Dome Renovation

[rocklloyd]

In the ideal world it would move to the other end of the Dome, possibly sunken 8-10 feet... allowing for more, and closer, court side seating. I could even see one of the sunken sideline areas being a student standing section... the new Zoo.

Plus bunker suites

 

[Orangeman83]

I would imagine after a renovation, the court will be in the center of the Dome.

I was told that isn't happening. Logistics.

 

[orangecuse]

Spent Sunday & Monday in Durham...the Dome floor being sunk 10 feet, according to a high ranking person in the know, is distinctly on the table.

 

[retro44]

I was told that isn't happening. Logistics.

That was put on the table though and talked about.....No ones knows what is going to happen now.

They were going to lower the capacity to 44,000

 

[dollarbill44]

Heated covered pathways connecting all buildings on campus!! lol

A monorail around the quad.

 

[DomeStranger]

Let's assume that all the lower level basketball seats are sold out. If they eliminate 2 seats per row, that's almost 400 people who will homeless.

I wonder who gets to deliver the bad news.

I always thought if they added seats they could still keep bench seating in the end zones as those are the "cheap seats" in football anyway. And in basketball they obviously don't have trouble keeping them full and basketball would only lose seats behind the baskets which is a small loss. This would also prevent the seat loss you mention.

But with a full renovation I'm not sure if you could do that and still have it not look weird or half-assed.

 

[721Comstock]

A monorail around the quad.

That's more of a Shelbyville U idea.

 

[OttoMets]

Spent Sunday & Monday in Durham...the Dome floor being sunk 10 feet, according to a high ranking person in the know, is distinctly on the table.

This is true.

But I'm also under the impression that a centered court is an option.

 

[Xanthos]

I don't get the cute fawning over 44k. Y'all sound like a bunch of teenage girls with the hots for Beebs. I understand that it makes business sense, but at the end of the day it's still downsizing. If you're a program trying to go big-time, it's not exactly the kind of thing to be gushing over. Bury the capacity reduction in the footnotes, it's not something to celebrate.

The other renovation stuff all sounds promising, and that should be the focus.

I agree, a reduction in seating is nothing to be excited about. Unlike outdoor stadiums, which can be expanded if demand increases, a dome's is maxed out at the beginning. I would be happy with a nice round 50,000. Losing around 7,000 seats that you can never get back doesn't sit well with me.

 

[sutomcat]

This is true.

But I'm also under the impression that a centered court is an option.

I think it is a great idea to lower the court for basketball. That would allow better angles for watching the games, and make it feasible to do a center court game occasionally. Hope it doesn't become a standard practice though, because it would result in much worse seating for almost everyone.

If it were up to me, I would leave the court about where it is; in the middle of one side of the football field, to allow for a more intimate experience for the fans. Yes, get rid of the giant aisle surrounding courtside. If you lower the court, it should be possible to get the seats to flow smoothly from the permanent seating in the endzone all the way down to the court, on a more or less consistent angle. That would dramatically improve the look of the Dome for basketball, greatly heighten our home court advantage and result in a lot of nice premium type seats that might help address the problem of the lost seats when the bench seating is replaced.

The real opportunity is in how to handle the seating on the other side of the court from the permanent seating. In a perfect world, I would want to take the second level of seating out on that end zone of the Dome, and replace it with private boxes. Then have them permanently attached to the 100 section below them, so the whole 1st and second sections are movable, including the portion of the 200 level that is at a diagonal to the end zone, where the corner seating is. Maybe even include a portion of the lower portion of the third level. It should be possible with hydraulics and some advanced engineering concepts already in use at other facilities.

That would largely enclose the configuration for basketball, making for a really nice experience for the fans, and create a lot more premium private boxes and additional excellent seats for fans for basketball.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

So, we'll have a football field covered with permanently installed field turf, yet we'll easily remove the turf to reveal a 10 foot deep pit for basketball games.

If we fill the pit with water, we can bring back swimming and diving.

 

[orangecuse]

I agree, a reduction in seating is nothing to be excited about. Unlike outdoor stadiums, which can be expanded if demand increases, a dome's is maxed out at the beginning. I would be happy with a nice round 50,000. Losing around 7,000 seats that you can never get back doesn't sit well with me.

Smart in my view. It will create the sense of urgency for folk to purchase sooner than later knowing that there is less...which can be helpful in assisting a more reliable economic projection of revenues in the future.

 

[OttoMets]

I think it is a great idea to lower the court for basketball. That would allow better angles for watching the games, and make it feasible to do a center court game occasionally. Hope it doesn't become a standard practice though, because it would result in much worse seating for almost everyone.

If it were up to me, I would leave the court about where it is; in the middle of one side of the football field, to allow for a more intimate experience for the fans. Yes, get rid of the giant aisle surrounding courtside. If you lower the court, it should be possible to get the seats to flow smoothly from the permanent seating in the endzone all the way down to the court, on a more or less consistent angle. That would dramatically improve the look of the Dome for basketball, greatly heighten our home court advantage and result in a lot of nice premium type seats that might help address the problem of the lost seats when the bench seating is replaced.

The real opportunity is in how to handle the seating on the other side of the court from the permanent seating. In a perfect world, I would want to take the second level of seating out on that end zone of the Dome, and replace it with private boxes. Then have them permanently attached to the 100 section below them, so the whole 1st and second sections are movable, including the portion of the 200 level that is at a diagonal to the end zone, where the corner seating is. Maybe even include a portion of the lower portion of the third level. It should be possible with hydraulics and some advanced engineering concepts already in use at other facilities.

That would largely enclose the configuration for basketball, making for a really nice experience for the fans, and create a lot more premium private boxes and additional excellent seats for fans for basketball.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Interesting idea. There's got to be some better way to close in the east end than what we've been doing for the past decade (which looks terrible all the time).

I like the idea of centering the court on a sunken floor (same east-west orientation as the football field) and finding a creative and attractive way to close the upper deck for all but the largest games. If memory serves, the current Dome has about 19,000 first-level seats, with ~6,000 more on the second level. If 10% are lost as the building is re-seated, that'd leave ~22,000 seats in the current bowl, with probably 3,000 more seats created around the new sunken floor, along with room for some very close-in suites (beneath the current first level, a little like Pittsburgh's arrangement, only without the wasted space). Sight-lines would be terrific.

This, of course, would involve a retractable football floor above the basketball court and extra seats. I don't believe they'll pursue this, but it'd be an interesting way to create a relatively intimate hoops arena with about 25,000 seats and a lot of premium seating/box options, all while retaining the option to open the third deck and host crowds of about 50,000.

 

[Toga]

So, we'll have a football field covered with permanently installed field turf, yet we'll easily remove the turf to reveal a 10 foot deep pit for basketball games.

If we fill the pit with water, we can bring back swimming and diving.

Alligators. Slam the doors.

 

[sutomcat]

So, we'll have a football field covered with permanently installed field turf, yet we'll easily remove the turf to reveal a 10 foot deep pit for basketball games.

If we fill the pit with water, we can bring back swimming and diving.

I would just lower the field. The entire field...

 

[CuseLegacy]

I would just lower the field. The entire field...

I wonder if this goes back to the rumor of a retractable BB court. Instead it is the FB field that rolls back to real the BB court.

 

[FrancoPizza]

I think it is a great idea to lower the court for basketball. That would allow better angles for watching the games, and make it feasible to do a center court game occasionally. Hope it doesn't become a standard practice though, because it would result in much worse seating for almost everyone.

If it were up to me, I would leave the court about where it is; in the middle of one side of the football field, to allow for a more intimate experience for the fans. Yes, get rid of the giant aisle surrounding courtside. If you lower the court, it should be possible to get the seats to flow smoothly from the permanent seating in the endzone all the way down to the court, on a more or less consistent angle. That would dramatically improve the look of the Dome for basketball, greatly heighten our home court advantage and result in a lot of nice premium type seats that might help address the problem of the lost seats when the bench seating is replaced.

The real opportunity is in how to handle the seating on the other side of the court from the permanent seating. In a perfect world, I would want to take the second level of seating out on that end zone of the Dome, and replace it with private boxes. Then have them permanently attached to the 100 section below them, so the whole 1st and second sections are movable, including the portion of the 200 level that is at a diagonal to the end zone, where the corner seating is. Maybe even include a portion of the lower portion of the third level. It should be possible with hydraulics and some advanced engineering concepts already in use at other facilities.

That would largely enclose the configuration for basketball, making for a really nice experience for the fans, and create a lot more premium private boxes and additional excellent seats for fans for basketball.

It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

We've been in the dark ages since the blue curtain days. Instead of at least using the curtain for advertising revenue, they removed it altogether to create an even less intimate atmosphere. Wrong decisions all around. You'd hope that someone with bean counters would realize how much revenue they've lost over the years and how quickly the investment (to add more premium seating in the void) would pay off. The problem is, your idea is too carefully thought out... the vision is too smart... which means it won't happen... and probably isn't even on their radar.

 

[TheCusian]

We've been in the dark ages since the blue curtain days. Instead of at least using the curtain for advertising revenue, they removed it altogether to create an even less intimate atmosphere. Wrong decisions all around. You'd hope that someone with bean counters would realize how much revenue they've lost over the years and how quickly the investment (to add more premium seating in the void) would pay off. The problem is, your idea is too carefully thought out... the vision is too smart... which means it won't happen... and probably isn't even on their radar.

AD Coyle hasn't been here long enough for you to form this opinion. Give him time.

 

[rrlbees]

I think it is a great idea to lower the court for basketball. That would allow better angles for watching the games, and make it feasible to do a center court game occasionally. Hope it doesn't become a standard practice though, because it would result in much worse seating for almost everyone. If it were up to me, I would leave the court about where it is; in the middle of one side of the football field, to allow for a more intimate experience for the fans. Yes, get rid of the giant aisle surrounding courtside. If you lower the court, it should be possible to get the seats to flow smoothly from the permanent seating in the endzone all the way down to the court, on a more or less consistent angle. That would dramatically improve the look of the Dome for basketball, greatly heighten our home court advantage and result in a lot of nice premium type seats that might help address the problem of the lost seats when the bench seating is replaced. The real opportunity is in how to handle the seating on the other side of the court from the permanent seating. In a perfect world, I would want to take the second level of seating out on that end zone of the Dome, and replace it with private boxes. Then have them permanently attached to the 100 section below them, so the whole 1st and second sections are movable, including the portion of the 200 level that is at a diagonal to the end zone, where the corner seating is. Maybe even include a portion of the lower portion of the third level. It should be possible with hydraulics and some advanced engineering concepts already in use at other facilities. That would largely enclose the configuration for basketball, making for a really nice experience for the fans, and create a lot more premium private boxes and additional excellent seats for fans for basketball. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.

Just don't touch/move my seats.

 

[rrlbees]

We've been in the dark ages since the blue curtain days. Instead of at least using the curtain for advertising revenue, they removed it altogether to create an even less intimate atmosphere. Wrong decisions all around. You'd hope that someone with bean counters would realize how much revenue they've lost over the years and how quickly the investment (to add more premium seating in the void) would pay off. The problem is, your idea is too carefully thought out... the vision is too smart... which means it won't happen... and probably isn't even on their radar.

The curtain looked cheap and D3.

 

[Cheriehoop]

Let's assume that all the lower level basketball seats are sold out. If they eliminate 2 seats per row, that's almost 400 people who will homeless.

I wonder who gets to deliver the bad news.

Wonder how many season tickets are sold in the lower level? Hopefully it wouldn't affect the students negatively.

Perhaps move the press to the 2nd tier and stop adding more rows of courtside seating pushing the students and fans even further back. Oh and keep Bees seats the same

 

[sutomcat]

Wonder how many season tickets are sold in the lower level? Hopefully it wouldn't affect the students negatively.

If they got rid of the big aisle surrounding the court and added a bunch of seats that way, I would love to see them filled with students. That would really maximize our home court advantage, would look great for TV and would make the Dome a lot more fun to watch games in. Leave the rest of the students where they are now.

It probably won't happen because of the revenue implications, but I think the basketball program is profitable enough now it would be very doable. If Duke and Pitt can make it work with their little arenas, we should be able to too.

 

[CousCuse]

It would not be wise to renovate the Dome at a time when the global economy is diving into a deflationary recession or worse. As it sits now , it's paid for and ticket prices can be kept low .

 

[Cheriehoop]

If they got rid of the big aisle surrounding the court and added a bunch of seats that way, I would love to see them filled with students. That would really maximize our home court advantage, would look great for TV and would make the Dome a lot more fun to watch games in. Leave the rest of the students where they are now.

It probably won't happen because of the revenue implications, but I think the basketball program is profitable enough now it would be very doable. If Duke and Pitt can make it work with their little arenas, we should be able to too.

For basketball, if they did eliminate the aisle, I would think that they would have to widen the concourse somehow or add a east west aisle higher up on the lower level. Otherwise people on the lower level would always have to use the concourse to get to/from their seats and to access the backcourt adding to congestion.

 

[Toga]

If they got rid of the big aisle surrounding the court and added a bunch of seats that way, I would love to see them filled with students. That would really maximize our home court advantage, would look great for TV and would make the Dome a lot more fun to watch games in. Leave the rest of the students where they are now.

It probably won't happen because of the revenue implications, but I think the basketball program is profitable enough now it would be very doable. If Duke and Pitt can make it work with their little arenas, we should be able to too.

They could drop that new student section an additional 5 feet. That way they won't block the views of those in the expensive seats and would freak out opponents who could only see a bunch of heads screaming at them.