I think something around 5,000 is the right number. This would allow for 500-1000 Premium Seats, maybe 1,500 designated for students, and then 2,500-3,000 for General Season tickets/Additional students. If we somehow get to the point where the demand for tickets is 6,000 - 7,000 per game, then 5,000 seats is even better. That allows you to keep raising ticket prices, donation requirements, etc. A perfect world would be our program gets to a point where the arena is basically just students and premium season ticket holders.
Their biggest non-sporting challenge will be what to do with commencements. Millett barely accomodates them now so if you have a smaller arena do you break those down further into even smaller groups or do you just do away with them and hold one event at Yager.
Students don’t generate any revenue since they get in free. A 5000 seat arena is too small in my opinion considering all the events this venue will be used for.
Do they get free drinks and food too?
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They may “get in free” but don’t they pay an activities fee of approx $1,500 per semester, much of which goes to athletics? IIRC, they do. So,no. They, or their parents, pay plenty to attend athletic events “free”.
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My point is that you can’t generate more student revenue by limiting the size of the arena to create more demand for tickets.
My son sent me pictures from the 3 big attended games. I dont think the actual attendance could have possibly been as big as announced if you believe Millet has 9,200 seats
The point isn’t to create student revenue; it’s to drive up the price of the alumni seats. Duke students don’t pay for basketball tickets either, since those are included in the already significant “cover charge.” But the number of spaces in the student section are limited, which leads to non-price mechanisms to allocate the scarcity. (See below.)
Above the railing, the minimum donation to the Iron Dukes to secure the right to purchase a pair of season tickets is $8,000.
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Repeat after me:
Let’s
Get
‘Dem
Dukes!!!
I’ll chime in that I love the 5K number, some games will sell out but it’s still intimate enough that the noise from a small crowd can be a factor when you only pull in 2K over break. Even if the number has to be 6 or 7 for other events, it’s important that the seats are right up on the court to actually have an atmosphere instead of cheering into the void.
Edit: To clarify, I’ll add that you don’t necessarily want to plan for your max capacity crowds, you plan for the slightly above average crowd. Look at Gonzaga, only a 7,000 person arena and a 2 year waiting list for tickets last I heard but their place is absolutely bonkers.
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I’m biased based on my experiences, but I agree completely. You’d rather leave a few folks out on the sidewalk for the biggest games than have rows of empty seats on most nights. That helps turn the games into events and builds a home court atmosphere. The new Goggin (still “new” to me given my vintage) was sized right for that and was a fantastic home ice venue until the team fell off the map.
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Gonzaga has 7300 total students. High Point 6300.
Wiki says Miami is close to pushing 18,600 now, no idea if they are continuing to try and trend up or not.
I think the non-basketball uses are important enough where you have to push towards 7k as a large university. Design with basketball first thoughts sure, but you can’t ignore the needs of a school that may be 20,000 students at some point in the next two decades.
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I’m thinking 8,675 seats with some more for SRO (309 sounds right)
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You are quite the optimist!
I tend to agree w this philosophy on total capacity. Make it an event with great atmosphere, which means high percent of capacity filled. Even our best team of the last 40+ years couldn’t fill Millet’s 9200 seat capacity, and averaged 6400. Yes, a few big games were more than 6400 with many smaller.
There are calls for as little as 5,000 and upwards of 7,000 (or even over 8K). For no particular reason other than observing some history, I like the middle of that range at 6,000 seats. For bigger events you also have the floor on which to place portable chairs.
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Make it a multiple of 1809?
7236 —->1809 x 4 (for the 4 roads into Oxford, but the visiting team gets 0 ways out)
9045 —> 1809 x 5 (for the 5 on the court)
Contact Jenny (Jenny) in the Athletics Department.
867-5309
P.S. oops too late to the game there! 
Thanks for the correction, I was looking at older numbers for the Zags.
Is there a list of Miami’s undergrad enrollment (by calendar year) for the Oxford campus? I think MU was at 15,600 in 1995… not sure, though.