yeah, from my computer it looks like a new high school gym. not impressed at all.

Coming back from Stroh Center right now. It's a really nice building. Decent video board, very open feel. But the fans simply do not come to support BG. My guess was 1500, and McKinney thought 2000. Regardless, one thing stayed the same. And that we can't beat mediocre BG teams there. And it continues...

Great seeing all the Bobcat fans in BG tonight. Tough ball game. We shot it pretty well, made some plays and won. Impressed w several Bobcats. Excellent team speed and they played hard.

Yes, no question, we aren't committed to basketball at BG with this tiny arena we built. What were we thinking?

No question. 

$36 million facility. Pretty decent amenities according to a few Bobcat fans I talked to. Video board, practice court, openness sight lines, club. Decent.

$8 million dollar lead gift.

$10 million endowment gift for men's basketball.

We just aren't committed.

And our fans. Where were they? You're right- we need more. Absolutely but....pretty sure the 8,000 students who live on campus that can't move back to their res halls tomorrow weren't there. That didn't help much. And maybe the 3200 people that were 300 yards away at the Ice Arena to watch us beat the number two hockey team in the nation OSU in a shoot out might have had a little to do with it. Maybe.

ESPNU had us move the game. We had the perfect trifecta lined up earlier with women's bball (also a win with a good crowd) in the first slot then men's bball at 4 then hockey vs OSU at 7. Then we got moved and had to go w two revenue sports head to head.

You guys are right- we need more fans. But we did have 5000 people at BG revenue sports events tonight. Then add in the women's crowd which exactly impacts things here as opposed to Athens. With many students not in town.

And we won three times today. Which should help.

Good luck and I'll be at the Convo.

Go Falcons!

Visited the Stroh Center tonight. Aside from the video board, it's on par with the new gyms local high schools are building. One design flaw. Although you enter on floor level, you have to take stairs up to the concourse level so you can walk back down to your seats at floor level.

Just got back from the Stroh Center.  This may be one of the worst new facilities for basketball that I have had the pleasure to witness.

Very poor for entrance into the facility.  To get to the facility one has to climb one hell of a lot of steps.  One Elevator for everyone. to go up.  Once a visiting fan gets to the second floor off of the elevator, one then has to traverse 10 steps down, 10 steps up  Really poor design.  If one is an aged fan, or handicap to go to regular seats really difficult.  They did have adequate handicap seating at the top and parking.

Lighting was good from the top, but the advertising board across from the team seats is blinding.  The score board is nice, but 0nly at one end. At the other end is what I would call a active player board; very hard to read.  Small time and score boards at visiting team egress.   It is very noisy, so if the students were in attendance, it would be loud.  Security was all around the floor before, during timeouts and after the game.  Sound system was not great.

Seating has mostly chairbacks, on each end are regular bleachers.  The chairback seats at each end are like Miami, you have to turn in your seats to see the floor. 

The only difference from Anderson is bettter lighting and seats on each end.  I assume they are putting their students in each end zone.  If I were a student I would not want to sit in those seats when there are chairbacks available if seats are not sold.

The American Flag is in a very weid position.  It is like they forgot the placement of the flag so where they have it located was an after thought.

The building has a nice secondary gym, very nice team store.  Above average training room and equipment room.  Did not see the locker rooms.The refreshment stands are adequate serving hamburgers, footlongs, chicken strips, french fries, nacho chips, popcorn and candy and various fountain sodas.They even brought the food to ones seat if the sandwiches were not ready. 

JUST WAY TO SMALL IF THEY START WINNING.  I was told 400-600 more seats than Anderson(not sure because onlythe end zone seats makes it more numbers.

Again my personal opinion is they did not get their monies worth.  Does not look good from the outside when driving in.
Do not hire this arcitect designer!!  In my opinion the only arena worse in the league would be Kent and WMU.  Toledo and CMU did a nice job in their renovation and I hear that Miami has changed their facility for the better( I will wait on that).

unfortunately for the Stroh Center there's a very unflattering camera angle- when shot from court level from the bottom left corner the ceiling looks dangerously low and all see you beyond the opposite basket is some bleachers and a ton of white wall space, thats something you see more in hs gyms than college arenas. but hey if they like it, thats what counts.

To be fair Ted, you can hardly consider this a typical high school gym.  This link provides a bit more information.

http://www.trentarena.com/about/about.html

And if we're going to get into the business of comparing high school facilities to college facilities, check this indoor practice facility out:

http://www.cleveland.com/timstake/index.ssf/2008/10/team_practice_massillons_got_i.html

Yes, BuddyLee. We are jealous of your awesome new arena that isn't big enough to hold an OU crowd on its worst day. You keep your flashy new tiny arena. I'll take the 12,000+ fans we'll have in the Convo in two weeks against Miami.

All the Convo needs is a video board, some paint, and maybe bathroom/concession updates.  We at least have the core setup right, (atmosphere, capacity, viewing angles) and a fanbase to fill it up giving us a big-time unparalleled in the MAC.

OK - it's a nice GYM, with some amenities. I still think the Convo blows it away for game experience.

I went...I thought it was nice.  A little surprised at the price tag, but there's more to the building than just the main court and stands, so I can't really make that judgement without a full tour.  The stairs up to concourse then back down to the seats didn't bother me personally, but they might bother me in 50 years.  There were 4 sets of steps, it would've been perfect to have the outter 2 be escalators...Would think you could fit that into a 36 million dollar budget.

Other than that, I thought it was nice.  Had they built for 10,000...We would've made fun of them for wasting God's green earth to have a bunch of empty seats.  It'll be a pretty cool atmosphere if and when they pack the place.

No question the hockey game and students not being back played a big role in the small crowd.  Not saying it would've been packed without those 2 factors, but it probably wouldn't have been laughable.  There is no question they need to stir up some more fan interest somehow.  We gripe about the average OU Student/Alum being disinsterested in athletic, but that is true times 10 at BG.

Perhaps one good result from NE Ohio yesterday?