fran ball?
Click to expand...
Im sure you said the same thing last year Who is the future of the program with Garza and Wizzy gone well Murray is and when he is gone other people will step up and they will be the future. And after that and so on and so on.
 
ssckelley said:
Also, concerning the aisles and the fire code. I'm sure the reason for all the aisles, again, comes down to not having even 1 concourse. I'm no expert but I'm sure you need an aisle every so many feet and in order to meet that criteria from the top of the bowl it leads to extra aisles at the bottom due to the configuration. I don't know of any other arena the size of Carver that has zero concourses so I'm sure all the other arenas meet the safety requirements as the need to have an aisle every so many feet gets reset with a concourse.

Having said this I love walking into Carver. I think it is so neat to walk in at ground level and look down into the arena. If they would have just added 1 concourse in the middle then it would have completely changes the seating configuration. This may have been excluded to save money on construction, if they would have dug in a concourse then you have to add steel beams to support everything overhead. I believe the economy was crap back when Carver was built in the early 80s. I'm guessing it was much cheaper to build Carver with no concourse and just pour concrete over the sides of the hill and put a roof over top of it.

Edit: I found this article on the early construction of Carver with some neat pictures.

www.hawkcentral.com

From the archives: Construction and early years of Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City

University of Iowa's Carver-Hawkeye Arena, built in 1983, has been home to basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling as well as concerts and other events.
www.hawkcentral.com
Click to expand...

The whole too many aisle debate is kind of a dumb debate. I agree. As you and Huck pointed out, a lot has to do with fire code. I don't think any fan is excited about getting to their row only to have to slide past 75 people to get to their seat in the middle of two aisles.

Also, I think Fry made a point about Hilton and Iowa State and how they didn't have as many aisles. I made a point to look the other night when I watched them play Texas Tech at Hilton and I saw a lot of vertical aisles.

I'm confused about your concourse statement and that Carver doesn't have one. Isn't the top pretty much a concourse. Are you stating that it's that they don't have one like halfway up the stands. I suppose that would be ideal. have it in the middle and have half the crowd come down to it and the other half go up to alleviate some of the congestion. Is that what you are meaning?

I'd be fine with Carver if they just worked to get the students on the side lower. This would be that difficult. They'd just take out some lower seats and put some sensible bleacher or seats in for the students and presume they would stand the entire game. Then have the first of the blue hair rows just above the top of that. They would see fine and the students would have a specific student section close. I don't know why this can't be done. It's not that fucking difficult to figure out and do.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Yea, this is not really a university issue that can really be helped. Those that have been to Iowa City realize it is a stop and go city when navigating. Stop light to stop light. It does not have any loop I-280 or beltway or major highways going thru the city for easy access. It literally takes 1/2 hour to go across town on any given day. Stop and go. Stop and go.

It is what it is.
Click to expand...
No question, I wasn't suggesting it is a university issue. There are no easy access to a major highway in any direction. The only thing the University could do was to acquire land close to I80 or hwy 218 and build an arena on it. But then you go from fixing the traffic problem to making it even more inconvenient for students to attend.
 
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