Heath wants to play some games at the Fourm

[Bull94]

I'm not saying we move all our games to the forum now. Just that we start to migrate that way. Play 4 or 5 of our best competition there.

Why? So we can pay $100k each night to draw an extra 1000 fans? It's really not worth it.

The O-dome is considred such a tough place to play because they are the #1 team in the country. They would jump at the chance to play in the forum if it was located 5 minutes from campus (students like rizzo drive much faster than I do so they can get downtown quick!) for games against Kentucky,etc.

No they wouldn't part of Billy Donovans new contract he'll be signing was to include a new 17,000 seat arena on campus. He nixed the idea to fix up the O'Connell Center because he likes the advantage the fans give the team.

Most major college programs are nowhere near a major city or arena thats why they don't play in them. They don't have the populations to fill them regularly. The forum has more events than any other arena in the country.

Is that why USC just built their own new arena opting out of the LA Sport Arena that was RIGHT across the street from the campus? What about UCLA?

Or tell me why Ohio State plays their games at a new Schoentstein Center when a brand new Nationwide Arena (Columbus Blue Jackets) is 3 miles away

Why is St. Louis builing a 10,000 seat on campus arena, when they have the Scotttrade Center just a few miles away.

And Georgia Tech, why play at a 10,000 seat arena you sell out almost every night when you could probably get a few thousand extra into Phillips Arena?

There are several other examples. University of Washington, Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt, Xavier....

We are fortunate enough to be located near a state of the art arena and we aren't going to take advantage of that?

Why? Really what DOES it for us besides cost us a lot of money to use.

The city of Louisville is building a $40M arena downtown for UofL to play in.

The City of Louisville has been trying to get an NBA team for over 15 years. That is why they are building the arena...http://louisville.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2004/10/04/story2.html

You say the small catholic schools can't afford to build arenas, well I didn't see where USF discovered how to grow money on trees yet.

They already have an arena, no need to build one...

Marquette regularly sells out their downtown arena with their tiny enrollment and they have to compete with a pro basketball team.

I dunno where this point of the argument is going, because I never claimed teh Catholic schools don't draw well. In fact some of those schools have some of the best fanbases out there.

They get good crowds, but sellout regularly is a stretch...in 2005-06 season they averaged 13,000 in a 19,000 seat arena. In 2004-05 12,000...This year they averaged about 15,000.

If Tampa can fill that place for hockey then there is no reason why in time they can't fill it for college basketball. I would argue that there are far more potential casual college basketball fans in Tampa than hockey fans.

Ya...is that why there was AT BEST 4-5,000 USF fans at the Wake Forest game?

$100k ?? are you serious? Did you just come up with that one off the top of your head?? My buddy sells tickets there and they have had events there that have drawn less than 800 people. Might want to double check your inside source on that one. Do you think the Modern king of Waltz that is playing there this month would outdraw USF hoops? Might want to actually know what price it is before you throw that out there. They want to book that place every night regardless of what price they get.

That's great for Donovan but obviously the athletic department saw a need to have a nicer venue. Maybe they thought they could bring in more revenue?

Go ahead and throw USC, UCLA, OSU and all the others out there. Our athletic budget doesn't add up to 1/10th of what many of those schools spend in a year. They can AFFORD to build new arenas on their campus'. WE CAN'T. and We won't for some time. Hell we can't get a decent baseball field and what does that consist of? dirt and grass.

Obviously this all hinges on building a winner. Without one we can continue to play in the Sundump and nobody would know the difference. If we had a winner then people would come. NCAA basketball is far bigger than hockey. They can sell out the forum with a winner and so could we.

I don't understand why you are so hostile? I'm entitled to an opinion even if it is different than yours. And by the way seriously check on how much the Forum costs because you are way off on that one. I've talked to my friend who has worked there for like 7 years and he says they practically give it away just to host events.

[Joe]

Bull94,

You rent according to size for soem events if you believe 800 show you tell them 800 show.

I know for concerts with endstages the price is 24,000 or 30% of tix capped at something like $84,000 (whatever is higher). Plus merchandise % and any production, insurance costs, setup, etc. The $100,000 was a rough estimate, I'm sorry. The point is it does cost a lot of money to hold a game there.

Go ahead and throw USC, UCLA, OSU and all the others out there. Our athletic budget doesn't add up to 1/10th of what many of those schools spend in a year. They can AFFORD to build new arenas on their campus'. WE CAN'T. and We won't for some time. Hell we can't get a decent baseball field and what does that consist of? dirt and grass.

Whoa. We HAVE an arena ALREADY and it serves the purpose for our fanbase very well. What does money play into it and if it does, why spend MORE money to hold the games at STP so 1000 extra fans who are too lazy to drive the extra 12 miles can make it.

Sell out the forum? Meaning 20,000 for basketball? 94, We've sold out the Sundome a HANDFUL of times. Unlike the Lightning USF basketball has competition in town. FSU and Florida both did very well attendance wise with their game at the SPT Forum this year, they have a lot of fans in this market. The same cannot be said about the Devils, the Rangers, or

the Carolina Hurricanes (at least not numbers wise).

I'm not hostile. Your argument just doens't make very much sense. It's hard to believe that playing 5-6 games at the SPT Forum would be benficial. We didn't draw well there last year, it costs extra money, you take away the campus environment, and we have a venue on campus that is perfectly suitable for our basketball team right now.

I agree play 1-2 games during the Christmas Break at SPT Forum. Test it out more. I just don't think you'll see that great of an attendance boost.

[South_Florida_Flip]

We should play all our big conference games at the forum. Similar to what st John's does with MSG.

Then why bother renovating the Sun Dome? The money that DW wants to put into making the Sun Dome a better facility is to ensure that we play the major games at the Sun Dome.

Using St. John's is poor example. Their on campus facility is about 4 times as small as the Sun Dome, so they go to MSG as a matter of necessity when they play the Syracuse's and UConn's. We can barely fill the Dome (for now) for teams like Syracuse and UConn and you think going downtown for those games would have that big of a difference in the size of the crowd? We'll lose students for those games, not gain them since they will more than likely have to pay to park and probably pay for their ticket as well.

I do like Coach Heath's idea of playing downtown when the students are not here. That is the only time it should be done.

[Paul Wall]

sun dome maybe our home but fans don't stay there too often...

[USFan]

I don't mind playing a few (over break), but lets not play the big games at a cavernous venue that will take away from the crowd.

The Wake game had a decent turnout (as stated more Noles than Bulls), why spend the money renting out the facility? I don't think you'll draw the extra 4-5k to offset the costs. We could pair up with another game, Florida or FSU (like FSU last year) to keep it low, but then you get an arena with hundred of Noles/Gators.

As for the St. Johns comparisons. They don't have an on campus arena that can fit enough for big games, so they play their games at the Garden.

I think moving many basketball games downtown would alienated the team.

I will counter: I know WHY he wants to play the games there. Recruiting. The Sundome is in bad condition right now and severly needs rennovations. I think his belief is that the games at SPT Forum might be more appealing to the possible recruits (as our basketball facilities are just SKIT right now). Dunno if it will work...

I'm pretty sure when he said this, right after he was hired, he mentioned the winter break as a time for doing this, when the students are off campus. It's a great idea.

I agree... this is simply due to the winter break.  Having a game or two at SPT will not make it more appealing for a recruit to select USF as their school/basketball team.  This is not the same type of "recruiting" that the football team uses with RJS.

The sun dome looks a whole lot better now than it did before 2006.

[USFan]

We never have sold out the Dome, I dont know why anyone thinks we are going to start now.

Yes we have.  The UF game my freshman year and the UConn game was a close one last year.

Then way before that (early 90s).  You should see the pictures... you'll question yourself when you see "Sun Dome" on the court and the crowd.  

“That’s what it used to be like?!?â€Â

I hear those were the days.

[Matt]

i say have 1 or 2 games there to draw some interest from a casual fan and if its a good product they will come to the SunDome to watch.  

point is, if its good basketball and the home team always has a chance to leave with a win people will show up.  sitting in traffic or not.

now, ticket prices at the sun dome....that is something else that needs to be discussed on another topic.

[bulls96go]

We should level the sundome, play our basketball games at the forum, and build an OCS where the sundome used to be.  ;D

great idea!

[Belle of the Bull]

We should level the sundome, play our basketball games at the forum, and build an OCS where the sundome used to be.  ;D

great idea!

great idea- but we don't own the sundome. we pay for upgrades - but I dont think we "own" it as a building. I could be wrong though. Before we built the Ice Palace, RayJ, and the Amp- we should have worked with the county to build an occ. they would have needed more venues for events and we would have gotten an OCC. oh well. but my point was that leveling the sundome is never going to happen (at least not in my lifetime).

[Bull94]

Bull94,

You rent according to size for soem events if you believe 800 show you tell them 800 show.

I know for concerts with endstages the price is 24,000 or 30% of tix capped at something like $84,000 (whatever is higher). Plus merchandise % and any production, insurance costs, setup, etc. The $100,000 was a rough estimate, I'm sorry. The point is it does cost a lot of money to hold a game there.

Go ahead and throw USC, UCLA, OSU and all the others out there. Our athletic budget doesn't add up to 1/10th of what many of those schools spend in a year. They can AFFORD to build new arenas on their campus'. WE CAN'T. and We won't for some time. Hell we can't get a decent baseball field and what does that consist of? dirt and grass.

Whoa. We HAVE an arena ALREADY and it serves the purpose for our fanbase very well. What does money play into it and if it does, why spend MORE money to hold the games at STP so 1000 extra fans who are too lazy to drive the extra 12 miles can make it.

Sell out the forum? Meaning 20,000 for basketball? 94, We've sold out the Sundome a HANDFUL of times. Unlike the Lightning USF basketball has competition in town. FSU and Florida both did very well attendance wise with their game at the SPT Forum this year, they have a lot of fans in this market. The same cannot be said about the Devils, the Rangers, or

the Carolina Hurricanes (at least not numbers wise).

I'm not hostile. Your argument just doens't make very much sense. It's hard to believe that playing 5-6 games at the SPT Forum would be benficial. We didn't draw well there last year, it costs extra money, you take away the campus environment, and we have a venue on campus that is perfectly suitable for our basketball team right now.

I agree play 1-2 games during the Christmas Break at SPT Forum. Test it out more. I just don't think you'll see that great of an attendance boost.

Joe,

The numbers for rental are an internet advertised price. I would hope we could negotiate a better price than that. They just want to fill that place with as many events as possible. Not sure if we would be considered a non profit but they get a 50% discount.

Our arena was built during the sunbelt days and it served it's purpose well 25 years ago. Not if we want to build a competitive BE program now. I'm not argueing  to play every game in there now. And the past has no bearing on the future so it doesn't matter how well a 3 win BE team drew last year. Hopefully we are in for better times.

Those FSU and UF fans are casual basketball fans. Many live and work in the downtown area. They would come see a competitive BE product at the forum. I have a ton of UF college football friends who love to go to RJ just for the experience. I can't convince them to make the drive out to fowler. They root for the Bulls but they don't care who wins or loses. Many times they don't care if it's competitive. They just love being able to hang out in the club and sittiing in great seats.

they used to hold NCAA games at the dome but now they're at the forum. Why is that? Because it's a much better experience. Hell the ACC just held their beloved tourney here.

If you have been to a lightning game recently then you would see the number of Devil, Penguin, Red Wing jerseys there. These people come back to more games because they are casual hockey fans (hate to tell you but many Lightning fans didn't grow up as lightning fans)and enjoyed the experience.

If Tampa can get casual hockey fans to the forum with a good product then we sure as hell can get casual college hoops fans to watch some of the best teams in the country if we put out a good product.

We are not Duke or KU. We don't play at Cameron indoor or Phog. There is no great history at the sundome.Its great for us diehards but it will not draw the casual fans we need.

Believe it or not College athletics are a business now.

Why not follow the lead of a program such as Memphis? They play in Fed Ex Forum. A $250M arena. They seem to be building a pretty good program in  CDOA and their compettion is lousy. Check out their site. It has a page devoted soley to the forum. It is a huge asset in drawing the casual fans as well as recruits. Do you think they would be as successful in an arena such as the sundome now?

I'm not saying we are there yet. I only hope that we consider it in the future. They put these arenas downtown for a reason. It's because the jobs are there and so is the money. These pro teams want these new arenas because it gives their fans a better overall entertainment experience.