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Message: [QUOTE="reedny, post: 2522513, member: 1423"] Ok, thanks, 97. As far as my "idea", looks like it's not practical. Good thing I'm not in the design field. ;) In terms of your comments about the facility location (to add to my previous post), student engagement and in-game experience, I have some counterpoints. SU needs to consider that: 1. Community support is economically essential for SU's FB and BB programs. The AD knows this. I can't tell you the exact percentage of community members versus alumns/students at every game. But most of the fans are community members. And these days there is television coverage and many other competing interests. Therefore IMO, ignoring the community, either in terms of ingress/egress or other factors, is unwise. SU would do so at its peril; 2. Many alums are out-of-towners (yours truly included). If they make it too much more difficult for me to get in and out of games, that'll change the equation. I'm sure it's like that for many alums from the areas SU is courting - Rochester, Albany, Binghamton and beyond ... it's a big expense, long trip, hard to find parking, difficult to clear post-game traffic, and in our case we've even had to pay a babysitter ($80-$90). So ingress/egress is not just about convenience for locals; 3. Student attendance is on the decline (nationally as well). We've got some creative initiatives going to slow that trend, but engagement remains an issue. I don't think it's proximity or money (esp. at $55-60k T/R/B per year). More likely it's about team performance and "atmosphere". The fact is, while the Dome may be closer to the Quad than Skytop, for many students it's no longer an attractive venue. It's dark and cavernous outside the bowl. The seats are uncomfortable. It's hot. Wi-fi is sketchy. Concession lines impede traffic. Tail-gaiting is scattered and decentralized (precluding large-scale entertainment options), and the in-game experience (now 3.5 hours +) needs a makeover. Winning will mask some of these deficiencies over the short term. But a new facility is the only long-term solution to recapture student interest and provide the open spaces, freedom of movement and light that people are accustomed to in contemporary buildings. 4. Lastly, there's the futility of dumping $200 - $250M into a 40 year old arena that's well past its prime and structurally resistant to affordable modernization and expansion, to say nothing of the nightmare of a 10 year construction mess (necessary to avoid interrupting BB/FB). Those are some off-the-cuff reactions to the items you brought up. Thanks, as always, for your insights. [/QUOTE]

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