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UT regents approve new basketball arena for Longhorns


Philip Ferguson

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1 hour ago, NorthTexan95 said:

Waste of money when they have a perfectly good, old arena still in use.

/endsarcasm. 

Frank Erwin Center holds 16k per Wikipedia. Seems short-sighted to build a smaller stadium for as large a student population that UT has. 🙄

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3 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

Frank Erwin Center holds 16k per Wikipedia. Seems short-sighted to build a smaller stadium for as large a student population that UT has. 🙄

I watched Abe Lemmons coach em to 26-5 record and NIT championship in '78. Place was packed. Why would they ever build something smaller? 😏

I kid, I kid. 

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This quote is pretty much what I've been trying to say. By the way, Del Conte is considered the GOAT of ADs.

The new arena will seat 10,000 for basketball games, but it can also hold up to 15,000 for concerts and events. The Erwin Center currently seats up to 16,540 for games. Del Conte said Texas averages roughly 9,000 fans for men's home games.

Del Conte said the smaller, 10,000-seat arena will create a more intimate, intimidating and louder atmosphere.

"It's like building a baseball stadium," Del Conte said. "You don't build it for the weekend series. You build it for the Tuesday game. A 10,000-seat arena is fantastic and perfect for us."

 

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1 hour ago, chrisfisher said:

Why is UT basketball stadium in UNT basketball forum? 

It's topical because we are looking at doing something similar in our master plan with a smaller more-updated basketball facility than what we currently have at the Super Pit - although it may be years down the road.

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TCU is at 6,700  SMU at 7,000 with UTA. UH is at 7,100. We should not be smaller than any of those IMHO. @TheReal_jayD mentioned 8,000 in a different thread but it looks like 6-7 what the master plan website says. I’m sure it will be awesome. I can just see us very easily outgrowing 6,000 (if that’s what it is). 

 

 

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8 minutes ago, Mean Green Matt said:

TCU is at 6,700  SMU at 7,000 with UTA. UH is at 7,100. We should not be smaller than any of those IMHO. @TheReal_jayD mentioned 8,000 in a different thread but it looks like 6-7 what the master plan website says. I’m sure it will be awesome. I can just see us very easily outgrowing 6,000 (if that’s what it is). 

 

 

Some one else stated 8. I am hoping for 6. I would love to have the venue where it makes it tough to get tickets. 

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16 minutes ago, TheReal_jayD said:

Some one else stated 8. I am hoping for 6. I would love to have the venue where it makes it tough to get tickets. 

a million times this.

I don't get the obsession some have with building out as big as possible unless it's purely ego. Basketball here gets built through atmosphere and then subsequently scarcity. We need 5-6 thousand...which means we'll probably end up in 7500 (because...ego)

6000-7000 puts us in similar company with basketball programs like Gonzaga, Northern Iowa and Villanova. 

Hell, our glory basketball days were housed in the old Snake Pit...and that place was only code to 80 people. 

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21 minutes ago, Censored by Laurie said:

a million times this.

I don't get the obsession some have with building out as big as possible unless it's purely ego. Basketball here gets built through atmosphere and then subsequently scarcity. We need 5-6 thousand...which means we'll probably end up in 7500 (because...ego)

6000-7000 puts us in similar company with basketball programs like Gonzaga, Northern Iowa and Villanova. 

Hell, our glory basketball days were housed in the old Snake Pit...and that place was only code to 80 people. 

Bingo.

 

I wish apogee started with 20k and had it packed everygame. Do that for 6 seasons then expand. 

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36 minutes ago, Censored by Laurie said:

a million times this.

I don't get the obsession some have with building out as big as possible unless it's purely ego. Basketball here gets built through atmosphere and then subsequently scarcity. We need 5-6 thousand...which means we'll probably end up in 7500 (because...ego)

6000-7000 puts us in similar company with basketball programs like Gonzaga, Northern Iowa and Villanova. 

Hell, our glory basketball days were housed in the old Snake Pit...and that place was only code to 80 people. 

I don’t think it’s ego, though I do think we should make a point of having (even just marginally) a bigger arena than TCU/SMU/UTA. So I guess that part is ego. 

 I don’t think we’ve seen what basketball can be with a competent coach plus competent leadership plus full administrative support. Not all at the same time  

Maybe I’m overly optimistic, I just think that results in more than 6,000 seats needed. It’s not like a football stadium where you can adjust to future needs. The good news is the next few years should substantiate one way or the other what the capacity should be. 

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I was the one that mentioned 8,000 and it is based on the size of the school and our potential as a program, nothing more. As stated, we can't build at 6,000 and then increase as needed like football. An open air stadium is easy to expand compared to a enclosed basketball arena. Don't build on where we are, build for what you expect. 

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On 12/21/2018 at 9:30 AM, UNTFan23 said:

Frank Erwin Center holds 16k per Wikipedia. Seems short-sighted to build a smaller stadium for as large a student population that UT has. 🙄

Students don’t seem to really care to come to games it seems. Appears to be a trend across many areas these days.  Maybe UT is trying to “create” demand for its tickets through fewer seats? 

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