Moving the court vs Manley Field House- history repeats??

[DoctorBombay]

In my freshman year at SU, as the Dome was going up, there were 2 big debates going on.
(1) Whether the Carrier Dome should be named after Ernie Davis (Davis Dome?).
(2) Whether bball games should be moved from Manley, one of the best home-courts in the country, to some artificial "football field".

The arguments for #1 were mostly idealistic. The compromise was the "Ernie Davis Room".
The arguments for #2 were more emotional. Manley was our home-court, why give up a "sure win" in exchange for a cavernous arena that lacked atmosphere? Why let the almighty dollar impact the program's winning traditions? Where would the students sit- the "Manley Zoo" would disappear? If we started to lose, the team would play to endless empty seats. etc. etc.
Years later, as the Dome home-court advantage became obvious, as the BEast & our rivalry w/ GTown solidified, as ESPN basically rode us (Dome, GT vs SU) to viability, alot of those arguments evaporated.
Therefore, when I read about folks with different priorities talking about the disadvantages of moving the court, I tend to be a bit skeptical. Moving the court, IMHO, if done well and with some aforethought, will be of ENORMOUS benefit to SU, whether its games against Duke or anyone else. It would undoubtedly be the talk of any sports cycle, and just like we led CBB into "30K+ crowds" on a regular basis, we would be the pioneers of 50K+ crowds. We'd be at another level when it comes to every other program. Period.
Long-term fans will grumble, and rightly so. They have supported this program forever, watched this thing explode, and truly deserve all due consideration. But my lesson learned as a snot-nosed kid back in the day was: You can't stop progress.
In a few years, as we rack up attendance record after record, as our ACC rivalries, recruiting, GTown home-&-homes and other games, become "sporting EVENTS", then I submit... most of the grumbling will go away.
We are perhaps the only program that could pull this kinda thing off. And just as the Dome made us first and unique in CBB- our moving the court can/will do the same...only greater. I say, go for it!
LGO!

 

[rrlbees]

When we moved from Manley to the Dome we knew it was going to happen, were allowed to choose our seats based upon donation level, knew what the cost was going to be for our donation level, but had not paid for anything yet.


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[RandygoCuse]

When we moved from Manley to the Dome we knew it was going to happen, were allowed to choose our seats based upon donation level, knew what the cost was going to be for our donation level, but had not paid for anything yet.


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I agree with you that moving the court should be done before season ticket holders have sent in their checks (and I'm not a season ticket holder). Hypothetically, if Gross were to put off moving the court until 2014-2015, would you be more amenable to this?

 

[joct]

In terms of publicity, while I agree on the attention on SU, focus on the Dome, history of big crowds, etc, I think there is a possible negative to that. To me, to some it would say even more about Duke's status. Can you imagine their stance: "The school that has broken every attendance record, in a unique facility, is doing all of this for us! Not UNC with Jordan, G'town with Ewing, the great UConn rivalry games, but us! And the first time we show up no less!" They already play the "we get everyone's best shot" card, or at least the media does, and this would only add to that in a big way.

Just another angle I hadn't seen brought up. Think if Duke went out of their way to create a brand new venue structure when we came down there (not that they have many options, but still)...we'd be thinking that we're the biggest program ever to go through there.

 

[HoustonCuse]

This brings up an interesting question: are we really better off having moved to the Carrier Dome? The conventional wisdom is of course we are. But it seems that our home-court record was much better in Manley Fieldhouse than it is in the Dome. Maybe recruiting is better now but we managed to recruit players like Dave Bing, Louie and Bouie, and others without the dome and without the Big East and television. Would the Big East and ESPN still have had just the same effect on Syracuse if they stayed in Manley or would we be Providence right now?

 

[HoustonCuse]

In terms of publicity, while I agree on the attention on SU, focus on the Dome, history of big crowds, etc, I think there is a possible negative to that. To me, to some it would say even more about Duke's status. Can you imagine their stance: "The school that has broken every attendance record, in a unique facility, is doing all of this for us! Not UNC with Jordan, G'town with Ewing, the great UConn rivalry games, but us! And the first time we show up no less!" They already play the "we get everyone's best shot" card, or at least the media does, and this would only add to that in a big way.

Just another angle I hadn't seen brought up. Think if Duke went out of their way to create a brand new venue structure when we came down there (not that they have many options, but still)...we'd be thinking that we're the biggest program ever to go through there.

These arguments have been made over and over. I don't see the merit. What are the counters to this impression? Everybody should boycott the game to show how unimpressed we are. As for Duke claiming they get everyone's best shot, the only way to combat that impression is to NOT give them our best shot, this strikes me as a poor strategy to win the conference. The real question here is whether moving the court and increasing attendance IS our best shot. It could be a detriment to our team for a publicity stunt.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

This brings up an interesting question: are we really better off having moved to the Carrier Dome? The conventional wisdom is of course we are. But it seems that our home-court record was much better in Manley Fieldhouse than it is in the Dome. Maybe recruiting is better now but we managed to recruit players like Dave Bing, Louie and Bouie, and others without the dome and without the Big East and television. Would the Big East and ESPN still have had just the same effect on Syracuse if they stayed in Manley or would we be Providence right now?

Without the Dome, there is no Pearl.

Without Pearl, there is no DC and Stevie.

Without DC, there is no Final Four in 1987.

 

[DoctorBombay]

In terms of publicity, while I agree on the attention on SU, focus on the Dome, history of big crowds, etc, I think there is a possible negative to that. To me, to some it would say even more about Duke's status. Can you imagine their stance: "The school that has broken every attendance record, in a unique facility, is doing all of this for us! Not UNC with Jordan, G'town with Ewing, the great UConn rivalry games, but us! And the first time we show up no less!" They already play the "we get everyone's best shot" card, or at least the media does, and this would only add to that in a big way.

Just another angle I hadn't seen brought up. Think if Duke went out of their way to create a brand new venue structure when we came down there (not that they have many options, but still)...we'd be thinking that we're the biggest program ever to go through there.

Duke will be the first of hopefully MANY record crowds against many different opponents.
We've set records vs ND, Nova, UConn, and GTown. Why can't we do the same vs Duke, UNC, and the rest of our new conference?
Duke gets props but they're nothing special to this SU fan. Just the first in a long line of future record breakers for our program.
Join the club, Dukies!

 

[cusetown1]

As long as they are still serving beer, I don't care where the court is.

 

[sufandu]

This brings up an interesting question: are we really better off having moved to the Carrier Dome? The conventional wisdom is of course we are. But it seems that our home-court record was much better in Manley Fieldhouse than it is in the Dome. Maybe recruiting is better now but we managed to recruit players like Dave Bing, Louie and Bouie, and others without the dome and without the Big East and television. Would the Big East and ESPN still have had just the same effect on Syracuse if they stayed in Manley or would we be Providence right now?

You can't simply look at the records to analyze home court advantage. Our schedules became much tougher as the Big East emerged as a premier conference.