Spencer Tollackson: Minnesota "needs a new arena and practice facility"

[ruppertflywheel]

You can't take building codes circa 1930 and try and make them remotely translate into 2012. Everything inside Williams Arena that you see is probably 40 years out of date code wise.....heck I wouldn't doubt that the raised floor couldn't be built in 2012 because it isn't permanantly accessible to a wheel chair (and the replacement floor somehow got grandfathered in). They could try and do Williams Arena but what you would end up with is either a facility that is twice as big or 4,000 less seats. Either way it would be less intimate and less unique. Look at Conseco Fieldhouse.....that is probably as close as you can get....it isn't bad, but it's not great.

Code wise, the Barn is not out of date. It was remodled down from 17,500 to 14,500 and made up to code.

 

[brucekaupa]

If the Gopher plays at Target Center, it's not a home game. It's a road game. Clem said so.

BTW. I know nobody responded but I just can't let this go...

What I said above was not meant to be a joke. The Gophers won the 1993 NIT tournament. Williams Arena renovation had begun, so the Gophers could not play their home games there. I attended the 2nd Round game vs. Oklahoma which I believe was at Target Center. The quarterfinal game was against USC at Met Center.

The following season, we played the pre-season NIT game against Rice at Williams.

On Sid's radio show on Sunday morning, around the time of the Rice game, people were giving Clem a *lot* of flak for not being able to win important Big 10 road games (they had gone 2-7 in '92-'93). In defense, Clem actually (seriously) claimed that all of above mentioned games were ROAD games...since the post-season NIT games were not at Williams...and for the Rice game we technically were not listed as the "home" team.

I got on the phone and called in to Sid's show and pointed out how incredibly dumb it was to claim those as road victories. As Sid's producer hung up on me, Clem's response was, "What's your point, [my name]?"

 

[GoGophers2005]

Code wise, the Barn is not out of date. It was remodled down from 17,500 to 14,500 and made up to code.

The loss in seats was mostly due to going from bench to chairback seating. Not sure if they HAD to do it to lower the occupancy of the building to meet exiting or restroom counts.

 

[oak_street1981]

Add a significant addition along University Ave. and I see escalators and as many elevators as you would ever want connecting to the second deck. A nice concession area could be added as well as restrooms ALL UP ON THE SECOND LEVEL. I could also see the U going towards making a whole side of the 2nd deck a 'Club' with its own seating (similar to TCF Bank and Mariucci). I know they currently have a club, but lets be honest its a joke and needs to be totally rethought out.

GG2005 is on the right path with his ideas about the south/Univ. side of Williams Arena. A huge vertical struucture could be built between the sidewalk on Univ. Ave. all the way to the wall of the Historic(that awful 1959/60's era south lobby can be demolished) Williams Arena. A good outcome would be to alter the whole sideline on the bench sides going upward. There are extreme cost issues with this plan, but there is opportunity to remake the building.

I like the idea of creating a wall of suites and hospitality areas on the south sideline, like at Staples Center. This seating area would extend south above the current one story lobby all the way to University Avenue. The new exterior wall could be built with large, real windows to recreate what Williams Arena once looked like before they bricked up all the windows in a very cheap, ugly 1950's era remodel job.


A great deal could be done with the area behind the barnyard if the whole wall and deck areas towards the old hockey arena area were turned into something related to the BB side that extended further to the west into the pavilion area.


The problem with all of these plans is the quanset hut style design of the building and the shape of the roof. There is not a lot that can be done without spending a great deal of money. Sure you can add some lower level amenities and relief to those sitting on south sideline with a new structure next to Univ. Ave. You cannot do a whole lot about sightlines, elbow room, codes, or anything else.

Any sentimental attempt to do much is throwing good money at bad. The best option is to tear it down and build something with barn type features on the site. Basketball only, new facilities like Oregon and Missouri (Canseco Fieldhouse is another good example) are much better than hockey/basketball multipurpose mistakes like those that were built at UW, OSU and Penn State.

The Kohl Center is not all that great. Breslen Center, and even Hawk Carver (when full) mare better. The rest of the Big Ten Arenas have major issues.

Let them play at XCEL Energy Center for two years and start over.

 

[RailBaronYarr]

To those who say kids these days and recruits don't know or care about the history of their facilities, I call BS. I've been to enough games at Madison/Iowa/Michigan/etc and seen interviews with recruits/current players where they specifically state the history of the stadium as being very important to them. Knowing that 90 years and counting of football has been played at Camp Randall, etc. It does matter and if we create a winning tradition it WOULD matter here.

We as Gopher fans didn't deserve Memorial Stadium, clearly. Every single poster on here hated the Metrodome prior to getting TCF. But at one point, it was "new and shiny" and "better for recruiting." To people who say "would you rather have Memorial Stadium or TCF" - to be honest it's SO easy to say in hindsight that TCF is such a great venue and is the gold standard for recruiting from a facility and amenity standpoint. HOWEVER to get there we had to go through 25 years of crap in an off-campus stadium that was worse for revenue than a University-owned stadium. I recognize posters here aren't suggesting we go play at the Target Center. But if the U had some foresight, they could have kept an amazing, historical stadium, made the necessary upgrades (remove the track, change the slope of the seats slightly, add a modern press box, scoreboard, etc etc) - it COULD have been done and we wouldn't have to yearn for a TCF. Camp Randall, Kinnick, Michigan Stadium, they're all doing just fine from a fan/recruit perspective.

I agree with those that say the Barn CAN be renovated. The current field house is going to be torn down and rebuilt. Make sure THAT is the future venue for gymnastics, wrestling, and volleyball in addition to indoor track and the club-team usage. Use the Sports Pavilion as the practice facility spot - rotate the court direction to get 2 in there, add a second level with lounges/media rooms, and use some space for weight lifting facilities. Easy. Utilize the south side of the barn (the parking lot) as a gateway in to the building with a second story as someone mentioned for more suites and club rooms. Re-do the inside of the barn to include much better suites, better seats, better concession flow, and modern bathrooms. New scoreboard and ribbon advertising bring a modern feel to a nostalgic arena. The place can be made to be modern while still keeping the history of the place. Building codes? What a crummy excuse - they're gutting the place, right?