5) the game day experience SUCKS. I was in town for thanksgiving so I went for the first time this season with somebody who’s never been to a VU game before. Their first comment when we walked in was “this is a D1 school? My high school gym was nicer than this”. The concessions SUCK. Absolute garbage. Popcorn is stale, dry, and flavorless. Tastes like packing peanuts. The pretzel was essentially sawdust held together by water and Elmer’s glue. The workers are clueless, you have to order 3 or 4 times before you get what you want. We asked for a lemonade and were given a spiked Simply Lemonade. Why was the scoreboard changed to show a love of the game during the game? It only shows stats during timeouts. Who is craning their neck to watch the game on the video board when they could just look straight ahead, the mice in the mezzanine section? Also, how are bleacher tickets TWENTY DOLLARS??
I was always of the opinion that BF had the best popcorn in city limits🤣. However this is the reason why it is a tough argument as to where future investments go. The ARC was dated 10 years ago and has had its fair share of issues in recent years. So the question becomes... Do you pump money into NIL and just stick with a rundown gym and less than ideal gameday experience, or do you get a completely new building and gut the old gym for parts. The fact of the matter is, any improvements you do to the building at this point is putting sprinkles on a pile of horse poop. I don't blame Van Wagner for their production, they simply just dont have a whole lot to work with. The "Camera Well" is the running track for for pete's sake! I've spent my fair share of years in that building helping family run the Area 1 Basketball Tournament for Special Olympics and even all those years ago there were multiple issues with the building. On another note, Paul made some decent points on this in his feature with March to Arch. Id give it a listen. My current prediction is that Wintrust Arena will see a better turn out for VU fans than the ARC, purely because Wintrust is a better environment entirely.
I am personally of the mindset that the ARC just needs to be done away with, hilltop turned into a volleyball facility, the ARC completely turned into a rec center, and a new arena/practice facility built, but alas. The school does not have infinite money to work with to suit fantasy
I don't blame Van Wagner for their production, they simply just dont have a whole lot to work with.
Yet somehow Valpo was able to have a better game day experience in the same building in the time before Van Wagner. Weird.
Today, I think a win is a win.
I watched the second half first and was feeling great about our bench development. Then I got around to watching the first half and much of my boosted confidence evaporated.That was nice. Way to spread the ball around. A good confidence booster. It's been too long since we've clobbered a D1 opponent.
In general I saw some good, some bad and some real glimpses of hope for our future.
@mj08 I really think this can be attributed to just how dated the building is. A lot of the other small time schools that Van Wagner works with have multitudes better gameday experiences. (Gonzaga to name an example). However a major outlier here is, a lot of these schools have invested a lot of money in care for their old venues and retrofitted them with a lot of newer tech and luxuries. VU, historically, has kind of just left the ARC to sit and rot and it really shows in the gameday experience. The building just feels old, and not in a classic way.
There is zero money nor a capital campaign. Stop the new facility talk. Nor could they get a loan or want one with current rates.
Best case scenario would be 7 years to start.
If a substantial donor came forward but a contract requirement for the donation is bringing the Crusader back, would the University do it?
@nocru Wow! Its almost like I said exactly that! Thee isn't money. We know there isn't money. Being mad doesn't do anything top further conversation. Also no. That would also require ponying up the money to do another full scale rebrand. The Crusader is gone. However you align yourself on the topic, he is gone. I think some are just going to have to deal with that fact.
