Can we stage some kind of postgame pyrotechnic malfunction after our last game of the season and get insurance money?

Or I'll take one for the team and fall down the stairs if someone will guarantee me good seats in the new arena.

Luke The Drifter said:

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It was a huge struggle for the university to even get Reed Arena built. Back in the old days, there was some approval process needed at the State level for the university to get facilities built. If any school dollars were going to be used (as opposed to 100% donor funded), the State Legislature somehow got involved. A&M had zero political clout at the time - even less than we have now. Some legislators were mad about our move to the Big 12, some were big t.u., Baylor, or tech fans, and some just had some other axe to grind against A&M. Heck...there were even some leaders inside of A&M that were bent out of shape over the possibility of leaving G. Rollie White.

Reed Arena was built with the smallest possible budget - and we only got that far because we agreed to make it a multi-purpose facility and not just a sports venue. Tony Barone, bless his heart, worked tirelessly to do whatever he could to get a new facility. He lobbied, campaigned, and even donated funds himself to make Reed happen. Then we fired him (and rightfully so) before he could ever coach a game in the new building.

I'm not going to say that Reed has been cursed from the start...but Reed has been cursed from the start.

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Can confirm Tony Barone being extremely passionate about Reed being built. Was at his basketball camp one summer- '97? at G Rollie and remember him harping about how he couldn't compete for players cause of the much nicer place over in Austin. But "we're working on a place!" he'd say.

Ill always remember him yelling at us teens at the end of the day to "unlace your shoes and air them out" or we'd all end up going home with Athlete's foot Lol.

JJxvi said:

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Unlike some of the pessimists here, I actually suspect you might see movement in short order on the arena front, similar to football after 2012

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Starred your post because I want to believe.

who has built a smaller arena, then left their old larger arena intact?

Tarleton has the newest and nicest arena in the state now.

Thankfully Bucky can see the forest through the trees. In that he wants to build the fan base not whine about it. If Tarleton can get it done so can we it just needs to be a little bigger though but that facility is first class.

bobinator said:

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I'd argue the Ferrel Center, only ten years older than Reed BTW, was a superior venue from a basketball-watching standpoint.

It was a POS, to be clear, but the basketball set up was better than Reed's.

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Ferrell Center was a hell of an upgrade over Heart of Texas Coliseum.

milner79 said:

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bobinator said:

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I'd argue the Ferrel Center, only ten years older than Reed BTW, was a superior venue from a basketball-watching standpoint.

It was a POS, to be clear, but the basketball set up was better than Reed's.

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Ferrell Center was a hell of an upgrade over Heart of Texas Coliseum.

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Hot wasn't much better than the bell county expo center or the sportatorium

Your lips to gods ears.

To give some credit to some people, they have made some significant upgrades to Reed that make it not as absolutely crappy as it used to be. Before they added on the Cox-McFerrin center it was absurdly bad.

If you think of the structure as more or less a mushroom stuck in the ground this might help you picture this, but you used to be able to walk down some of the hallways underneath the arena and if you opened the doors facing towards the outside they'd open to "storage" which was just an empty space facing the dirt hill the thing is built on. Like that's where the Reed Rowdies shirts and some of that type of stuff used to be kept.

BQ_90 said:

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who has built a smaller arena, then left their old larger arena intact?

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Auburn for one. Their new arena is great. Much smaller.

Texas_Ag11 said:

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BQ_90 said:

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who has built a smaller arena, then left their old larger arena intact?

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Auburn for one. Their new arena is great. Much smaller.

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but are they going to keep it, google says they're using it for temp offices and temp bookstore, then it'll be torn down. And it was built in 1969.

my point is I don't see us building new, then leaving Reed as is.

BQ_90 said:

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Texas_Ag11 said:

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BQ_90 said:

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who has built a smaller arena, then left their old larger arena intact?

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Auburn for one. Their new arena is great. Much smaller.

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but are they going to keep it, google says they're using it for temp offices and temp bookstore, then it'll be torn down. And it was built in 1969.

my point is I don't see us building new, then leaving Reed as is.

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City of Houston with the Dome.
I think silver dome was sold for ~$500K

I will never understand people advocating for a smaller arena because Baylor and Auburn did it. Who cares what 2 much smaller schools did? Going smaller at Olsen Field was a gigantic mistake that we are still paying for.

We are going to have a sold out crowd this weekend. When we are good and have a good opponent, 13,000 seats is not enough. Going below 10,000 so that it doesn't look as bad on SEC Network+ when we play McNeese State or something would be a crazy reason to spend the hundreds of millions it would take for a new arena. If Bucky lives up to his potential here season tickets will be hard to come by.

Reed is also not nearly big enough for Muster and Graduations these days. So the suggestion is to build a smaller arena, and then keep Reed Arena (which would continue to be too small) for those important events? And then you end up with two arenas that are two small for their primary functions and spend millions to do so. Not a great plan.

Texas built a much smaller arena (when being used for basketball) and the atmosphere is much better than when they had the cavern that was Erwin Center. Now it is honestly annoying for opposing or neutral fans because it is impossible to get a reasonably priced ticket to their games. Austin is obviously much larger than CS and their arena seats fewer people. If I were them I would open the top level for burst capacity for big games, but they don't. We could realistically do the same. Saturday vs UF, open the top levels. Wednesday against Missouri, keep it closed. The main issue being inconsistent staffing.

In SEC basketball, bigger does not necessarily mean better.

They didn't have to build it though, they sold that to private group, the sips get to use it for sports for x many dates.

I don't think there is a group willing to do that in BCS

True as far as getting it built and paying for it. I was mostly just responding to the idea that smaller arenas are only popping up at smaller schools and don't make sense. Fertitta Center at UH is only 7,100 seats as well and they're a powerhouse in a massive city. We don't need to go that small, but many of these smaller new venues have far better atmospheres than Reed even when it is sold out.

In reality the reason we will eventually get a new arena is because the athletic department wants (needs?) to put suites in to generate more dollars and there is not an easy way to do that in Reed as it is currently constructed.

but it comes down to who or how do you pay for it.

You want the University to pony up, they're gonna want bigger and they don't care about suites for graduation.

The AD will want smaller, more premium seating, to make more money.

I don't see it being a concert venue, many on here have explained that we're limited by geography on that.

Also if you want local support, that's another WW3 you'll have to fight.

Nobody gets along in this town. Hell A&M fights itself on a lot of this stuff.

I know, seeing the dirt, I see it every game, going to the Reed Rowdies closet. I find it insane that we can see dirt and rock inside the stadium

Agree with some of what you say, but the smaller arenas would only be for basketball and volleyball, which fits with the popularity and coverage of those sports.

As for Reed, I would convert it into an assembly center and build garages around it (see above) which more than pays for itself.

As for the new arena, yeah we have to get creative but a more intimate arena would fit the sport better.

As for Olsen, IMO the reduction was not that big of. A deal. If we can just put outfield seats in, we solve the problem. The stadium is really nicely done.

Ag13 said:

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I will never understand people advocating for a smaller arena because Baylor and Auburn did it. Who cares what 2 much smaller schools did? Going smaller at Olsen Field was a gigantic mistake that we are still paying for.

We are going to have a sold out crowd this weekend. When we are good and have a good opponent, 13,000 seats is not enough. Going below 10,000 so that it doesn't look as bad on SEC Network+ when we play McNeese State or something would be a crazy reason to spend the hundreds of millions it would take for a new arena. If Bucky lives up to his potential here season tickets will be hard to come by.

Reed is also not nearly big enough for Muster and Graduations these days. So the suggestion is to build a smaller arena, and then keep Reed Arena (which would continue to be too small) for those important events? And then you end up with two arenas that are two small for their primary functions and spend millions to do so. Not a great plan.

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Because financials and operations matter.

No one builds a facility to only be full less than 20% of the time. Especially if other sports play in it as well that draw smaller crowds. It makes a lot more sense to have people standing in line and not get a ticket than to pay staff for a half full stadium. It also builds in incentive for season ticket holders and should reward students that go to more games.

Smaller colleges can use the new basketball arena for graduations. Larger at Reed. Should speed it up as they can have both going at the same time on opposite sides of the campus.

I've said for a couple years now, build a new stadium on the Polo grounds tied into the new bar and restaurant scene. Parking can be multi use. Build a 10kish seat stadium that matches the look of Kyle and the new brick sports stadiums so you can close off the upper deck for volleyball.

I don't think they would build over by Polo due to the Bonfire Memorial. I think they want to keep that area off limits.

Texas_Ag11 said:

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BQ_90 said:

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who has built a smaller arena, then left their old larger arena intact?

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Auburn for one. Their new arena is great. Much smaller.

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I was thinking tu and Baylor but I believe tu's plan is to put more medical buildings at old drum site and participate in a multi-purpose facility with the City.I don't follow closely so could be wrong.

The tu plan obviously has different parameters than A&M or Baylor because land value in downtown Austin makes the old drum site very valuable for multiple uses. The Reed site, not so much with everything around it being sports venues or institutional uses.

Renn_dls said:

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I don't think they would build over by Polo due to the Bonfire Memorial. I think they want to keep that area off limits.

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The days of having unused space on main campus are just about over. Heck there isn't much on wet campus anymore. They can work it into the Northeast corner of the polo fields (southwest corner of Texas and University). Already one parking garage there, add another on the other side of the stadium and you don't have massive parking lots like Reed.

Moody is Great

How did tech and bu get theirs built?

Bring back the Holler House!