A winning team is what’s needed to help attendance, not a brand new stadium. I was in Oxford yesterday with a young relative for the “Make It Miami” day for prospective HS students, and there was a lot of excitement for the game. Having above average teams that play an exciting pace of the sport and playing bigger-name teams at home seems to generate more interest on campus. As does having a coach who seems to know what the hell they’re doing (Travis and Chuck).
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I 50% agree with you here as I do think we need a new facility to help attendance. But, we agree to agree on Travis and Chuck. Both have been huge shots in the arm to MU and the overall success.
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They are not mutually exclusive.
As Bake pointed out in another thread, its not really a choice between a new arena or not for any program reasons. Millett has high tens of millions of dollars (and honestly given where construction prices are going, it could be a hundred million by the time it crossed the finish line) in deferred maintenance. And once you open up the renovation of Millet, you run into all the pitfalls of renovating a 60 year old building (asbestos remediation, ADA additions, etc.)
If Miami is gonna have to spend and a donor is interested in covering any significant portion of a new building, its a no brainer.
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Yep, the primary goal of a new arena isn’t to generate attendance. Yes it should/will help to have a better facility in a more convenient location, but you don’t spend $188M to put butts in the seats for a MAC program.
I enjoyed Noah Reed and Tim Welsh last night. Reed is a Ball State grad, and he clearly follows the league closely. But he’s also a pro who delivers good, energetic PxP. He also had me laughing at halftime when they put up a photo of him on the student broadcast from his senior year, and he said, “That’s the look of a guy who spent too much time at The Chug.” Our old friend PapaLou_BSU got a great laugh out of that as well.
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Not sure if it was mentioned yet, but Steele confirmed in his post game presser that Suder is fine.
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I agree. I thought the announcing crew was quite good during our game w BSU.
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That was probably the most MAC-friendly broadcast I’ve ever seen on ESPNU. It helps when a MAC guy is on the call but it wasn’t just a 2-hour advertisement for “watch tomorrow’s games on the ESPN networks.”
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The arena talk has its own thread.
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Dan Luers when playing 10+ minutes: 26.9 points/40, 53/44/75 shooting splits
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This is a masterpiece of selective stats editing; there’s a job waiting for you in Bristol, CT.
(And Luers family, if you see this, we kid because we love. Dan stepped up big on senior night and then gave a terrific interview after the game. We’re thrilled and proud.)
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