A different kind of commitment

[golds]

This is a very interesting caption on an Instagram post today. A sports arena!

[true2theroos]

Great news! Here’s more about it here: www.umkc.edu/news/posts/2023/april/rising-student-success-streetcar-stop-expansion-new-buildings-campus-upgrades-and-research-advances.html

[true2theroos]

Video as well. It begins around 5:08:
youtu.be/vrnvHbnkB8A

[perry c]

It looks like the address would be approximately 5050 Oak St, between Pizza 51 and a parking garage. The video appears to be looking west, toward Brookside (street in background).




That is a small space indeed.

[perry c]

Summit League arenas generally have a capacity range of 3,300 to 7,500...excluding Swinney, the D-III gym at St. Thomas, and the Mabee Center.

A nice goal for our place, given the limitations, would be 7k. SMU plays in an arena that size.

p.s. - St. Thomas will have a new arena by 2025. No capacity announced, but it looks like it will be a hockey/hoops venue similar to Magness (7,200). Plus, they will have a separate practice facility.

[true2theroos]

Apr 18, 2023 13:50:10 GMT -6 perry c said:

It looks like the address would be approximately 5050 Oak St, between Pizza 51 and a parking garage. The video appears to be looking west, toward Brookside (street in background).


View Attachment

That is a small space indeed.

I think Fairfield would be a good arena to model our’s off of. It seats a little under 4,000 yet feels “big” with the design of it. Has all the bells and whistles you’d expect at a big school (center court Jumbotron, LED wraparound screens along second level stands, etc). Robert Morris of the Horizon League would be another one.

[perry c]

Apr 18, 2023 20:49:18 GMT -6 true2theroos said:

I think Fairfield would be a good arena to model our’s off of. It seats a little under 4,000 yet feels “big” with the design of it.

Here's what Fairfield built last year for $51M.

[section28]

What if we did something novel like baseball did a couple decades ago... make the new building have an old fashioned vibe like the Palestra or something with a second deck real tight, steep, and close to the floor.. a few suites way up high... a raised first row like rockhurst..and then the Jack Nicholson seats have a sunken luxury suite behind them and the location of the Roo Pouch... big lights show with projection on the floor and computer spotlights et. al. where a student band is right on top of the basket in the second deck... where people can almost reach in bounds

[section28]

on the fairfield place... move that second deck much closer to the floor... end zone seets and corners much closer to the floor but raised... if the first row is raised.... then the scorers table can be sunken under that and places to walk under the seats... VERY TIGHT with fans just a couple feet from the playing floor but raised

[section28]

kinda like Yale with second deck.... everwhere the first row is raised could have luxury accomodations..

[true2theroos]

^ Those are all good ideas. Regardless, I hope they’re able to create a design that is unique in D1 basketball. We need something that doesn’t feel stale or some cookie-cutter design you’d see in five other mid-major conferences.

For example, one of my favorite mid-major arenas is Idaho’s ICCU Arena. The seats aren’t as close as you’d like them to be, but I love the wooden architecture around the bowl.


It might be a long-shot, but I’d love for the school to work with one of the big sports architecture firms in KC (e.g., AECOM, Populous) and get creative. For example, maybe something that matches the look and feel of the nearby Plaza? If done right, this has the potential to become an enormous asset for the university. 

[true2theroos]

One other thing: I like Perry’s suggestion of it being a little bit bigger than what we currently need. Not only would this allow for growth, but ideally it’d be bigger than some of the other venues around KC so that it’d be the top choice for events that might be too small for the T-Mobile Center.

[golds]

A few years ago this same talk bubbled up with a master plan release that mentioned a sports arena. At about the same time Towson University had just built an arena meant for basketball, other sports and large concerts. That arena got some recognition at the time for its design and flexibility. Seats 5200

[perry c]

Seems like it's more that just talk this time. The Chancellor stood at the podium. They released a video. All preliminary, of course.

The Roos essentially play in a high school gym. Facility issues will continue to hurt recruiting and block any conference upgrade until UMKC follows through on this project. Hopefully, the new arena will open in the fall of 2026.

[golds]

Saw this, really interesting arena being built for Longwood University. 3000 seats less than $40 million. Small foot print. Looking at it, it’s not far from what section 28 was hoping for.

www.longwood.edu/jpb/