Where to put the Arena?

[mwu]

1) day care will be moving, according to the masterplan it'll be @ Columbia.

2) I disagree raar, what sense would it make to have 3 arenas sitting right next to each other?

[ghostofdylan]

How many cars do you figure UWM students park east of downtown on a normal class day?

Would it be safe to say 13,000?

How many people would the new arena hold? Sixty-five hundred?

[Rawls]

Sorry to pile on, raar, but I'm about to. The new arena has got to be on-campus. North Ave is minutes away, and all your downtown favorites are just a few more minutes. Especially if this new sports bar is halfway decent, there will be stuff to do if you look.

Has the neighborhood association accepted this yet? Would they need to? It'd suck for the kids to pay $25/semester only to get screwed if they stand in the way of this happening.

[PantherU]

Here's some things to address some of the concerns and thoughts shared today:

1. Day Care will not be the place for the basketball arena, because it will be the future home of the interdepartmental research facility. It's a $75 million sciences building that will straight-up kick ass.

2. In the recent survey taken by the athletics program, a wide majority of the season-ticket holders who participated preferred the games on-campus in a new arena or renovated Klotsche.

3. People bring up parking a lot when talking about the arena. They believe that they will have to fight for parking like they did for big games at the Klotsche in 02-03 and earlier. The fact of the matter is there are 700 indoor parking spaces attached to the Klotsche Center now, so if the arena goes in there or is renovated you will have about 1,000+ season-ticket holders accommodated for already. There's also a possibility of building a second underground ramp along with the basketball arena to accommodate more parkers. If the arena is put in the Columbia space, there are 900 parking spaces in the garage on the Columbia campus.

3. The nightlife isn't out of the question. With new dorms along North Avenue, we now have 2,000 students living in university housing along North: Kenilworth, Riverview, and Cambridge Commons. Add in all the students living in the neighborhood (in the 1,000s) and the fact that those shuttle buses run into the night, and the university's main issue is taken care of (students to games). Of course, the arena could be put around North Avenue. If you have trouble finding night life around North Ave, you've got trouble. Personally, I would love to see the Arena go up in that area for another reason as well (can't tell you yet), but I'm not going to cry if the arena is on campus.

4. Beer sales are designated by the university's chancellor. Just because it's on campus doesn't mean it lacks beer sales. It's up to the discretion of the chancellor whether or not the university can sell alcohol in sporting events. When the arena goes up, just make sure that Lovell or the new chancellor knows that his/her paying customers want to drink at the game. Schools like Minnesota choose not to have it, but there's nothing to say they cannot change their minds.

5. The Neighbors' opinion, while our university will maintain is very important in determining the construction of the building, doesn't mean sh*t. These are the people that, for all their b****ing and moaning, couldn't stop us from putting up lights on Engelmann Field. They also couldn't stop us from building the Pavilion, or East Tower, or buying Columbia Hospital, or ...get where I'm going with this?

[uwmplanner]

I have often thought the same thing in regards do the arena being around North Avenue rather than being on campus. I think a strong argument could be made for either location.

I still have 2 questions if anybody has the answers.

1) Have students started paying the $25 fees?

I am assuming they are because it was approved this summer. Setting aside those funds are the first important step to getting an arena done.

2) Is their a website with info that will take donations from alum, like me, that want to donate to see a on-campus arena?

[Rawls]

where near North Ave is available?

[BBFran]

Another vote for an on campus arena even though it will be massively less convenient for an old alum like me with an office a few blocks from the Cell. This is college sports. Where should college sports be played if not on campus?

As for beer, I personally couldn't care less; I'm just worried that if Lou doesn't have access to a tapper during the game his "conversations" with the officials will be less entertaining.

[Rawls]

www4.uwm.edu/give_to_uwm/makegift/online_giving.cfm

Planner, here's the closest thing I could find for a place to donate. Looks like you can donate it to the Athletic Dept. and then there's a place where you can write in that you want it to go toward the arena.

[pantherdon]

Why would the Chance not allow beer sales?
Do we want another reason for people not to go?

This is Milwaukee.

[uwmplanner]

Sept 23, 2010 10:31:31 GMT -6 Rawls said:

www4.uwm.edu/give_to_uwm/makegift/online_giving.cfm

Planner, here's the closest thing I could find for a place to donate. Looks like you can donate it to the Athletic Dept. and then there's a place where you can write in that you want it to go toward the arena.

Thanks I looked at the on the website, I just gotta have faith it will end up in the arena fund.

[mwu]

agreed don, this is MKE - roll out the barrell is our "unofficial" fight song

i will make it public that this topic of convo, is my masters thesis. thats all i'll say about it for now, keep your thoughts flowing on the topic it helps to give me ideas.

[uwmfutbol]

If the Cell were newly-renovated I'd be more optimistic about downtown, but that place is falling apart, and it's too big for our needs. I'd rather we put the money towards an on-campus arena. Between the arena and the new dorms, the "campus experience" would be all but complete at UWM.

If we could build an arena that held between 5000 and 6000 students I'd be ecstatic.

[ghostofdylan]

Did you mean to say 5,000 to 6,000 fans, futbol?

Five thousand to six thousand students is probably as much or more than Marquette gets for its biggest games.

I would be thrilled if we could average in the neighborhood of 2,000 students per game.

[uwmfutbol]

Oops yeah fans, not students.

If we get 6000 students at a game I'll donate my Money Market to UWM.

...not really I need that money.

[Rawls]

I'm sure he did. I'd say six to seven thousand would be better. The Butler game drew 5,012 last year. And that's when we're struggling to get people to come. Marquette should draw more and so should Madison when they come to town. I understand the desire for intimacy, but Cameron holds over 9,000. And its purty intimate. Let's not aim low.