I haven't been to that many top flight college basketball arena's, but the few I've been to would give OHIO dozens or great ideas for how to modernize the Convo.  Probably the most impressive I've visited was Purdue.  What really caught my attention at their arena was the attention to detail in the concourses.  Tons of displays and memorabilia from the history of the program.  Every few feet their was a display in nice glass cases with hardwood finishes furnished with displays that you could tell someone had spent lots of time putting together. 

Compare that to the Convo that is cold, plain and elementary in nature.  The Convo just has zero in regards to personality as you walk around the hallways.

The other thing Purdue had was some great perks for the lower bowl seats--granted I'm sure those who sit there are paying a lot more than we are.  The Platnium section seats were leather chairs with team logo's professionally embroidered.  However inside the playing arena itself, the Convo is not horrible outside of needing a new scoreboard.  Where we really miss out are the asthetics in the concourses.

I agree with opinions concerning a "re-do" of the Hall of Fame, as well as other improvements around the concourse. 
The main improvement I would like to see, (besides scoreboard), would be to re-activate or re-install the outside, highlighting around the outside of the building.  I believe that the lighting has not been used since the days of the energy conservation efforts way back when.  I am sure it would cost some money to use, but even if it is just on "game-nights" it would be a great improvement.  The convo used to be lit up like a spaceship and really looked awesome on game nights back in the day !!!    Bring it back !!

Snoopy Graham deserves a robotic action statue - w/accompanying "Sweet Georgia Brown" tuneage................

A few years back I happened to be in the Convo renewing tickets or something of that nature and the athletic administrators were taking a tour with a consulting/facilities management firm.  I walked over to the group and struck up a conversation and discovered what they were doing.  As a Green and White Club past president the question was asked "what would you do" and my response echoed what this group has said - 1) exterior lighting so that you know there is a game that night, 2) upgrade the Hall of Fame 3) provide a history of OU basketball/athletics around the concourse 4) bring the concession experience into the era of Top Chef and 5) banners that I had seen at BG that we now have at Peden.  

Four or five years have passed and we've seen none of this except the nice banners/graphics at Peden.

It's a flat out money loser.

This to me sounds like the best way to do it!  

There are some similar veins in this story, especially about what Butch Jones did while coaching at CMU (it's about halfway down the article): http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8030641/so...

and how big is that sales team we would have selling those ads? Which if it's even double what it was when I was last there years and years ago, it's still a money loser.

Finding ideas is easy. It's the brick and mortar that costs the $$$. That's what we don't have. Or, at the very least, it's not where we're prioritizing to spend the money.

While were talking about ads, a quick lesson about how sponsorship sales are done at OU (and apparently most other D1 schools)...

Sponsorship sales are completely outsourced to IMG (hence the name of the radio network). How this work is IMG pays OU a guaranteed amount of money per year...I've been told it's about $500,000...for the "rights" to sell our sponsorships. Their goal, obviously, is to exceed this amount in sponsorship sales. If they sell $1,000,000 in sponsorships, they keep all the profits. On the other hand, if they sell $100,000....we still get the $500,000. It's a risk-reward sort of thing.

You literally sell your soul to IMG. In many ways, they own us. If they don't feel like selling ads for a program, they don't have to. They don't answer to Jim Schaus or Ohio University - they answer to some corporate suits in who-knows-where.Their only goal is to make $$$, and they don't have the athletic department's best interests in mind.

Wonder why we have so many sponsored promotions and about 500 PA announcements per game? A joke of a game program? Coupon drops and Lava Cake? This is your answer. They essentially tell the athletic department staff what they have to do. It's the tail wagging the dog.

If you talk to folks in the athletic department that work closely with IMG, they are generally not fans of it. But, it sounds like it's the way of the world for 99.9% of schools. The major perks are the guaranteed $$$ and the chance to get big national companies (Allstate, UPS, Taco Bell, etc.) that regularly would overlook schools like us.

So, in brief...this may be a major reason why there is no quality program like most of us want. IMG has something like a 10 year deal with OU, so it's not going away, either. I was certainly quite surprised when I learned that this is how everything works with sponsorships - but I'm also a little less critical of everything that goes on knowing that this is the background to it.

Programs are a thing of the past!  Nearly every college basketball and football program is transitioning to online media guides and programs because the print version is a money loser.  He takes a ton of human resources to put the stuff together and it loses money on sales and advertising revenue.  The "Well, Duh" part is not doing programs because the time and money it destroys in an athletic department with limited man power and limited budgets.   

For the cost of putting me up somewhere down there, I'd take a weekend in Athens and come join on this project.  I've been complaining about blue men's rooms for a long time.

Too bad the union (AFSCME if i recall correctly) would probably break your kneecaps for your good deed.

EDIT: fixed a typo

that thought crossed my mind.

I just read a few articles on folks volunteering a lot of work, engineering and architecture on a couple of projects including this one.. where everyone from  the construction supers and project managers down to laborers were donating their time