New Arena for Cornell

[Jacob 03]

can you say "veeck"?

[Tom Pasniewski 98]

Grant it, BU does have a great recruiting class coming in including Ray Borque's son but I was at the BU-UNH game last night and there were a lot of empty seats ( I believe attendance was announced at just over 2700).  I think they're heading into Spring Break next week so some students may have left early.  Grant it, they're not just having an off year, they're having a terrible year.  In all of Parker's years, they've never failed to get to 10 wins, and they're at 9 right now.  If things stay the way they are, they're likely headed down the street to the oversized Conte Forum at BC for the first round.  I was there last week for BC-UNH and there were a lot of empty seats when, at the time, they were the unanimous #1 team in the nation.  BC made the mistake, IMHO, of adding a balcony which can put you far removed from the ice.  It provides for a great view but I'll go catch a Bruins game if I want to sit that far from the ice.  

As long as you can keep the fans very close to the ice and the place consistently packed without turning away too many people and the facilities are good, and we do have a great strength and conditioning center, then all is good for the fans and the team.  Without knowing how many people are shutout from attending each game, then it's hard to say an addition is need although I thought the number 500 additional seats had been reported in a study.

You don't want to have a situation like at Harvard where I'm headed tonight where even with Vermont's basketball team in town for their conferences tournament at BU this weekend, there will still be plenty of tickets available to buy at the door.  In the time I've followed Cornell hockey (since 1993), we have for the most part put together good teams and put together outstanding attendance.  I would hate to ever see the time come when a student could walk up to the ticket office the night of the game and get a ticket - not to keep facetimers out but to think of empty seats at Lynah.

And to keep rattling off Boston sports venues, take Fenway Park, long thought to be going the way of Tiger Stadium and the like with a new stadium on the table.  Yet with small additions here and there, the old ballpark seems to have won out even though demand for tickets has never been higher.  You're close to the action with mainly one deck.  Fans want seats that are close to the action and teams want fans in those seats and Lynah meets those criteria.

[profudge]

Keith,
 
UofMich  arena draws fans from a huge area  -  I used to go to several games a year growing up and it was an hour's drive one way from NW Detroit burbs....   Also usually played at least 1 or 2 HS and 2-3 Midget or Bamtam games there a year back many years ...   I remember the huge ice surface - lots of room to skate!    

[Scott Kominkiewicz]

I always thought that it would be a good idea to put a small balcony or some form of luxury boxes along the west wall of Lynah (near the scoreboard).  The closest thing I can think of is the press box at PU's Baker Rink.  

There are a few options and advantages.  Of course, more people would be able to see the game, albeit only a hundred or so.  In addition, the universtiy may be able to use the boxes to leverage alumni giving.  Another option is to combine boxes and a new press box above the goal and glass on the west end, which would mean more student seating where the current press box stands.

Just my 2 cents.  But it's something I think of every time I visit Lynah.

[Avash]

Here we go; starting all over again with post #1 :-)...

[Q]I always thought that it would be a good idea to put a small balcony or some form of luxury boxes along the west wall of Lynah (near the scoreboard). [/Q]


Achilles Rink up at Union has something similar, not really a luxury box, but an area for the press to sit.

[KeithK]

[Q]UofMich arena draws fans from a huge area [/Q]I was thinking that too, Lou, but I'd figured since I didn't know for sure I'd keep my mouth shut.  [I don't think he knows how message boards work - ed.]

[DavidHarding72]

My understanding is that they let the ice melt as soon as the season is over, but then make it again for the summer camps and to encourage the team to work together over the summer.  

I'd wager that almost any college rink has, on the average, better ice than most pro rinks.  Any place that is dedicated to skating is going to be better off than a multi-use facility.  For example, when we went to Chicago Wolves game last Saturday evening, I commented that the ice seemed pretty bad, with the way the puck was bouncing and the players were falling down spontaneously.  It turned out that there had been a college basketball game in the same arena that afternoon, with the court laid down over the ice.  

[Ack]

Lots of sports teams do that. I'm not sure how a basketball team could make its own home-court advantage be dynamic and change with respect to opponents.  Baseball teams last year would soak the dirt and grass in front of home plate when the Marlins came into town.  Their first two hitters (Pierre and Castillo) were always threats to slash at the ball (Baltimore chop or just basic precision swinging bunts), but with the ground mushy, the balls wouldn't spring off from the bat the way the hitters were used to, and wouldn't be nearly as effective as when they could have their home field compliment their skills and weapons.

I never thought about hockey as being able to have a dynamic home-ice advantage, until now, thanks all (always) for the hockey history.

[Will]

Ah!  You left the italics tag open!  NOOOOO!!!![/i]

Ah, that's better.

[Greg Berge]

[Q]ninian '72 Wrote:It's not "Build it and they will come" but "They're coming already, so build it already." [/Q]

That's a good reason to fill in the open end (if it can be done under code).  It't not a good reason to scrap the whole building.  One of the reasons they're coming is the intimacy of the building creates the very atmosphere that people want to come to.  

[Rob NH]

[Q]Jeff Hopkins '82 Wrote:

 I may just be a bit bizzarre, but I think we need to come up with a name for Agganis rink.  I suggest the "Hairy Organs Center" but I've welcome any other suggestions.

JH [/Q]
The Hairy Anus Arena. Sasquatch anyone?

[ninian \'72]

I agree with all these points.  I'm not necessarily advocating a mega-rink at Cornell or even replacing Lynah.  The point I was trying to make is simply that a bigger rink doesn't necessarily have to result in worse atmosphere.  If enclosing the open end/adding 500 seats to the current building will take care of unmet demand for seats, then great!  

[billhoward]

A number of press boxes are in the end zone - Princeton, BU's old (well, not that old) arena. Terrible place to watch the game. While it may not sadden you to see the media stuck in lousy seats, subconsciously they'll grouse about the place more. That's not good for the hockey program.

[billhoward]

This is the eLynah fans' plan to build a new rink, not Cornell's? I came back to Lynah for the Princeton-Yale weekend for the first time in a long while (last time, Dick Bertrand was still coach) and it seemed about the same raffishly charming and worn building, even down to Mike Teeter manning the goal judge booth. (And the same tattered hockey pants, but I mentioned that in a different thread.) I love the concourse / connector so you've got someplace to go between periods if you want; that's a definite improvement.

Once the game started, you don't notice what the facility is like.

If we build a new rink, where does it go? Lower and Upper Alumni Fields aren't quite as available as they used to be. I'm assuming Cornell would like to maintain the common concourse area.

What's the right number of seats? 3800 as it is now? 5000? 6000? Sure, it would be great to have the new Ken Dryden Hall (wait, don't we already have a Dryden Hall?) sold out for every game *if* you're one of the people who's already got seats. Why shouldn't a college sports team - um, that's what Cornell hockey is - be accessible to its students who have the urge to go see a game when it interests them? Also, you can always fill in the last 500 empty seats on non-Harvard nights with comps to youth league teams.

It took a lot of foresight to build Lynah in the 1950s with 3800 seats. Who knew what Ned Harkness would accomplish a decade later and make it worthwhile?

It sounds as if the first order of business would be to see if the open end of the horseshoe could be filled in to go +500 seats. If the ideal size for a new Lynah is 5000 seats, 4300-4400 might be enough to make a difference.

It might also be useful to find out if the condition of Lynah is a negative or a neutral with the players and their parents. Who wouldn't want to play in North Dakota's 11,000 seat arena? But you've got to go to school there and get your diploma there and you're kind of in the middle of nowhere, unlike Cornell, which is -- well, more centrally located than UND.

A new sports building also stirs up the faculty, who always complain about being overworked and underpaid and having lousy working conditions.

[KeithK]

Fixed it.  Sorry....