Its been a few years since ive been to see a game but it looked great last night on espnu.

Looks like me, the mrs and our teens will be there Saturday for Eastern game...any tips from the usual suspects?

I lived there my freshman year, but that was snoopy graham/dave jamerson year. I hope the refreshments have improved.ha

Although I've been to probably 10 or so Ohio games elsewhere since graduating, I'll be making my first trip to the Convo since 2004 next month for the BG game. Looking forward to being back in my favorite place for watching hoops!

To be fair it probably is the "gourmet" item out of the sub-high school quality concessions that we offer.

But yes, the building did look good on TV.

No coke. Pepsi.

The convo got a nice shoutout from and ESPN analyst on twitter recently.

https://twitter.com/franfraschilla/status/817805704174141441

New LED lights two seasons ago.

The Convo did look great the other night. I don't like the huge logo at center court. If I were playing, I'll bet I wouldn't know half the time where the half court line was. I think O-H-I-O behind the baskets is sufficient, as well. But when they put in the new floor they didn't ask me and I didn't pony up to impose my will.

I agree with 95% of what you've said in here. Light the place up on the outside!

Wouldn't it be a nice Grad Student project to research how other schools run their gameday operations to see how some improvements could be made? Places like UC, Dayton, Pitt, Butler, IU, and Xavier are all within reasonable driving distance for research. From my perspective, having been in each building in the last year, Butler, UD, and UC have it down for in game experiences. Butler and UC make excellent use of the center court scoreboard in their buildings. They use it for advertising, but also in game promotions that we're doing with musical chairs on the floor right now. I know it's on the radar for getting done, and I know it costs money. But as you say, it would do a lot to improve the experience. With ads on it, it would eventually (hopefully) pay for itself, right?

But as you said, there are tons of things that can be done to give The Convo the feel of excellence and tradition that cost MUCH less. Hanging banners with All-MAC players in the building. Hanging more jerseys from the rafters. We have more than the small handful of great players in program history than are currently hanging up there now. Brandon Hunter, DJ Cooper, Geno Ford are names that come to mind that could/should be up there.

I've been posting about this for years, but why can't we hang things and decorate the concourse to the point that you know you're there watching Ohio Basketball (men's and women's), and volleyball? Making it look really sharp, and feeling like a building of tradition and history can't cost that much.

Seems to me there needs to be a group running the show on gamed ay so everything flows better. There needs to be a balance of band, and music over the PA to get/keep energy high. The music should be a blend of modern/current music that the students get into, and a couple songs that older fans can identify with. Find what gets the response from the fans, and stick to it. Same with the 110 - find the high energy songs, and stick to the same ones.

One last thought I've been wanting to share, or ask about: Why is it that we don't play the Alma Mater either before or after games, or both? I was at Cincinnati's Fifth Third Arena on New Year's day. The UC Alma Mater preceded the National Anthem, and was also played as fans departed. Pride in the Alma mater comes with that song. Alma Mater Ohio needs to be part of the game day experience in Athens.

We have over 4k season ticket holders (remember article from the fall saying that was a new record) so you'll never see an attendance number below that.

Also, I'd argue our "experience" is 10x any MAC school. If you travel to some road games this year you'll see what I mean. Morgue-like environments with no more than a legit 500 there.

#MACtion...

Because it, like most alma maters, sounds like a treacly funeral dirge. Not exactly a great way to fire up the crowd.

Oxford? Wow. Its been a few years but last time I was there it was a dark and lonely place.... That's a hockey school now, no? ;)

I like a lot of the ideas here like lighting up outside the arena. And, a new scoreboard of course. I attended at UVA football game this year and they did a lot of cool stuff with their huge scoreboard that fired up the crowd.

Of course, we need some of funds....

I agree Ohio/Convo experience is better than anywhere else in the MAC.

But that's like being the star on your JV basketball team.

Don't you strive to be better?

We shouldn't compare ourselves to the rest of the MAC in that regard....strive for better.

Visit (study) some of the good mid-major programs that have some good home court experiences and pull from them.

Miami might be worst CBB experience I've ever had. Millett Hall is dreadful.

The scoreboard would be a huge boost...but as I mentioned earlier....just having some organization would be a small step in right direction. The band shouldn't just be playing whenever they fell like it (i.e. over Lou when he's trying to do a read). Just seemed very disjointed.

Why no some murals to celebrate great moments in Bobcat basketball/volleyball.

Hell...celebrate the men's Sweet 16 run with a big mural.

Volleyball's run to multiple NCAA tourneys/MAC title

Women's basketball MAC title/NCAA run

Maybe even some wrestling murals for MAC/NCAA success.

There are just so many blank, concrete walls once you get past the front ticket office. They did a good job there...but the rest of the arena is pretty blah.

It's 90 seconds long. Having pride in the Alma mater generally fires people up a little, right? When done by SMO, it's not exactly a funeral dirge.