Increasing the seating capacity of Timmons Arena

[cavedweller2]

Wrestler from Brooklyn NY lived across the hall on A300 freshman year. Stout rascal. Built like a fire plug. Great guy. Had him almost Southernized the first week in.

Program dropped at end of year and he couldn’t stay. Hated that. Hope he is well .

[FUBeAR]

Wrestler from Brooklyn NY lived across the hall on A300 freshman year. Stout rascal. Built like a fire plug. Great guy. Had him almost Southernized the first week in.

Program dropped at end of year and he couldn’t stay. Hated that. Hope he is well .

So we’ll mark him down as “not likely to donate.” Yes?

[Bootie]

It would be idiocy to spend any large amount of money increasing seating after 1 or 2 good seasons. For all any of us know, we could have completely different results next season. Get 3-4 years of consistent production and selling out, then expand.

[Flagman]

"Build it, and they will come", generally doesn't work.

[DungeonRealm]

It would be idiocy to spend any large amount of money increasing seating after 1 or 2 good seasons. For all any of us know, we could have completely different results next season. Get 3-4 years of consistent production and selling out, then expand.

Who is talking about spending large amounts of money for some additional seats? Show me where anyone has said to spend "large" amounts of money to add seats?
The idea of adding a few hundred seats to each baseline is not only very inexpensive, it also pays for itself rather quickly with the additional ticket sales, it would be idiotic to not look into a venture as simple as this.

[Bootie]

It would be idiocy to spend any large amount of money increasing seating after 1 or 2 good seasons. For all any of us know, we could have completely different results next season. Get 3-4 years of consistent production and selling out, then expand.

Who is talking about spending large amounts of money for some additional seats? Show me where anyone has said to spend "large" amounts of money to add seats?
The idea of adding a few hundred seats to each baseline is not only very inexpensive, it also pays for itself rather quickly with the additional ticket sales, it would be idiotic to not look into a venture as simple as this.

We both agree that, with success, we should add more seats. Our only disagreement is the timing.

You might get us a price on how much adding those seats would cost. Regardless, if you add the seats and then have a mediocre-to-crappy season next year, and maybe the next, you might not feel it was such a great idea. I'm just talking about waiting 1 or 2 more years to see a bit more consistency. Maybe next year we kill it again, experience more sellouts and good press, and then we've got a better reason to do that, imo. Patience, grasshopper

[apaladin]

Agree with Dungeon. Adding a few hundred seats by adding steeper end zone sections is the way to go right now. Even if you add just 5-7 rows, that is several hundred seats. Could not be that expensive, maybe 10-20k? With extra seats, maybe we could attract a few more good teams to come to Timmons? Now if the OOC schedule does not improve next year and the schedule it littered non-NCAA schools then maybe we won't need them. Next season is a big question mark but hopefully we can improve our OOC schedule with all the attention we got this year.

[DungeonRealm]

It would be idiocy to spend any large amount of money increasing seating after 1 or 2 good seasons. For all any of us know, we could have completely different results next season. Get 3-4 years of consistent production and selling out, then expand.

Who is talking about spending large amounts of money for some additional seats? Show me where anyone has said to spend "large" amounts of money to add seats?
The idea of adding a few hundred seats to each baseline is not only very inexpensive, it also pays for itself rather quickly with the additional ticket sales, it would be idiotic to not look into a venture as simple as this.

We both agree that, with success, we should add more seats. Our only disagreement is the timing.

You might get us a price on how much adding those seats would cost. Regardless, if you add the seats and then have a mediocre-to-crappy season next year, and maybe the next, you might not feel it was such a great idea. I'm just talking about waiting 1 or 2 more years to see a bit more consistency. Maybe next year we kill it again, experience more sellouts and good press, and then we've got a better reason to do that, imo. Patience, grasshopper

We've got 71 wins in the last 3 years, if any school was waiting for more consistency than that before making any small moves then there would not be much growth at all going on outside the "blue bloods" of college hoops
2,500 seats currently is peanuts and we are talking about a small addition to that

[DungeonRealm]

Agree with Dungeon. Adding a few hundred seats by adding steeper end zone sections is the way to go right now. Even if you add just 5-7 rows, that is several hundred seats. Could not be that expensive, maybe 10-20k? With extra seats, maybe we could attract a few more good teams to come to Timmons? Now if the OOC schedule does not improve next year and the schedule it littered non-NCAA schools then maybe we won't need them. Next season is a big question mark but hopefully we can improve our OOC schedule with all the attention we got this year.

Exactly, my thinking was at most 30k, which can be fully recouped with the additional tickets sales ect. in about 5 or 6 sellouts
5 off the top of my head, easy:
1 good OOC opponent on a Saturday can sellout
Citadel on a Sautrday will sellout
ETSU on a Saturday will sellout
UNCG on a Saturday can sellout
Wofford on a Saturday will sellout

[DungeonRealm]

If Wofford, being a smaller school (about 1,100 less students) can attract 6 sellouts (which they did) this past year of 3,400, we can surely improve our current situation even if just marginally for next season

[furpop16]

... We've got 71 wins in the last 3 years ...

Without commenting on its relevance Timmons, I have been cogitating on DungeonRealm’s point. Next season FU’s entire student body with b-ball history (Soph’s, Jr’s, & Sr’s) will know only seasons with 20-game-wins.

[DungeonRealm]

I would get where bootie is coming from if I was proposing something astronomical like a new arena and such

But the things I am proposing are simple and effective
Are we suppose to shy away from doing small improvements because we fear we might suck again?

Once we have the new seating additions purchased they will be ours for the long haul
Did we not go ahead and pull the trigger on nice video boards and new court/lighting? Of course we did
Let's keep the momentum going, with 4 starters set to return each of the next 2 seasons and Bob Richey at the helm to guide them, things are looking up from an already positive perspective

[apaladin]

I hope everyone put this on the questionnaire the PC sent out following the game. I specifically mentioned adding rows to the end zone seating. There are also seats in the lower and upper corners on the scores table side that could be pulled out at no cost. Would not be the best seats but would not be bad either.

[CharlieFU]

It would be idiocy to spend any large amount of money increasing seating after 1 or 2 good seasons. For all any of us know, we could have completely different results next season. Get 3-4 years of consistent production and selling out, then expand.

I don’t see much downside to immediately adding 300-500 seats at marginal costs. If we fill just a portion of those seats it wound make a difference in game day experience.

[Affirm]

It would be idiocy to spend any large amount of money increasing seating after 1 or 2 good seasons. For all any of us know, we could have completely different results next season. Get 3-4 years of consistent production and selling out, then expand.

I don’t see much downside to immediately adding 300-500 seats at marginal costs. If we fill just a portion of those seats it wound make a difference in game day experience.

Let’s make a good decision.
Is the best answer:
1. Optimize the seats we have. Possibly configuration changes. Possibly even reduce the number!
2. Increase capacity.
3. Do nothing.
4. Other.
The most important thing is quality not capacity. Let’s make sure we have a good product and high demand for however many seats we have. And high demand means people wanting to fill the seats, in addition to “just buying season tickets but not attending”.
And good product includes having fewer non-D1 opponents.