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New UT Basketball Arena

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Shaggybevo

Shaggybevo 353

Posted
Posted (edited)

To me it looks like the seating on the home side has different slope than the opposite side.  It does not look symmetrical.  

Also there are what look like private boxes on the visitor side.  On the home side there appears to be a mini upper deck and more private boxes/club seating.

Edited by Shaggybevo
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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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1 hour ago, TexasBeta said:

 


I’m no architect or designer but this style doesn’t look like it matches anything on campus. It’s like that horrid white igloo looking thing over by the PCL. Maybe it’s me.

 

Horrid white igloo looking thing?  Do you mean the Ellsworth Kelly "Austin" installation?  Arguably the most famous piece of art to happen to our city in decades?  Go inside it once, you'll calm down.  

Anyway, here's what the rendering of the arena exterior looks like.  Somebody help me with the cut n' paste posting.  It's the street-level entrance/bar to the Fareground foodhall at the SE corner of Second Street & Congress Avenue.  That's exactly what it looks like.  

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ztejas

ztejas 43457

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52 minutes ago, HookEm said:

This looks like ass.

Agreed. Out of reps but I would give you one. The exterior looks like an art museum. The mock up of the interior looks like absolute dogshit. 

Whoever ever thought bowl seating was appropriate for a small-capacity college basketball arena needs to be chloroformed and shot.

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Pancho

Pancho 44825

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1 hour ago, DaysOff said:
5 hours ago, The University said:
basketball-arena-R2d.jpg

Take that shit to Portland or Seattle.

Considering that half our fan base thinks we are a "Pac 12 school," you might be in the wrong here. 

 

I like the outside.  The inside might cause me to fire up a tweet to CDC.

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52506

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Posted (edited)
6 hours ago, TexasBeta said:

 


I’m no architect or designer but this style doesn’t look like it matches anything on campus. It’s like that horrid white igloo looking thing over by the PCL. Maybe it’s me.

 

The UTC?

shit, page change got me. 

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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HookEm

HookEm 2467

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Posted

Looking at it again makes me ragey. Hate the lack of symmetry. One side is steep as it should be. Other side of the court has a stupid shallow grade. It will look so dated in 10 years.

That design is bad and the designer should feel bad. And the regents should also feel bad for approving this POS.

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bschoolprof

bschoolprof 6255

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Posted

I'm guessing the asymmetry and cavernous feel arise because its designers and financiers want it to operate more as a concert/event arena like the Erwin center, so they can recoup their investment.  

We should have financed the structure ourselves and built what we needed/wanted.  You get what you pay for.  

 

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VinyVango

VinyVango 694

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The interior artwork reeks of poor perspective and poor lighting.  Who ever decided that image was the one to "sell" the setup needs to get into a real arena and see a game or two.  Way too flattened out... 20 rows up looks like it puts you in 60 yards away... It's really hard to tell what I'm looking at.  It's definitely not a huge "wow" compared to the FEC setup and absolutely not an intimate vibe like Kansas, Duke, Indiana, etc...  I guess they are shooting for something like Rupp Arena?... but that's a stretch.

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4th&Five

4th&Five 41558

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Posted
13 hours ago, ztejas said:

Best college ball stadium in Texas. This shouldn't be hard to emulate.

275px-MoodyColiseumEXT.JPG

Moody_Game_26_Photo_2_2.jpg

But Texas is apparently doing their damndest to fuck it up.

2nd pic was actually outdated. This is the current layout.

pg-4-Moody-SUMMoodyColiseum-InteriorBowl

I've been saying the same thing for years.  if they want ideas on what a CBB arena should be they just need to drive 200 miles north.

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troph

troph 24810

Posted
Posted
I'm guessing the asymmetry and cavernous feel arise because its designers and financiers want it to operate more as a concert/event arena like the Erwin center, so they can recoup their investment.  
We should have financed the structure ourselves and built what we needed/wanted.  You get what you pay for.  
 

This 100%

Just a repeated mistake from the original.
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Scholz

Scholz 11943

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Posted

OB War Room article, 10K seats, keeping the Cooley Pavilion:

(McComas)

This afternoon, the UT Board of Regents, as expected, approved UT’s proposal to begin an agreement with Oak View Group and its partners to build a new arena for Texas Basketball, UT events, concerts, and more.

“The University of Texas at Austin (UT) and a group led by the Oak View Group (OVG) will build a world-class arena on campus that will be home to Texas Men’s and Women’s basketball games, graduations, concerts and other events. It is expected to be opened in 2021,” said Texas in its press release earlier today.

“The innovative 35-year agreement between UT and ArenaCo — which includes OVG, Live Nation, C3 Presents and Matthew McConaughey — will be groundbreaking in college athletics and provide a public benefit for UT and the City of Austin for decades to come. The $338 million venue will be constructed on land fully owned by UT without using any university or public money.”

Orangebloods.com was on campus earlier this afternoon at the press conference to announce the partnership and upcoming arena project. Some notes, takeaways, and more:

--- I assumed this project, from the design standpoint, was still in the early stages, but I didn’t realize just how early. After reading the Inside the 40 Acres Forum for a while, I knew the execution of limiting the capacity for basketball games was a hot topic. So, I asked the group the plan for executing that and also if any examples of other arenas have been used.

“We have yet to figure that out. I’m just joking. We knew there was a size of the arena that they needed for concerts. From my particular perspective of being here for a year is looking at our venue we average about 9,000. It’s a 16,000-seat arena. It’s way too big,” said Chris Del Conte. “We can have those moments when we all think, ‘yeah, we had a Kansas game,’ or a one-off game. But it’s like building a baseball stadium – you don’t build it for the weekend series. You build it for the Tuesday game. A 10,000-seat arena is fantastic and perfect for us because it’s loud, it’s jam-packed, it’s sold out, and a sold out arena has an unbelievable impact on the outcome of the men’s or women’s basketball game just like this year a sold out football stadium created the magic for us to come back and beat the teams we beat on the field this year. You look at USC game, Iowa State, so many games we had it jam-packed and the student section creates unbelievable environment.

“So, we think 10,000 is the right size for us, but the component of this here (points to drawing with top level seating covered) above that is those seats, and we’re working on how that will be designed. We met with [someone] yesterday, they have awesome ideas. But we still have to make sure they mechanically work. I came in one day and said I don’t understand why a garage door can’t work. They looked at me and said, 'That’s the biggest garage door we’ve ever seen'…. But that’s why they’re here. The very best in the business is designing this arena, folks.”

Del Conte and the group seemed very committed to the idea of limiting the capacity of the arena no matter what. As for the plan about how to specifically limit the capacity of the arena and the execution, that sounds like a bridge the group has yet to approach, and certainly hasn’t crossed.

“I think that’s a great idea on Chris’s part. Anytime you have a setting that’s full or almost full, it just creates a more intimidating homecourt atmosphere for the opponent, and a more energetic atmosphere for your own team,” Shaka Smart said when asked about the capacity. “The reality is hopefully there will be several games where we have more people come than that number, but that’s a good problem to have.”

--- “The arena project will be built and operated by a premier organization, the Oak View Group — without university or public money. This agreement with OVG combines the best of the university with the operating expertise and capital resources of the private sector,” said UT President Greg Fenves in an e-mailed statement today announcing the news.

According to Fenves, funding the new arena without university or public money was very important. Del Conte mentioned Fenves telling him this idea when the two first met to discuss Del Conte being offered the Athletics Director position, and Del Conte joked that he thought there was no way.

“It was a very high priority that we first of all had a replacement for the Erwin Center… it’s not really a modern concert arena and it has some problems as a basketball arena. And, of course, the site is going to be needed for the future expansion of Dell Medical Center. We knew we needed a new arena. I’m cheap, so if I can build something with no cost, I try to do it,” he said.

When later asked to elaborate on how this arena can be built without university of public money, Fenves wasn’t willing to offer any details.

“We got a great deal,” he said with a smile.

If you’re wondering if there will be naming rights, yes, there will be.

“We will work on naming rights… that decision will be a decision between us, Chris, and the University and we work in lockstep in trying to make sure we do this the right way and that goes back into the arena and creating the revenue necessary for this to [get built] and us the ability to pay for it,” said Oak View Group CEO Tim Leiwicke.

--- From what I initially heard a while back, the plan for the new arena included practice and team facilities. Now, the plan doesn’t include practice facilities for the men and women.

“We had conversations with Shaka and Karen – Cooley facility is phenomenal. We just renovated that facility in the last couple years, and we know that’s a phenomenal practice facility,” Del Conte said. “So, we feel in the short-term we can really focus on the arena because that’s what our partnership was about and at a later time when the facility is no longer serviceable, we’ll have that discussion. But we just renovated Cooley, and it is a first-rate facility.”

My expectation, based on what I’ve heard, is eventually after the arena is completed a space nearby will become a new team facilities area. But it’s clear the cost of doing that led to the decision of the group not to include those facilities in the new arena. If I was a college coach, I would be shaking my head.

Although Cooley Pavilion recently had upgrades, I’d describe those upgrades more as a facelift than a renovation. But those updates, some courtesy of Kevin Durant, look even more important now that a new practice area won’t be included in the new arena.

“That was really important in the moment, and it’s still important every day because that’s more than anything our basketball home because that’s where our guys are every day; that’s where they train in the offseason, where they lift weights, where they eat a lot of meals,” said Smart about the importance of the upgrades to Cooley Pavilion. “So, for our players to feel comfortable in that home setting is very important. The upgrades we did and Kevin really helped with were huge because we want to create a situation where our guys feel they can train and live from a basketball standpoint in a very home-like atmosphere.”

--- With the announcement, Smart can now use the new arena as a tool in recruiting for those players – not the Jaden McDaniels types – that plan to be around a while.

“Absolutely. It’s one of those things that guys look at as a key factor in their recruitment is where they’re going to play, and this is an unbelievable upgrade from our current homecourt situation,” Smart stated. “So, it is a few years away, and we do work in a sport where the cycle is quick, especially in guys’ minds and sometimes in reality. Certainly, it’s something we can point to.”

--- As we reported a few times now, there will be plans to – because there isn’t any other way to really do it – change the roads and design of the infrastructure in the area of the new arena.

“City of Austin has been a great strategic partner with the University… we’re working closely with the city leaders to plan for the construction of this project, and to make sure we have the infrastructure in place, including realigning Red River to return it to a grid structure, which will also improve transportation in this part of the city," Fenves stated.

--- And make no mistake, this is a partnership that includes UT, Oak View Group, the city of Austin, C3, Matthew McConaughey, and more. That became even clearer today, and the UT Board of Regents today approved Texas entering an agreement with a group of people and a company to build a new arena, but not a specific arena plan itself. So, the arena will be constructed with the input of multiple companies/people with different interests. This is going to be a new basketball arena, but it’s not going to be an arena with basketball as the only main interest.

“This is an amazing accomplishment and it’s going to be an amazing facility not just for the university; not just for the students, alumni, athletes. For this city. I will complement the President and his team to not only find a private-public relationship that ultimately can find a way to do this without burdening taxpayers or the campus. But in addition to that, they were very focused on the city of Austin. This is one of the great markets in all the country, one of the fastest growing markets in the country” Leiwicke said. “It’s why we’re here – the dynamic marketplace. So, the ability for the university to always have that vision and want to do something spectacular for both this community and campus was unique and their enthusiasm made us very excited.

“We understand we’re now part of the Longhorn family, and we’re proud of it. And we’ll make sure this gets built on time, and we hope on budget. And in addition to that, we create one of the great points of destination for sports and entertainment anywhere in the country.”

--- While Gregory Fenves and Chris Del Conte deserve a lot of credit for this agreement happening and the plan of a new arena officially moving forward, don’t forget about Mike Perrin’s role. From what I’ve heard, Perrin was a very integral piece in pushing this process forward while he served as AD, a process that’s basically taken almost three years to reach today’s point.

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4th&Five

4th&Five 41558

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Posted (edited)
53 minutes ago, Steamboat1874 said:

Might as well play in Gregory because that is what that SMU arena looks like only slightly bigger.

Moody is almost twice as big but I’d also be fine moving most of the games to Greg. Still may not fill it. 

Edited by 4th&Five
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rantanamo

rantanamo 143

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Posted

To be honest that looks conceptual to me.  Nothing technical as to what it will look like inside.  I'd go so far as to say, outside of the main stand on the left, the rest of that is just a rendering of the Erwin Center they've jazzed up a little.  Same as with the South Endzone, its hard to get a good hold of what the actual shape will be because that company is just horribad at rendering interiors.

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Bitterwhiteguy

Bitterwhiteguy 153

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8 hours ago, Machinator said:

Tim Preston doesn't pull any punches with his assessment of the new arena on the PWF podcast. I tend to agree with him.

https://hornscast.podbean.com/e/explicit-pretend-were-football-is-the-new-stadium-design-what-texas-basketball-needs-also-gcu-review-and-providence-preview/

It's the most he's ever disagreed with me on the show, which surprised me given all I was attempting to say was I wanted to wait to see the final version. If they make the Drum 2.0, then they fucked up.

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ztejas

ztejas 43457

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On 12/21/2018 at 6:43 AM, bschoolprof said:

I'm guessing the asymmetry and cavernous feel arise because its designers and financiers want it to operate more as a concert/event arena like the Erwin center, so they can recoup their investment.  

We should have financed the structure ourselves and built what we needed/wanted.  You get what you pay for.  

 

Let's build our own Erwin Center with blackjack and hookers 

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ztejas

ztejas 43457

Posted
Posted
On 12/21/2018 at 10:54 AM, Steamboat1874 said:

Might as well play in Gregory because that is what that SMU arena looks like only slightly bigger.

They actually took about 2k seats out of Moody in 2014 when they renovated. It started as a 9k seat stadium. 

And it isn't like y'all are putting 7k in the Erwin Center every night. 

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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One other fact we need to look at is...even though we are a large school...our student body heads for home during Thanksgiving and then halfway thru finals to MLK Day.  That means in a typical season, about 8 out of 17 games are played during holiday breaks.  At a school like Duke or Kansas, no reason those people wanna leave campus to go home for anything.  At UT, 40k out of our 50k head for the DFW/Houston/San Antonio/RGV/et. al. areas.  Or tell me I'm wrong, but I go to most of my games during the holiday breaks and there's maybe 500 students at the absolute peak.  Doesn't matter if it's UCONN or UTSA.  You can arrange the arena all you want, our students don't stick around to see hoops games in early January.  Building around their involvement is only going to be effective about half the games.  

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El Diablo

El Diablo 4232

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On 12/23/2018 at 9:58 PM, Lobo said:

One other fact we need to look at is...even though we are a large school...our student body heads for home during Thanksgiving and then halfway thru finals to MLK Day.  That means in a typical season, about 8 out of 17 games are played during holiday breaks.  At a school like Duke or Kansas, no reason those people wanna leave campus to go home for anything.  At UT, 40k out of our 50k head for the DFW/Houston/San Antonio/RGV/et. al. areas.  Or tell me I'm wrong, but I go to most of my games during the holiday breaks and there's maybe 500 students at the absolute peak.  Doesn't matter if it's UCONN or UTSA.  You can arrange the arena all you want, our students don't stick around to see hoops games in early January.  Building around their involvement is only going to be effective about half the games.  

Eh, it's probably a chicken and egg sort of situation at many schools that aren't "basketball" schools. If you were to ask the students I'm sure many would say that if the arena were more conducive to student impact on the game then they'd be more likely to show up. But I believe the fact is, students like anyone else are more likely to attend games when they have a winning team. There's 300+ D1 basketball schools and I'd imagine most reflect the student interest that you see at Texas. Expectations of what others should do with their time should always be tempered imho. You should build for what you KNOW you can fill and then hope for demand for expansion.

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ztejas

ztejas 43457

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Posted
4 hours ago, Revolution512 said:

Yeah but Texas can and will. SMU is a fucking high school

You will? Because you aren't right now. Even when Texas was good the EC was rarely full. Only for marquee games where the opposition was a draw as well (KU, Uconn, UCLA). 

Texas does not need a 15k stadium. You will not regularly fill it and that's a fact. 

I think 12k is the sweet-spot. You are right that 7k is too low for UT. 

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VolenteHawk

VolenteHawk 495

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1 hour ago, ztejas said:

You will? Because you aren't right now. Even when Texas was good the EC was rarely full. Only for marquee games where the opposition was a draw as well (KU, Uconn, UCLA). 

Texas does not need a 15k stadium. You will not regularly fill it and that's a fact. 

I think 12k is the sweet-spot. You are right that 7k is too low for UT. 

UT fans have shown that they’ll go if they have a reason. The Durant year and Shaka year 1 were both pretty well attended. And there are ~4000 seats in the Drum you couldn’t pay me to sit in.

They won’t watch bad teams through thick and thin or anything, but basically nobody does that outside of Iowa State.

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Underdog

Underdog 28686

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Posted (edited)

Guess I’ve been fortunate to have been to the FEC during more lively games, not just UT games, but NCAAT/NIT games also.  The worst was some “tournament” format where UT hosted other Teams and advanced on to play in KC sometime back in mid 2000s.  The other Teams in KC were UK, Iowa and WVU and I believe UT won that, we missed out on a Rondo/Gibson showdown because UK chocked one against Iowa. 

 

The games had Sac. St and 2 other scrubs in Austin for this “tournament”, hardly anyone was there and I sat like 4th row midcourt LL. 

Edited by Underdog
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Goo Punch

Goo Punch 4275

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2 minutes ago, ztejas said:

Idk but I saw Texas host UCLA in 08 or 09? And the EC was fucking packed.

Probably the most full I've ever seen it.

There used to be an awesome gif of me going nuts from that game. That gif and the Water Head Dance gif are now gone however. They were hosted on ToY's site which i think no longer exists. 

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Goo Punch

Goo Punch 4275

Posted
Posted

we had a game vs Nova back in 04 or 05 that was insane

OU and UNC in 2015 were all time crowds, particularly OU

2009 Sparty

the aforementioned UCLA game 

the home KU wins

03 vs Wake Forest

07 A&M

OU ve Blake Griffin's team

OU when J'Covan and Willie Wareen went at it (could be same game as the BG game, can't remember)

 

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Goo Punch

Goo Punch 4275

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Posted
2 hours ago, Underdog said:

Gotta say Texas had some great OOC games in the past, those mentioned above, DePaul, tUSC, Tennessee with Pearl and the Gunner whose name escapes me at the moment. 

Probably Chris Lofton. There was a game where the refs just killed us, but Lofton did as well. He was unconscious.

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