Arena/Renovation

R

rcatalano

Well-known member
Yesterday I asked Cragg to give me an update on where we are regarding the arena and it’s renovation. This was his response!
Lots of good stuff coming! Figuring out the financing, timelines, and activations to renovations for the fan experience.
Focusing our bigger fundraising towards feasibility study of new basketball complex-locker rooms,weight rooms, training room, lounge, etc.
Just to be clear- new arena is not in play.

Thanks for checking in!
Mike Cragg
Director of Athletics

when I questioned Mike regarding increasing seat capacity and other enhancements I got this response!
Not sure what you are imagining…
But we are focusing on more seatbacks in the arena, new lighting,new audio, new branding, new concessions, beer license… it’s all focused on entertainment and fan experience… we will be ready for the start of the season in October. This will always be the case…every off season…how can we be better!

I would be interested in your response to my questions to Mike, and does this sound like another band aid approach to our archaic arena!
 
Was on a college visit for accepted Students at James Madison University with my youngest (our second visit). I was very impressed with their new arenas (opened in November 2020) that seats 8500. Beautiful arena and could only imagine if we could build a similar structure. The Arena itself IIRC was about $89M ( a parking structure was also constructed) both on their East Csmpus (separated by a highway from the rest of the campus).
 
SJU85 said:
Was on a college visit for accepted Students at James Madison University with my youngest (our second visit). I was very impressed with their new arenas (opened in November 2020) that seats 8500. Beautiful arena and could only imagine if we could build a similar structure. The Arena itself IIRC was about $89M ( a parking structure was also constructed) both on their East Csmpus (separated by a highway from the rest of the campus).
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I was informed that a new arena is not in play! That would be my preference
 
As long as they complete in reasonable time the mentioned new basketball complex-locker rooms,weight rooms, training room, lounge I'd call it sucess. Program won't go anywhere without that first to help recruiting.

Anything else they do to Carnesecca is icing on cake.
 
RC,

Good job. happy to see more seat backs are in play, honestly my opinion we should all hold back on donating until we actually see a concrete plan. But seat back and beer license is huge.
 
The response from Cragg (financing, renovations, etc) indicates to me that there will be substantial changes. Along with that substantial costs. Don't know how much a new area will cost, but if the renovations are going to cost $10-$15 million, why not raise another $10-$15 million and build a new arena?
 
Demo said:
The response from Cragg (financing, renovations, etc) indicates to me that there will be substantial changes. Along with that substantial costs. Don't know how much a new area will cost, but if the renovations are going to cost $10-$15 million, why not raise another $10-$15 million and build a new arena?
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$30 million will build you a gym in NY. For anything significant, you’re looking north of $100mm.
 
Porgyman said:
$30 million will build you a gym in NY. For anything significant, you’re looking north of $100mm.
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Absolutely. That $89M I mentioned earlier is with Virginia labor and rules. In NYC it would be quite a bit higher
 
19854ever said:
RC,

Good job. happy to see more seat backs are in play, honestly my opinion we should all hold back on donating until we actually see a concrete plan. But seat back and beer license is huge.
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More seat backs would be great for fans but would, again, lower the seating capacity of CA. It used to be 6,008, now it's in the 5,400 range. What frustrates me is that I watch a lot of college games on TV and see mid major teams with much nicer arenas than ours. A high major program should have much better facilities than we currently have. I hope that our AD and the administration can come up with a concrete plan to address this issue. Right or wrong, recruits consider the facilities available to them at the schools that are recruiting them. That is often a major factor in their decision. We just don't stack up well in that department at the present time and need to improve considerably if we are going to significantly upgrade the talent level at St John's.
 
19854ever said:
I would rather have 4900 nice seats than 6008 bleacher seats any day of the week.
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Since I am looking to possibly purchase 2-4 season tickets I was hoping that a renovation that would accommodate 7500-8000 seat backs would be ideal! If I can’t get decent seats with seat backs I don’t know if I would be interested I was hoping that with additional seat capacity I would have a better choice at good seats!
 
James Madison is , I believe , is part of the Virginia State University system . Hence , tax payers $$$ are at work . State schools can easily fund new facilities , private schools have to rely on Donations , etc . If we have 170,000 living Alumni , a Major fundraising effort to target $75-$ 100 million is possible . The problem is , not a lot of Alums donate . Why ? Who knows ? That’s for Fr Shanley and the Board to determine . I also don’t get the continual loyalty to CA in a day and age where it has exceeded its ability as a satisfactory Arena . Seton Hall almost never plays in Walsh Arena nor , G’Town in McDonagh . Arenas that are as outmoded as CA . The UBS Arena would be a good venue to transfer Non MSG games to . MSG reserved for a Major OOC game and Nova , UCOnn, Seton Hall, G’Town and maybe PC . Marquette , Creighton , Xavier , Butler , DePaul to UBS . The Complaining about CA has been going on for decades , with little changing . If it’s too expensive to build new on Campus , go elsewhere . There has to be a reason the Administration being committed to CA but , applying only minimal improvements . I suspect it’s $$$ driven .
 
SLYFOXX1968 said:
James Madison is , I believe , is part of the Virginia State University system . Hence , tax payers $$$ are at work . State schools can easily fund new facilities , private schools have to rely on Donations , etc . If we have 170,000 living Alumni , a Major fundraising effort to target $75-$ 100 million is possible . The problem is , not a lot of Alums donate . Why ? Who knows ? That’s for Fr Shanley and the Board to determine . I also don’t get the continual loyalty to CA in a day and age where it has exceeded its ability as a satisfactory Arena . Seton Hall almost never plays in Walsh Arena nor , G’Town in McDonagh . Arenas that are as outmoded as CA . The UBS Arena would be a good venue to transfer Non MSG games to . MSG reserved for a Major OOC game and Nova , UCOnn, Seton Hall, G’Town and maybe PC . Marquette , Creighton , Xavier , Butler , DePaul to UBS . The Complaining about CA has been going on for decades , with little changing . If it’s too expensive to build new on Campus , go elsewhere . There has to be a reason the Administration being committed to CA but , applying only minimal improvements . I suspect it’s $$$ driven .
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Even if we move non MSG games to the old Nassau Coliseum. I believe that it holds 14,000 for basketball and would probably be cheaper than UBS to rent although not as close to campus but you can run busses. It’s been newly renovated and might be a worthwhile option.
 
SLYFOXX1968 said:
James Madison is , I believe , is part of the Virginia State University system . Hence , tax payers $$$ are at work . State schools can easily fund new facilities , private schools have to rely on Donations , etc . If we have 170,000 living Alumni , a Major fundraising effort to target $75-$ 100 million is possible . The problem is , not a lot of Alums donate . Why ? Who knows ? That’s for Fr Shanley and the Board to determine . I also don’t get the continual loyalty to CA in a day and age where it has exceeded its ability as a satisfactory Arena . Seton Hall almost never plays in Walsh Arena nor , G’Town in McDonagh . Arenas that are as outmoded as CA . The UBS Arena would be a good venue to transfer Non MSG games to . MSG reserved for a Major OOC game and Nova , UCOnn, Seton Hall, G’Town and maybe PC . Marquette , Creighton , Xavier , Butler , DePaul to UBS . The Complaining about CA has been going on for decades , with little changing . If it’s too expensive to build new on Campus , go elsewhere . There has to be a reason the Administration being committed to CA but , applying only minimal improvements . I suspect it’s $$$ driven .
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It is and while the State kicked in, there was still fund raising involved.
 
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