SJU's Home Court

During the Lavin days we were playing 7 games at MSG and 2 at Carnesecca. I think that is where we should be at IMO. Put in 2 marquee out of conference games and the holiday festival and that puts us at 10 per year. sprinkle in 6 cupcakes at CA and we are good to go.
 
[quote="Manhattan1" post=313369]During the Lavin days we were playing 7 games at MSG and 2 at Carnesecca. I think that is where we should be at IMO. Put in 2 marquee out of conference games and the holiday festival and that puts us at 10 per year. sprinkle in 6 cupcakes at CA and we are good to go.[/quote]


Doing the math if we have 2 marquee OOC games that fill the place (UCONN, Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse) and 9 conference games. MSG has a capacity of 19,760 (estimate. it's vague on web).

Villanova sells out. Really no other BE school would sell the place out. That's 59,000 tix sold right there.

With 11 dates averaging 10,000 for break even, that's 110,000 tix sold. Even if you say 11,000 is break even, that's 121,000. Subtract 59,000 for the 3 games mentioned, and you have to do 62,000 for 8 dates, a shade under 8,000 tix sold on average. Local schools like Seton Hall, and those with a strong NYC area student base (providence, georgetown) will attract some students and alumni, helping attendance. Weekend garden came vs. the other schools will get some of their fans travelling, especially for Saturday games.

If our teams are good, we won't lose money. If we get out of the gates slowly in any season, Garden Tix will lag.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=313376][quote="Manhattan1" post=313369]During the Lavin days we were playing 7 games at MSG and 2 at Carnesecca. I think that is where we should be at IMO. Put in 2 marquee out of conference games and the holiday festival and that puts us at 10 per year. sprinkle in 6 cupcakes at CA and we are good to go.[/quote]


Doing the math if we have 2 marquee OOC games that fill the place (UCONN, Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse) and 9 conference games. MSG has a capacity of 19,760 (estimate. it's vague on web).

Villanova sells out. Really no other BE school would sell the place out. That's 59,000 tix sold right there.

With 11 dates averaging 10,000 for break even, that's 110,000 tix sold. Even if you say 11,000 is break even, that's 121,000. Subtract 59,000 for the 3 games mentioned, and you have to do 62,000 for 8 dates, a shade under 8,000 tix sold on average. Local schools like Seton Hall, and those with a strong NYC area student base (providence, georgetown) will attract some students and alumni, helping attendance. Weekend garden came vs. the other schools will get some of their fans travelling, especially for Saturday games.

If our teams are good, we won't lose money. If we get out of the gates slowly in any season, Garden Tix will lag.[/quote]

Screw Uconn and Syracuse. I would say get schools like Michigan, ND, Duke, UNC, etc. at MSG. They have huge alumni base in NYC and will sell out the stadium.
 
[quote="Jack Williams" post=313065][quote="oldschool Redmen" post=312992][quote="Jack Williams" post=312935]Just my two cents, as a student. I hate this idea. Think it should be split with the north east teams (PC, NOVA. GTOWN, SHU) coming to MSG. the expansions and DePaul/Mq should come to CA. so pretty much how we have it now.

Students actually come to CA games. When I go to MSG, I feel like I rarely run into familiar faces.

I don’t think we beat Marquette by 20 at the garden. Maybe we don’t beat them at all. If it’s about grabbing headlines sure get all the home games at the garden. But if the AD is really about wins and losses, he shouldn’t ignore the home court advantage we have at CA.

Also, the idea that it would help recruiting, maybe it’s true, But is saying ‘hey we play all of our home conference games at MSG’

That much stronger of a pitch than saying ‘we play about half our home games at msg with the other half at our loud ass on campus arena where we never lose’[/quote]

Elite bigtime schools don't play in 5,600 seat gyms, if we want to be big time, you gotta think big time.
Mike Cragg knows what he's doing.[/quote]

Villanova plays a good amount of home games, including the one coming up Tuesday night, at the pavilion, which holds about 6,500 people and that includes some tickets which are standing room only!

And they play some big time games at the Wells Fargo center. So much like us splitting between CA and MSG.

If that setup works for a program that has won 2 of the last 3 national championships, I think it can work for us.[/quote]
The difference is that we use playing home games at MSG -- the "world's most famous arena" and the "mecca of basketball" -- as an important recruiting tool. Not so sure the Wells Fargo Center has the same attraction for Nova recruits.
 
So I think everyone at least can agree on having two big OOC games at MSG. Who would sell out?

Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse, UNC, Michigan, UCONN, Michigan St, Ohio St, Kentucky and Louisville

I believe those would be the Top 10 in terms of tickets, in no particular order. Only a few of them, like Duke, would be guaranteed sell outs if we aren't good. Duke I believe is really important to renew.

I'd say try to avoid a team like UConn if we can. They are in a bad conference and struggling out the gate with their new coach. Don't let them gain momentum.

My understanding is Syracuse bailed from our series since we were so bad but beat them. This year we have the luxury of being GOOD, so we can certainly use that to our advantage in negotiating with teams.
 
We never really sold out the ND game as part of the big east, so not sure if that will happen.
I think the goal next year is for the 2 out of conference games to be one major and then the other part of the Big 12.

Michigan has a lot of alumni and would draw well.

It all comes down to winning. If we are winning and in big east and NCAA contention we will sell tickets.
 
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[quote="gman" post=313381][quote="Beast of the East" post=313376][quote="Manhattan1" post=313369]During the Lavin days we were playing 7 games at MSG and 2 at Carnesecca. I think that is where we should be at IMO. Put in 2 marquee out of conference games and the holiday festival and that puts us at 10 per year. sprinkle in 6 cupcakes at CA and we are good to go.[/quote]


Doing the math if we have 2 marquee OOC games that fill the place (UCONN, Duke, Notre Dame, Syracuse) and 9 conference games. MSG has a capacity of 19,760 (estimate. it's vague on web).

Villanova sells out. Really no other BE school would sell the place out. That's 59,000 tix sold right there.

With 11 dates averaging 10,000 for break even, that's 110,000 tix sold. Even if you say 11,000 is break even, that's 121,000. Subtract 59,000 for the 3 games mentioned, and you have to do 62,000 for 8 dates, a shade under 8,000 tix sold on average. Local schools like Seton Hall, and those with a strong NYC area student base (providence, georgetown) will attract some students and alumni, helping attendance. Weekend garden came vs. the other schools will get some of their fans travelling, especially for Saturday games.

If our teams are good, we won't lose money. If we get out of the gates slowly in any season, Garden Tix will lag.[/quote]

Screw Uconn and Syracuse. I would say get schools like Michigan, ND, Duke, UNC, etc. at MSG. They have huge alumni base in NYC and will sell out the stadium.[/quote]

Uconn and Syracuse already play in the Garden. It might as well be against us.
 
Until things blew up after Jarvis and the school hired Norm (signaling to casual fans that losing was a surety) there were always a lot of MSG games and they sold well. Sure, UCONN, Syracuse, and Georgetown sold best but overall the place was three quarters or more full for the other teams. There are a lot of people in the Metropolitan area and if SJU is a top 25 team consistently attendance will not be so opponent dependent. We just sold out Carnesecca for DePaul, that is not because their Alumni are looking to buy, or because people consider DePaul an intriguing team to come see.

If the team wins consistently, Carnesecca is too small for most games. But that is a big if that hasn't happened for a long time now.
 
Watched Nevada collapse against New Mexico in The Pit. Always thought if we could blow out end courts of Carnesecca and have walls of student sections at either end, a la The Pit, home court advantage would increase and fan intensity would go up.
 
[quote="fuchsia" post=313453]Watched Nevada collapse against New Mexico in The Pit. Always thought if we could blow out end courts of Carnesecca and have walls of student sections at either end, a la The Pit, home court advantage would increase and fan intensity would go up.[/quote]

Exactly. The student section of Carnesseca --what does it hold, 20 people on each end?--is also what gives it the appearance of a high school gym on TV. Fixing that would go along way to taking care of things on campus.

But we need more games at MSG. You have the entire tri-state area fan base who either lives or works in Manhattan at your disposal.
 
[quote="P Simmons" post=313464][quote="fuchsia" post=313453]Watched Nevada collapse against New Mexico in The Pit. Always thought if we could blow out end courts of Carnesecca and have walls of student sections at either end, a la The Pit, home court advantage would increase and fan intensity would go up.[/quote]

Exactly. The student section of Carnesseca --what does it hold, 20 people on each end?--is also what gives it the appearance of a high school gym on TV. Fixing that would go along way to taking care of things on campus.

But we need more games at MSG. You have the entire tri-state area fan base who either lives or works in Manhattan at your disposal.[/quote]

We need to have a competitive team, year in and year out, to justify playing more games at MSG. I would love to see us play 2 OCC games there but I would prefer rotating big time schools from a variety of power conferences across the country to create more fan interest. As far as I'm concerned, I would be happy never to play former BE rivals like Yukon, Syracuse, BC, etc ever again. To hell with them!! As far as the BE is concerned, there doesn't seem to be as much buzz yet surrounding the mid west schools, so I would start with Villanova, Georgetown and Seton Hall. All are long term rivals and fairly local, so attendance should be strong for each of those games.

Ideally, CA would be expanded and improved. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen anytime soon.
 
Was at St. John's this week for a meeting and spoke to someone in administration. Was told that Cragg's goal would be to create a home court advantage like the on campus 9100 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. They have had engineers in and it looks like the beat expansion options are on the west side on CA,and the second best east side.

I'm guessing moving all BE games to MSG would be a temporary arrangement if construction were to happen.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=315641]Was at St. John's this week for a meeting and spoke to someone in administration. Was told that Cragg's goal would be to create a home court advantage like the on campus 9100 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. They have had engineers in and it looks like the beat expansion options are on the west side on CA,and the second best east side.

I'm guessing moving all BE games to MSG would be a temporary arrangement if construction were to happen.[/quote]

Thats great news. Seems to me from just the current set up of carnesseca, its the endzones that need expanding but I have no idea of the situation.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=315641]Was at St. John's this week for a meeting and spoke to someone in administration. Was told that Cragg's goal would be to create a home court advantage like the on campus 9100 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. They have had engineers in and it looks like the beat expansion options are on the west side on CA,and the second best east side.

I'm guessing moving all BE games to MSG would be a temporary arrangement if construction were to happen.[/quote]

Meh. I was hoping more MSG games would be a long term solution.

Yes, it'd be nice if CA could expand a bit behind the hoops... but the real problem is the horrible seating. I'm only 5 foot 9 and 160 lbs, but I HATE sitting there. It's so uncomfortable and my legs are always against someone's back.

Also, at least for me (living in Astoria), CA is inconvenient to get to. I'm not convinced adding more seating is a great idea. Hopefully they'd plan to completely redo all seating.
 
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[quote="Adam" post=315682][quote="Beast of the East" post=315641]Was at St. John's this week for a meeting and spoke to someone in administration. Was told that Cragg's goal would be to create a home court advantage like the on campus 9100 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. They have had engineers in and it looks like the beat expansion options are on the west side on CA,and the second best east side.

I'm guessing moving all BE games to MSG would be a temporary arrangement if construction were to happen.[/quote]

Meh. I was hoping more MSG games would be a long term solution.

Yes, it'd be nice if CA could expand a bit behind the hoops... but the real problem is the horrible seating. I'm only 5 foot 9 and 160 lbs, but I HATE sitting there. It's so uncomfortable and my legs are always against someone's back.

Also, at least for me (living in Astoria), CA is inconvenient to get to. I'm not convinced adding more seating is a great idea. Hopefully they'd plan to completely redo all seating.[/quote]

I think seatbacks would be in the plan. I know the problem going towards the GCP is Tobin, and towards Union Tpk the garage. They would have to build a new theater, and there isn't a lot of space in general so this would be a big plan.

My guess is that we would have to continue winning for the school to make this investment, but I could be wrong.

By the way, I was in D'Angelo Hall recently and it is a beautiful building, there are a lot of great views of DaSilva Stadium from the building, great meeting spaces, etc.

Those who haven't been on campus or come to games should get in early one day and just stroll around. Pretty stunning.
 
[quote="Beast of the East" post=315700][quote="Adam" post=315682][quote="Beast of the East" post=315641]Was at St. John's this week for a meeting and spoke to someone in administration. Was told that Cragg's goal would be to create a home court advantage like the on campus 9100 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. They have had engineers in and it looks like the beat expansion options are on the west side on CA,and the second best east side.

I'm guessing moving all BE games to MSG would be a temporary arrangement if construction were to happen.[/quote]

Meh. I was hoping more MSG games would be a long term solution.

Yes, it'd be nice if CA could expand a bit behind the hoops... but the real problem is the horrible seating. I'm only 5 foot 9 and 160 lbs, but I HATE sitting there. It's so uncomfortable and my legs are always against someone's back.

Also, at least for me (living in Astoria), CA is inconvenient to get to. I'm not convinced adding more seating is a great idea. Hopefully they'd plan to completely redo all seating.[/quote]

I think seatbacks would be in the plan. I know the problem going towards the GCP is Tobin, and towards Union Tpk the garage. They would have to build a new theater, and there isn't a lot of space in general so this would be a big plan.

My guess is that we would have to continue winning for the school to make this investment, but I could be wrong.

By the way, I was in D'Angelo Hall recently and it is a beautiful building, there are a lot of great views of DaSilva Stadium from the building, great meeting spaces, etc.

Those who haven't been on campus or come to games should get in early one day and just stroll around. Pretty stunning.[/quote]

Ok good, thanks. I think the checklist, in order of importance:
1. Seat backs for current seating
2. Add a lot of seats behind the hoops
3. Better concessions
4. AC (I've seen people mention this- though I don't notice since it's cold outside)

And yes D'Angelo is nice. For undergrad, I went to a newly built/renovated campus in NC and D'Angelo was the norm across nearly all building. When I went to SJU for grad school, I was surprised by how old and crappy most of the Queens campus is.

CA renovations would be a good place to start. Nothing beats MSG on TV, but CA seriously looks like a mid major court on TV.
 
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[quote="Adam" post=315873][quote="Beast of the East" post=315700][quote="Adam" post=315682][quote="Beast of the East" post=315641]Was at St. John's this week for a meeting and spoke to someone in administration. Was told that Cragg's goal would be to create a home court advantage like the on campus 9100 seat Cameron Indoor Stadium at Duke. They have had engineers in and it looks like the beat expansion options are on the west side on CA,and the second best east side.

I'm guessing moving all BE games to MSG would be a temporary arrangement if construction were to happen.[/quote]

Meh. I was hoping more MSG games would be a long term solution.

Yes, it'd be nice if CA could expand a bit behind the hoops... but the real problem is the horrible seating. I'm only 5 foot 9 and 160 lbs, but I HATE sitting there. It's so uncomfortable and my legs are always against someone's back.

Also, at least for me (living in Astoria), CA is inconvenient to get to. I'm not convinced adding more seating is a great idea. Hopefully they'd plan to completely redo all seating.[/quote]

I think seatbacks would be in the plan. I know the problem going towards the GCP is Tobin, and towards Union Tpk the garage. They would have to build a new theater, and there isn't a lot of space in general so this would be a big plan.

My guess is that we would have to continue winning for the school to make this investment, but I could be wrong.

By the way, I was in D'Angelo Hall recently and it is a beautiful building, there are a lot of great views of DaSilva Stadium from the building, great meeting spaces, etc.

Those who haven't been on campus or come to games should get in early one day and just stroll around. Pretty stunning.[/quote]

Ok good, thanks. I think the checklist, in order of importance:
1. Seat backs for current seating
2. Add a lot of seats behind the hoops
3. Better concessions
4. AC (I've seen people mention this- though I don't notice since it's cold outside)

And yes D'Angelo is nice. For undergrad, I went to a newly built/renovated campus in NC and D'Angelo was the norm across nearly all building. When I went to SJU for grad school, I was surprised by how old and crappy most of the Queens campus is.

CA renovations would be a good place to start. Nothing beats MSG on TV, but CA seriously looks like a mid major campus on TV.[/quote]

I think you’re being a little harsh when it comes to the campus.

the residence hall area is, in my opinion, really nice. So is the church and so is St Augustine. DAC is nice, Taff and CA are nice.

The only two buildings that stick out as being old, to me, are Marillac and SJH. Which sucks cause commuters and people that just come to campus for class are probably spending most of their time in those two buildings, cause it’s where most of the classes are.

However, the new business building is sick, I never go in there cause my major has nothing to do with what that building offers, but it’s really nice.

St. John’s isn’t the best campus but considering it’s in Queens, I think it’s pretty nice.

My biggest complaint about campus isn’t even the schools fault, but a lot of the good restaurant spots on Union are leaving. Union Tpke my freshman year was a lot nicer than it is now, and it’s only been a couple years.
 
Also, understand the problems a lot of people have at CA but I love it there. I’ve been at St. John’s for 3 years and when I walk into that arena for a game, I’ve been to probably 35+ at this point, it really feels like our home.

MSG doesn’t. At least not to me. It’s our home for sure, but because it’s MSG it’s an open invite for our opponents fans to come and watch. They come out in big numbers, and considering half the time MSG doesnt even take the damn Knicks logo off the court, it feels like we are visitors in our own arena

CA needs a lot of improvements but I’ll be pissed if we stop playing games like Creighton, Butler, etc there.
 
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Spoke with Cragg in the recent past about seatbacks and concessions specifically. He agrees, but he said the seatbacks seem so simple but is actually a huge pain and very tricky. He knows first hand since he had many seatbacks installed at Duke's football stadium. The plan would be for CA to be more like a complete bowl with a lower student section instead of being away from the action and detached. Student section may be moved to side like Cameron.
 
[quote="Jack Williams" post=315879]Also, understand the problems a lot of people have at CA but I love it there. I’ve been at St. John’s for 3 years and when I walk into that arena for a game, I’ve been to probably 35+ at this point, it really feels like our home.

MSG doesn’t. At least not to me. It’s our home for sure, but because it’s MSG it’s an open invite for our opponents fans to come and watch. They come out in big numbers, and considering half the time MSG doesnt even take the damn Knicks logo off the court, it feels like we are visitors in our own arena

CA needs a lot of improvements but I’ll be pissed if we stop playing games like Creighton, Butler, etc there.[/quote]

Jack,

You will likely feel different about CA when you are no longer young. My first game was in 1983 and while the arena is largely the same, it felt more comfortable then than it is to me right now. Age (and size) is a factor.

MSG means two things to me right now. One, it is likely to be a bigger game since we don't play "buy games" there and second, it means that I will be comfortable during the game.

Also keep in mind, that for a lot of people in my age group, a game at MSG was and is special. Some of the biggest games in Big East history have been held there. We've seen the place when it is sold out and rocking. Hope that you can get the chance to experience the same thing soon.

John
 
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