• Increasing the seating capacity of Timmons Arena

 #13029  by fufanatic
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 10:29 am
furpop16 wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:07 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:36 pm
... 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.
This is such a key point. People like winners. This should definitely help with student attendance.
 #13031  by GOAT
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:10 am
I will ask the question again. How many games did we sellout this year? Less than 5, I think. This was the best year for FU basketball since 1980. During most of the sellouts approximately 100 people did not show up. If we add 500 additional seats, we will more than likely have 1000 to 1500 empty seats for 70% of our home games. Not the environment we should be creating. If we win 12- 18 games the empty seats will be more. See how we do over the next two years and then look at adding seats.
 #13032  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:28 am
GOAT wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:10 am
I will ask the question again. How many games did we sellout this year? Less than 5, I think. This was the best year for FU basketball since 1980. During most of the sellouts approximately 100 people did not show up. If we add 500 additional seats, we will more than likely have 1000 to 1500 empty seats for 70% of our home games. Not the environment we should be creating. If we win 12- 18 games the empty seats will be more. See how we do over the next two years and then look at adding seats.


Your thinking is all wrong on this my friend. First off adding several hundred seats to each baseline won't make any difference to how any game looks that is not a sellout, just means the cargo loading doors won't be as obvious lol.
Secondly selling out 5 games is about all we need to do to pay for this venture and in the years beyond that its all extra profit. How many games did we sellout the year before 1 or 2? Looks like a trend up to me, time to capitalize. We will make more money on those sellout games and the extra fans can boost home court advantage. Again we are talking about a few hundred extra seats in the baseline sections, very simple to do and good to have for the long term at Timmons arena. Again we should not be thinking of not doing anything because of the fear we might suck again lol, that's ridiculous. Like I said improvements have already been made, so lets keep the simple improvements flowing!
 #13033  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:28 am
CharlieFU wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 6:26 am
Bootie wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 3:43 pm
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.

Exactly!
 #13034  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:32 am
At 2,500 currently Timmons arena is by far the smallest venue in the SoCon

The second smallest arena in the SoCon is Wofford at 3,400, and they managed 6 sellouts this past season
 #13035  by Affirm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:13 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:32 am
At 2,500 currently Timmons arena is by far the smallest venue in the SoCon

The second smallest arena in the SoCon is Wofford at 3,400, and they managed 6 sellouts this past season
Not hard for WC to have 6 sellouts.
Brand new attractive arena.
5 SoCon Championships in the last 10 years.
FU does not have those advantages to drive sellouts. (If we did, we’d probably sell out all home games, not “just” 6.)
 #13036  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:18 pm
affirm wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:13 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:32 am
At 2,500 currently Timmons arena is by far the smallest venue in the SoCon

The second smallest arena in the SoCon is Wofford at 3,400, and they managed 6 sellouts this past season
Not hard for WC to have 6 sellouts.
Brand new attractive arena.
5 SoCon Championships in the last 10 years.
FU does not have those advantages to drive sellouts. (If we did, we’d probably sell out all home games, not “just” 6.)


Apparently we do, we were right around 2,500 capacity for 5 games last season, 71 wins in 3 years and this thing is growing
Also Furman has 1,100 more students than Wofford, and with better marketing campaigns to take advantage of Greenville which is much larger than Spartanburg we can add even more fans to this surge
2,500 is nearly 1,000 less seats than the second smallest arena in the SoCon, adding a few hundred seats and we will still be the smallest in the SoCon but its the least we can do at the moment given how simple it would be
 #13038  by Affirm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:47 pm
furpop16 wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:07 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:36 pm
... 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.
How interested are the students now? Does not seem like they are famous for high attendance at games.
If we keep up the improvement next year, their interest might change; but if we have an even slightly worse record next year, I expect students’ attendance would not increase.
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 #13039  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:51 pm
affirm wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:47 pm
furpop16 wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:07 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
Wed Mar 27, 2019 9:36 pm
... 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.
How interested are the students now? Does not seem like they are famous for high attendance at games.
If we keep up the improvement next year, their interest might change; but if we have an even slightly worse record next year, I expect students’ attendance would not increase.

Did you not pay attention to the surge in student attendance this year? Do you really need to ask that question after the social media posts that have been made about the surge in student attendance? Was it for every game, no, but many games since December had very good student attendance, including the last game against Wichita St.

And stop this 'fear' of us getting worse, you guys sound like let's just not do anything because we might get worse lol
We will return 4 starters next year, and will be scheduled to return 4 starters again the year after that, we still have a dedicated Bob Richey, we will be good
 #13041  by GOAT
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:29 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
GOAT wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:10 am
I will ask the question again. How many games did we sellout this year? Less than 5, I think. This was the best year for FU basketball since 1980. During most of the sellouts approximately 100 people did not show up. If we add 500 additional seats, we will more than likely have 1000 to 1500 empty seats for 70% of our home games. Not the environment we should be creating. If we win 12- 18 games the empty seats will be more. See how we do over the next two years and then look at adding seats.
Sorry, my thinking is actually spot on. I want less empty seats for all of our games which makes for a better playing environment . I think we can draw 2000 -2500 fans for 90% of our home games. assuming we continue to win. We will not draw 2000 fans for our DII games , the VMI game and several others.

DungeonRealm-no need to respond. I know you do not agree and that you feel very strongly about your position.



Your thinking is all wrong on this my friend. First off adding several hundred seats to each baseline won't make any difference to how any game looks that is not a sellout, just means the cargo loading doors won't be as obvious lol.
Secondly selling out 5 games is about all we need to do to pay for this venture and in the years beyond that its all extra profit. How many games did we sellout the year before 1 or 2? Looks like a trend up to me, time to capitalize. We will make more money on those sellout games and the extra fans can boost home court advantage. Again we are talking about a few hundred extra seats in the baseline sections, very simple to do and good to have for the long term at Timmons arena. Again we should not be thinking of not doing anything because of the fear we might suck again lol, that's ridiculous. Like I said improvements have already been made, so lets keep the simple improvements flowing!
 #13042  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 2:03 pm
GOAT wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:29 pm
DungeonRealm wrote:
GOAT wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 11:10 am
I will ask the question again. How many games did we sellout this year? Less than 5, I think. This was the best year for FU basketball since 1980. During most of the sellouts approximately 100 people did not show up. If we add 500 additional seats, we will more than likely have 1000 to 1500 empty seats for 70% of our home games. Not the environment we should be creating. If we win 12- 18 games the empty seats will be more. See how we do over the next two years and then look at adding seats.
Sorry, my thinking is actually spot on. I want less empty seats for all of our games which makes for a better playing environment . I think we can draw 2000 -2500 fans for 90% of our home games. assuming we continue to win. We will not draw 2000 fans for our DII games , the VMI game and several others.

DungeonRealm-no need to respond. I know you do not agree and that you feel very strongly about your position.



Your thinking is all wrong on this my friend. First off adding several hundred seats to each baseline won't make any difference to how any game looks that is not a sellout, just means the cargo loading doors won't be as obvious lol.
Secondly selling out 5 games is about all we need to do to pay for this venture and in the years beyond that its all extra profit. How many games did we sellout the year before 1 or 2? Looks like a trend up to me, time to capitalize. We will make more money on those sellout games and the extra fans can boost home court advantage. Again we are talking about a few hundred extra seats in the baseline sections, very simple to do and good to have for the long term at Timmons arena. Again we should not be thinking of not doing anything because of the fear we might suck again lol, that's ridiculous. Like I said improvements have already been made, so lets keep the simple improvements flowing!


Like I said, a couple hundred extra seats on the baselines empty for some of the games will go unnoticed, given what the alternative is that you would otherwise be looking at (more curtain), that is not a good reason to not expand the arena by a little bit, neither is the fear of us sucking again, Timmons at 2,500 is by far the smallest in the SoCon

BTW, VMI game this year had 2,400
 #13048  by Bootie
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:25 pm
It is annoying to hear anyone argue an opinion with such certainty as yours, DR. I suggest you come down from your horse a bit and offer your opinions with perhaps just a slight degree of "maybe I'm right, maybe not", instead of "I'm right, everyone who disagrees is wrong." Those who disagree with you will take it much better.
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 #13050  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:42 pm
Bootie wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:25 pm
It is annoying to hear anyone argue an opinion with such certainty as yours, DR. I suggest you come down from your horse a bit and offer your opinions with perhaps just a slight degree of "maybe I'm right, maybe not", instead of "I'm right, everyone who disagrees is wrong." Those who disagree with you will take it much better.

Come off it man, if you want to discuss the matter that's what we have been doing, if you can't handle the multiple points I have made in favor of adding a few hundred seats well that's your problem not mine, its obvious to me 100% and I am not ashamed of that fact nor do I need to apologize for it

This is not a big deal, but lord knows as slow as Furman is on things the earlier we start discussing this the better, no matter when it winds up happening, and trust me at currently only 2,500 seats it will eventually wind up happening one of these days
 #13052  by DungeonRealm
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:55 pm
Adding a few hundred seats to each baseline is really about the only 'major' improving we will ever be able to do to Timmons from this point forward.

Ill add, to a larger degree, we need to begin a 10 year plan for a new arena, Timmons was completed in 1998 so in 10 years it will be 30+ years old. To everyone's point of if we stay 'good' then we should do something, by the time Timmons is 30 years old surely a 10 year plan to fund a new arena seems like a reasonable timeline
 #13056  by FUBeAR
 Thu Mar 28, 2019 4:21 pm
Bootie wrote:
Thu Mar 28, 2019 3:25 pm
It is annoying to hear anyone argue an opinion with such certainty as yours, DR. I suggest you come down from your horse a bit and offer your opinions with perhaps just a slight degree of "maybe I'm right, maybe not", instead of "I'm right, everyone who disagrees is wrong." Those who disagree with you will take it much better.
So you're suggesting more of the "Fred Garvin approach," huh?
Bootie liked this
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