Time for a New Arena thread

[Trotsky]

Really? My vote is for the Whale. In all seriousness, Ingalls is probably the most fascinating, beautiful, and functional sports arena I've ever been in, period.

I've always felt the Whale was enormously overrated.  Yes, it won architectural awards, but at the end of the day it's just an overbearing concrete monstrosity -- the Guggenheim's parking garage.

[CUontheslopes]

Wait. This is a real thread? You have to be kidding me. After reading through this, I feel like anyone who wants to have Lynah torn down should have their logins deleted. I haven't posted in this forum for 7 years, but read it to see what's going on with the program. The nonsense spouted above made me go back and find my password.

Seriously? We think Lynah is the problem? Arguably the greatest rink in college hockey, one of the biggest home ice advantages in college hockey, and what has been for a generation our biggest recruiting tool? Get real.

Three reasons attendance, and most importantly the atmosphere-building student attendance is down, all three noted above: (1) the team has been downright mediocre, (2) the crackdown on student cheering and (3) student ticket prices.

To whomever said that "new rinks are like office buildings" is a garbage generalization, simply put - you're wrong. But no amount of arguing about it will convince you, so keep your hands off our rink. Go tear down the Big House, Notre Dame Stadium, and Cameron instead. Re Lynah, fix the atmosphere and you fix the problem. How? Simple - Dip into that endowment a little and make student ticket prices $5/game and tell some of the overbearing ushers to take a xanax. You'll get the students and energy back. As for winning on the ice, well that's a discussion for a different thread.

[Dafatone]

On the topic of attendance, has the townie section been more empty than usual?  When I hear of attendance being down, I think students, but some comments here make it sound like townie attendance is down, too.

[underskill]

... and fenway are the best places in MLB to watch a ballgame precisely because of the old school "features" (drawbacks to some).

Yeah, Fenway is awesome if you like looking at support posts and craning your head 70 degrees to the left to see the infield if you didn't pay a ton for your seats.

Fenway is a dump designed by someone whose primary goals clearly weren't comfort or sight lines, and built several eras before modern engineering. I think people who like watching baseball games at Fenway like the idea of watching baseball and the experience of being in a historic ballpark more than the reality of watching a baseball game. Fenway is a terrible place to actually watch a baseball game compared to most modern ballparks. Camden Yards is a much better Fenway than Fenway.

At this point, I can't even.

I agree. Fenway is a dump. I have been to the new Detroit part and is is really nice. Comfortable seats and easy access to concessions. And then there is the Cathedral of Baseball, Yankee Stadium. The new stadium is georgous, historic, and comfortable and the temple of the graceful extraction of money from your wallet. Sitting there in the sun, worshiping before the green alter is an experience.

I used to be skeptical about new parks but no longer. Bring on the wrecking ball.

new Yankee Stadium is garbage, between that and Metlife, what a waste of a couple billion dollars.

[Trotsky]

The fan atmosphere will return when the team wins.  The last time the fans sucked was during the 93-95 dip.  It's not magic.

I personally like the defensive style, but it is definitely not as involving for the fans, and it's just brutal when they're bad.  That will not change under Mike, but we shouldn't be surprised that Lynah has taken on a far less intense feeling than during the freewheeling days of the pond hockey 70s and 80s.

[upprdeck]

attendance went down the day they added seats. having sat on both sides in the last couple of years, its hard to say which is down more. getting seats is pretty easy, but are people buying tickets and then not coming to all the games anymore 'YES'.  I know many townies dont bother with season tickets because you can get into any game the day of the game and you cant sell extras or give them away usually.

I dont know why students dont show up. section A  is 40% empty half way thru the first period and I dont know as it was full any game this year.

This is something the students need to champion, get the SUN to go interview people and find out the WHY.. I do agree better teams would help, but this isnt a one year thing its a 20 year thing.

Fenway is a dump, but you have 100 years of baseball lore and a city that loves their team far more than the avg cornell kid loves the hockey program. Boston was not always selling out  that long ago, they are on a high because demand makes people keep the season tickets and the baseball visitors want to see stadiums. Fenway is marketed in ways Lynah is not.

Lynah is not the home ice it once was and it never was the arena it was the fans who made it so..

$200 for student tickets for 20 games is not that bad a deal. less than a movie.

RIT student tickets are $200-400 as well.. our the cornell prices out of line with other schools?


I would also agree that the crack down on cheering makes it a less fun place to be. Too bad the 5% anti fun police won that battle

[Greenberg '97]

I agree. Fenway is a dump. I have been to the new Detroit part and is is really nice. Comfortable seats and easy access to concessions. And then there is the Cathedral of Baseball, Yankee Stadium. The new stadium is georgous, historic, and comfortable and the temple of the graceful extraction of money from your wallet. Sitting there in the sun, worshiping before the green alter is an experience.

I see what you did there.

Unless someone hands me tickets, I pretty much don't attend professional sporting events anymore.  This started right around the time that monstrosity off the Deegan opened.

[Greenberg '97]

The fan atmosphere will return when the team wins.  The last time the fans sucked was during the 93-95 dip.  It's not magic.

I personally like the defensive style, but it is definitely not as involving for the fans, and it's just brutal when they're bad.  That will not change under Mike, but we shouldn't be surprised that Lynah has taken on a far less intense feeling than during the freewheeling days of the pond hockey 70s and 80s.

I fell in love with the team, the building, and the atmosphere during 93-95, so they (we) couldn't have sucked that much.

[Trotsky]

Unless someone hands me tickets, I pretty much don't attend professional sporting events anymore.

Same here.  Prices are insane, and the fan behavior that was funny when you're 20 is just pathetic when you're 50.  And TV is simply a superior experience, all around.  The only reason to attend a game in person is the atmosphere, and the atmosphere at pro events is highly negative.

[marty]

Wait. This is a real thread? You have to be kidding me.

Too bad this thread didn't start five days earlier.  ;-)

[Trotsky]

The fan atmosphere will return when the team wins.  The last time the fans sucked was during the 93-95 dip.  It's not magic.

I personally like the defensive style, but it is definitely not as involving for the fans, and it's just brutal when they're bad.  That will not change under Mike, but we shouldn't be surprised that Lynah has taken on a far less intense feeling than during the freewheeling days of the pond hockey 70s and 80s.

I fell in love with the team, the building, and the atmosphere during 93-95, so they (we) couldn't have sucked that much.

Oh, it sucked, and people were Concern Trolling about it before Concern Trolling was even a thing.  Then during the 98-00 dip people were writing Think Pieces about the death of Lynah before Think Pieces were a thing.  One of the (few) advantages of extreme old age is having seen it all happen again and again... whenever the team has hit a protracted rough patch the fan support has gone into hibernation and everybody has knocked one another over in the scramble to find deep, systemic reasons for the Irreversible Decline of the Lynah Faithful.

And then we start winning and it all goes away.

Just.  Win.

[RichH]

The fan atmosphere will return when the team wins.  The last time the fans sucked was during the 93-95 dip.  It's not magic.

I personally like the defensive style, but it is definitely not as involving for the fans, and it's just brutal when they're bad.  That will not change under Mike, but we shouldn't be surprised that Lynah has taken on a far less intense feeling than during the freewheeling days of the pond hockey 70s and 80s.

I fell in love with the team, the building, and the atmosphere during 93-95, so they (we) couldn't have sucked that much.

Oh, it sucked

Sections E through H were completely empty. The sections where fans existed (A, B) were full by the end of warmups. This season, not one student section could be considered full until around the first intermission.

I remember there being constant crowd noise during play, but human memory is a bitch sometimes.

[RichH]

we went from a pond to a rink its time to take the next step.. this isnt fenway/wrigley with millions of people who care about staying  the same and even they have figured out change is good.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-fan-of-the-new-video-board-at-wrigley-field-20150406-htmlstory.html

I'm growing to dislike video boards in general, but at a place like Wrigley, I think this is a crime against humanity. The number of places where we can enjoy something without being assaulted by a video screen is dwindling.  Bars, restaurants, stadiums, arenas, & beautiful old train stations. I still hate the video board even at non-hallowed Schoellkopf. Watch people sitting in the Crescent after a play. A large majority of people will instinctively snap their heads to the left to watch whatever noise is on the gigantic TV. People at pro games will only cheer when the commanding words "MAKE SOME NOISE!!" dance and wiggle around on their video overlord.

You know that Powers (& Donors) That Be have had multiple meetings trying to figure out how to shoe-horn one of these things into Lynah, and I give our venerable building a pat on the back for its design resisting such an addition.

Also, this thread lost me as a serious exercise as soon as the words "cup holders" appeared.

[BMac]

I take exception to "attendance went down the day they added new seats"

First, this should be a thing we can just check. (Sadly, I don't really trust any arena's attendance stats anymore)

Second, I was a student during the addition- Lynah went from completely full to more-completely full. Because the team was good!

It sounds like the issue here is really one of townie vs. non-townie (alum, student) divide. Maybe the administration could do something to spruce up the seats on the townie side. But getting rid of Lynah... :-(

Do we know what recruits want? Can we just put a shiny box around Lynah?

[RichH]

new bldg means we get a concourse that lets people go to the consessions and get back before a period starts.

The renovation provided terrific, wide concourses. I miss the standing-room railing, but I admit the concourses have made a world of difference in getting around. My only real criticisms of the recent renovation: 1) The design didn't account for the band. Tubas and trombones shouldn't be in danger of scraping the ceiling and hitting rafters.  2) The luxury boxes are pretty lame.