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Post by blackcatinorange on Aug 15, 2012 21:01:06 GMT -6
Call me crazy, I'm looking forward to the new scoreboard and video boards at the KC. It's a good move to have the concession area behind the two student section bleachers to have less people in the hallways, so people won't be blocking the bathrooms. I hope season-ticket holders from last season will be back for the 2012-13 season and support the black & gold!! I'm just taking this whole UWM athletics transformation one step at a time. I'm excited to go down to the KC next Thursday and either choose my existing seat location or possibly upgrade to floor seats. I got my masters from CUW and Dr. Kieper was one of my professors. He sure has a gem in Kapco Field. I'd love to see that same type of facility for the Panthers. |
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Post by uwmplanner on Aug 16, 2012 7:45:08 GMT -6
Honestly this type of facility planning and building should've been completed about 20 years ago when we jumped to d1 athletics.
I think it is important that Geiger stick around for at least 3 years to get the ball rolling and then hand pick a successor to finish what he started. Not sure why but I have more faith in Geiger to get things done than any of the previous AD's at UWM.
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Post by kingsteve on Aug 16, 2012 7:49:25 GMT -6
After a lot of gnashing of teeth and rending of garments I will be at the KC on 8/23 renewing my two season tickets, actually hopefully upgrading....a bitter pill to swallow indeed ...if Jeter would have gotten us to the dance ONCE on his own dime I think we would be much farther along... agree that a lot of interest and money would return if that happened...watched a Dennis Krause segment on Lincoln High School coach Smallins.. What a class person, reminds me of Larry Reed....the point is he ran a full court press most of the time and fast break offense...his point was that it was not undisiciplined or chaaotic just different...ah..reminds me of the Bruce Pearl days.. not only hugely winning and successful but exciting....sorry....on the flip side of all this Jimmy's article on the Klotsche not being permanent sums up my feelings exactly...they HAVE TO announce something definite in next year on new arena...I am disturbed by the five years for practicie facility and "after that maybe"...next year I am not going to renew period of nothing announced.... Geiger says there is a plan ...well what the heck is it?  |
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Post by JG Panthers on Aug 16, 2012 8:17:11 GMT -6
Honestly this type of facility planning and building should've been completed about 20 years ago when we jumped to d1 athletics. I said something to this effect to ghostofdylan last night. It's a shame we moved from the Klotsche and basically "wasted" a decade at the Cell instead of better preparing for an on-campus facility. Of course, who knows if we ever would have had the same success in the NCAA Tourney. Let's get this plan hammered out already and move forward. |
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Post by kingsteve on Aug 16, 2012 8:28:12 GMT -6
I do not think we wasted the opportunity due to moving downtown. We wasted the opportunity because we had lightning in a bottle, had momentum , excitement, credibility and an opportunity to be a Butler or Gonzaga....instead we sunk back to mediocrity and a boring product and coach...we had almost a once in a lifetime chance to really rock it and get to the next level..it has dissipated....the buzz is gone
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Post by ghostofdylan on Aug 16, 2012 9:36:32 GMT -6
In my opinion, the facilities problem for men's basketball lies in the decision to take the money earned during the Sweet 16 run and devote it to expanded and upgraded basketball facilities ... for the at-large student population.
Meanwhile, practice is regularly interrupted by baseballs and intramural ultimate frisbee.
Who else encounters this at the Division 1 level?
With the switch to the old facility, I hear that recruiting is taking a hit. Can we please get a definitive plan in place?
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Post by PANTHERfan on Aug 16, 2012 11:50:13 GMT -6
With the switch to the old facility, I hear that recruiting is taking a hit. Can we please get a definitive plan in place? I assumed that this would probably be the case. If you can't convince longtime season ticket holders to endure the KC, how can you expect to sway potential recruits? Some are coming from more impressive high school venues. With an arena that could could be half a decade out, optimistically, this is going to be an ongoing problem. Of course there are teams that make do with similar situations. St Mary's comes to mind. The students are going to have to make a case --- this season --- that the KC is a venue that a recruit would want to play in. That means it has to be packed regularly with an engaged, energized, and organized student body. Will that happen? |
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Post by PantherU on Aug 16, 2012 13:00:40 GMT -6
This university has 5 dates where it screwed up:
1974 - Cutting football. They made the same decision as schools like Xavier and UIC. There have been mixed results for the schools, but it changed the identity of us forever. We were better at football than schools like Marshall and we cut the program. It was a step back. Even though many schools have done well after cutting football (Marquette, duh), the Panthers gave up their main separation in identity from the crosstown D-I school. By this point, baseball was only in club form at UWM and was already marginalized in the northern part of the country.
1980 - Moving back from Division I independence to NAIA. We eventually returned, but the message was sent to the university community: athletics is unimportant. This was following a scandal involving head coach Bob Gottlieb; I'm not entirely certain what the problem was, but what is important is that the UWM community was given a clear message as to how to treat athletics. That feeling persists through most of campus.
1990 - We moved to Division I without serious overhaul of athletics facilities, which was the recommendation of the Faculty Senate in 1988. Dr. Sander once showed me the minutes from a meeting where the faculty senate made it clear to the university that they believed a capital campaign to improve athletics facilities and look at possible new sports teams, then move to D-I. We just moved to D-I without trying, at least publicly, to improve facilities.
2001 - Funding was secured for the Klotsche Center overhaul. Construction had not yet begun, but despite pleas from Bud Haidet, Nancy Zimpher did not decide to use that money to also rebuild the basketball arena. Instead the athletics arena space was practically untouched and remains a problem to this day.
2003 - Following the loss to Notre Dame in the 2003 NCAA Tournament, Bruce Pearl convinced Bud Haidet to move to the U.S. Cellular Arena downtown. Pearl opined that the team would be averaging 8,000+ within two years and it was preferable to raising money for a brand new facility. The money sunk into running basketball out of the Cell has created an $8 million hole that we need to dig out of before we can seriously consider any new sports or more importantly, playing facilities for current teams.
What's the common theme here? The UWM community is given a strong, clear message: we're stepping back. People who have been to the Cell and the Klotsche Center get the same message. Without telling the shareholders in the program that brighter skies are on the horizon, many see no choice but to consider this a step back, as each of those 5 mistakes represented.
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Post by royalty414 on Aug 16, 2012 13:09:22 GMT -6
I know there is a concern about the lack of an organized student body, but there are a few of us working hard to put a plan of action together to get the students to games, teach them the cheers/chants, make them want to come back game in and game out, and make the Klotsche a place no opponent wants to visit (besides the fact that no one really wants to play there to begin with).
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Post by PantherU on Aug 16, 2012 13:13:57 GMT -6
Here's the fact, royalty: I couldn't get anyone to do everything I wanted to do. Get it together and make sure the effort doesn't slow down over the course of the semester. People get caught up in school work...you know, the reason they're all there...so you need to figure out how to make your crew as big and passionate as possible before Panther Madness starts. If you can do that, then people can spread out the actual work and you don't have 5 people doing everything. Get this Lutzow guy involved ASAP and reach out to incoming freshmen.
And get some hot girls, for cripes sake. Everyone wants to see hot girls.
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Post by illwauk on Aug 16, 2012 15:01:36 GMT -6
Here's the fact, royalty: I couldn't get anyone to do everything I wanted to do. Get it together and make sure the effort doesn't slow down over the course of the semester. People get caught up in school work...you know, the reason they're all there...so you need to figure out how to make your crew as big and passionate as possible before Panther Madness starts. If you can do that, then people can spread out the actual work and you don't have 5 people doing everything. Get this Lutzow guy involved ASAP and reach out to incoming freshmen. And get some hot girls, for cripes sake. Everyone wants to see hot girls. This is probably one of the biggest non-athletics related reasons to have football... the first home game played after the students return to campus in the fall is usually the first big campus social event of the year, which sets the tone for the rest of the semester. UWM has tried to replicate this effect with Pantherfest, which arguably makes sense for a school known more for partying and bohemian artsy-fartsy'ness than athletics, but after Pantherfest we have...... what exactly? Schools that have football take that momentum from the first home game and bring their students together at somewhat regular intervals, which helps forage a sense of community that's often missing at Milwaukee. We pretty much have nothing between Pantherfest and the start of basketball season, and by then students are so involved in their class work and student organizations (which skew more cliquish and usually don't have the broad reach of athletics) that basketball is the furthest thing from their mind. Will this change now that basketball is back on campus? Perhaps. But knowing how the last few games at the KC drew, I'm not too optimistic. Unless there's a plan in place other than "maybe we can get a new practice facility in 3 years," perhaps its time to bite the bullet and drop down to D3. |
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Aug 16, 2012 16:11:29 GMT -6
Last game at the KC was sold out. That's selling tickets only in one week.
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Post by tyrunner0097 on Aug 16, 2012 17:00:28 GMT -6
I know there is a concern about the lack of an organized student body, but there are a few of us working hard to put a plan of action together to get the students to games, teach them the cheers/chants, make them want to come back game in and game out, and make the Klotsche a place no opponent wants to visit (besides the fact that no one really wants to play there to begin with). Count me in, I'm on board. Definitely need to drum up interest in both the first couple weeks of the semester and again in the 3 weeks before the first exhibition game. Just saturate campus with schedules, info on the games, etc. The more they know, the better. |
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Post by illwauk on Aug 16, 2012 19:28:56 GMT -6
Last game at the KC was sold out. That's selling tickets only in one week. That was also a HL tournament game... the last few regular season games to take place at the KC didn't do so well. |
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Post by Pounce Needs Pals on Aug 16, 2012 19:54:19 GMT -6
Last game at the KC was sold out. That's selling tickets only in one week. That was also a HL tournament game... the last few regular season games to take place at the KC didn't do so well. 1st round HL games don't draw well. The last two KC games was UNO and WMU, not really big games. |
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