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Texas's new basketball arena

Sean Miller Fan

Lair Hall of Famer
Oct 30, 2001
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Looks amazing


Its only going to seat 10,000 believe it or not. As we know, college basketball attendance is terrible most places and this is evidence of that. Despite being the "NBA team" in a fairly large city and being traditionally successful, they have a hard time drawing fans.

It seems like they are having the same type of downsizing technology as Mercedes-Benz Stadium has for Atlanta United so while most games will seat 10K, they'll open it up for 15K for big games. I'd love love love to see Pitt invest in something like this at The Pete. We will NEVER fill the Pete regularly again. Yea, if we become a Top 15 program again, we'll fill it a few times per year. Yea, Duke is always going to sell out but we're never going to fill it consistently. College hoops attendance is down, interest in the sport is down, and younger fans aren't as likely to attend live events like the generations before them. No idea how much this would cost but some type retractable surface covering the upper deck would make The Pete more intimate and actually look pretty cool.
 
Winning solves all attendance problems. Winning games will fill The Pete. It only seats a bit over 12K, and it's in the middle of a major metropolitan area. By comparison, the John Paul Jones Arena seats over 14K, and the population of Charlottesville and surrounding counties is roughly a tenth of the population of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. And, yet, the JPJ is essentially sold out for every home game. Just to buy season tickets requires a sizeable donation to the VAF (Virginia Athletic Fund), although that might not apply to some of the "nose-bleed" seats. The Pete is an incredibly nice facility. All it takes to fill it are "wins".
 
The seating capacity is perfect for its hoops program. Its current venue is way too big for a school where basketball is behind football, football, football, men's baseball, football then basketball.
 
I’m so happy for them. They had to suffer thru financial distress being in the big 12 where their annual revenue is 219m and then they get a 130 million dollar handout for this arena.

Just can’t imagine poor Texas and how they managed. Def see why they have to leave the big 12 to make more money, who could live on only 219 million?
 
Winning solves all attendance problems. Winning games will fill The Pete. It only seats a bit over 12K, and it's in the middle of a major metropolitan area. By comparison, the John Paul Jones Arena seats over 14K, and the population of Charlottesville and surrounding counties is roughly a tenth of the population of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. And, yet, the JPJ is essentially sold out for every home game. Just to buy season tickets requires a sizeable donation to the VAF (Virginia Athletic Fund), although that might not apply to some of the "nose-bleed" seats. The Pete is an incredibly nice facility. All it takes to fill it are "wins".
Correction: EXTREME winning will fill the Pete and Pitt will never have a prolonged stretch of extreme winning again. The place was half-empty during Dixon II even though we were a good bubble-type program. The Pete is far too big for the demand unless Pitt becomes a Top 5/10 program again which isnt going to happen.
 
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Correction: EXTREME winning will fill the Pete and Pitt will never have a prolonged stretch of extreme winning again. The place was half-empty during Dixon II even though we were a good bubble-type program. The Pete is far too big for the demand unless Pitt becomes a Top 5/10 program again which isnt going to happen.

Who cares… if we’re good we’ll get at least 9-10k there for conference games… and many of the ACC games will be against Syracause/Louisville/UNC/Duke/UVA and havw 11-12k there.

But even when there’s only 8k there, it doesn’t look bad. It’s fine. We have a really good student section. Who cares.

Nobody ever complains about the atmosphere. It’s not why we lose recruits. There aren’t pictures on Twitter. Who cares. Nobody else does, why do you?
 
Who cares… if we’re good we’ll get at least 9-10k there for conference games… and many of the ACC games will be against Syracause/Louisville/UNC/Duke/UVA and havw 11-12k there.

But even when there’s only 8k there, it doesn’t look bad. It’s fine. We have a really good student section. Who cares.

Nobody ever complains about the atmosphere. It’s not why we lose recruits. There aren’t pictures on Twitter. Who cares. Nobody else does, why do you?
Texas does, which is why they are covering their upper deck. Texas.

I do agree its not as big of a deal as in football but with Pitt spending $250 million on volleyball and indoor track, I would find a way to funnel $1-$2 million to basketball for the same type of downsizing technology.
 
Winning solves all attendance problems. Winning games will fill The Pete. It only seats a bit over 12K, and it's in the middle of a major metropolitan area. By comparison, the John Paul Jones Arena seats over 14K, and the population of Charlottesville and surrounding counties is roughly a tenth of the population of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. And, yet, the JPJ is essentially sold out for every home game. Just to buy season tickets requires a sizeable donation to the VAF (Virginia Athletic Fund), although that might not apply to some of the "nose-bleed" seats. The Pete is an incredibly nice facility. All it takes to fill it are "wins".
When SMF says "we" he means other hoopies and himself. So he's right, hoopies won't ever fill the Pete.
 
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How can anyone get all googly-eyed over how beautiful a building is based on architectural renderings? Architectural renderings can make a garbage dump look like a beautiful park.

Additionally, there is nothing in the article indicating that the initial arena can increase its seating to 15,000. The article indicates the arena can be expanded to seat 15,000, which I interpret to mean they can do further construction to increase the capacity in the future if demand warrants.
 
This is coming from a man who has sports ingrained in him from an early age.

The amount of money being spent on basketball arenas, rich men going to space, training facilities is just obscene.

This country, let alone the world, has many REAL problems to solve. Just absurd.
 
How can anyone get all googly-eyed over how beautiful a building is based on architectural renderings? Architectural renderings can make a garbage dump look like a beautiful park.

Additionally, there is nothing in the article indicating that the initial arena can increase its seating to 15,000. The article indicates the arena can be expanded to seat 15,000, which I interpret to mean they can do further construction to increase the capacity in the future if demand warrants.
"On top of that, it will have the capacity to expand to 15,000 when needed and be a big-time concert venue that draws premier performers to our great city.”

Look at the drawing which shows a curtain or whatever it is covering the upper deck and its pretty easy to see that they are doing the same thing with that that Atlanta United does.

Also, not that Wikipedia is always accurate but

 
This is coming from a man who has sports ingrained in him from an early age.

The amount of money being spent on basketball arenas, rich men going to space, training facilities is just obscene.

This country, let alone the world, has many REAL problems to solve. Just absurd.
Same boat for the most part.

I’m not educated enough on the private space race so hopefully something good will come if it. But make no mistake that Bezos and Branson are having an ego filled di** swinging contest just like the stadiums/arenas and all the amenities. It’s even filtered down to the high school level in some areas which is even more obscene.
 
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Same boat for the most part.

I’m not educated enough on the private space race so hopefully something good will come if it. But make no mistake that Bezos and Branson are having an ego filled di** swinging contest just like the stadiums/arenas and all the amenities. It’s even filtered down to the high school level in some areas which is even more obscene.

100% agree
 
I'd love love love to see Pitt invest in something like this at The Pete.

They seem to be trying by making more and more of the available lower bowl at the Pete premium club seating....
 
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