People who think Carver is great have never been to another B1G venue.
Carver
- Thread starter hexumhawk
- Start date
Students should be close to the court, first ten rows at least from one end of the court to the other and behind both teams benches and the scorers table. Let them in for free if that’s what it takes to make it a habit. Blue hairs can sit behind them and shut their mouths about sitting down during the game.
Our basketball crowd is really old, I’m damn near 60 and I feel pretty young when I look around during games or when I’m turning around telling people to eff off who are telling me to sit down or be quiet. I will not be silenced by crotchety old prunes. If they create a student section as I described I’ll go stand and yell with them instead of sitting in my seats with the cast and crew of the walking dead.
Our basketball crowd is really old, I’m damn near 60 and I feel pretty young when I look around during games or when I’m turning around telling people to eff off who are telling me to sit down or be quiet. I will not be silenced by crotchety old prunes. If they create a student section as I described I’ll go stand and yell with them instead of sitting in my seats with the cast and crew of the walking dead.
It’s better than Minnesota and at least before the remodel, better than Northwestern too.
Carver is fine if it is full. How many of the people on here bitching actually go to the games ? Probably very few I bet. Get your ass to the games !
I remember that game! It's a great example that Carver can get loud, but would be much easier if make some of the changes others have recommended above like putting in suites around the top to enclose sound & replace the blue hairs with students closer to the court.
The real highlight of that video though is the cheezy Bud commercial around the 1:43 mark.
I always remembered it loud in the 90's and have to think there is a template to follow or at least part of it. I can't recall as much the 2000's with Alford's Hawk Nest.
When I was at Iowa (1999-2003), going to basketball and football was a must. Both were packed most of the time, and football was down for a portion of that. Basketball was a winter tradition for the students. Did that change while Lickleiter was coach and never recover? It seemed like Alford still drew a large crowd despite the controversies during his reign.
The thing that drives me most crazy about Carver is the space between the court and the seats. It almost reminds me of a football field with a track around it before you get to the bleachers. I don’t understand why it was designed that way.
I also went to the game at Mackey a few weeks ago and was incredibly impressed. I get it’s a basketball school but you felt close to the action even at the top of the arena.
I also went to the game at Mackey a few weeks ago and was incredibly impressed. I get it’s a basketball school but you felt close to the action even at the top of the arena.
I have been saying this for 10 years. Put in suites for the high rollers. Lose capacity but make up for it for increased revenue from the suites. Carver would be louder. It would solve the problem for 'fans' leaving early ,then gawking from the concourse.
The die was cast for this problem when wrestling exerted a big influence on the arena design because they wanted a floor design ideal for hosting tournaments. The seats are too f***ing far back from the court. and the bowl is too wide.
Disagree? Google photos of nearly any other arena in the B1G and see how close the stands are to the court and how much closer the upper level is.
Spare me the "CHA won awards for its architecture" crap. That was from an architect's perspective on how they fit it into an existing terain and made it's above ground footprint minimal. It had ZERO to do with whether it was a great design for a basketball arena.
I was lining up for good seats from 03-07 for at least 2 hrs before gates opened. It's the crowd now.
It’s the product on the court… Iowa vs. Penn State wrestling a few years ago was insane. Iowa truly has not been that good in basketball since the Davis days. Lick, Alford, Fran… We’ve been an average program for 20+ years. Yes, changes could be made re: student seating, etc., but it’s the product that brings the noise.
There was an NIT game a few years ago, when Iowa was getting better under Fran, where the tickets were completely opened up to anyone, and the atmosphere for that game was great. I remember an Aaron White dunkfest.
I may be wrong but ISU makes the sports pkg a part of their tuition when they sign up don't they? and I think that practice has come under some fire in recent years as well?
Regardless--the students at ISU have long been more involved in bball than those at IA. Fball--just the opposite--10k students there...
this as well, when Dakich is quoted as saying this is the crowd they should let in all the time--says it all right there.
I think what has happened is the seats are all taken by those that are donors and then for most games these people do not show up and are not able to get anyone to use their tickets.
Plus Fran has never shown any desire to actually get out and sell his program in the community--just seems to do the required I club tour stops and even then Barta has cut those back from when and where they used to be....
It was more than wrestling, it was the desire to have concerts which contributed to the floor design and the acoustics. Removing the middle concourse was one of many changes that ended up being poor choices. It was the desire to create a multi purpose location. The naming rights were also a significant fundamental change from the original plan.
Jfc! They have buses them there for free, gave them free pizza, free noise makers, wavy tubes, signs, contests for free stuff and sat at different sections through out the year. It doesn't work.
Why don't you buy season tickets, show up and help the attendance and noise level!
Reply: 6,000,0000
No it looks real bad on TV when they no show and all the empty seats.
And my experience has been the exact opposite. Not nearly as many “blue hairs” as people claim (I’m 63, by the way). I have also never heard anyone yell at someone else to sit down or be quiet. I’m sure it happens, but not as much as people claim. The vast majority know when it is appropriate to stand, and when it’s not.
Now for my old man rant….anyone who stands the entire game is an inconsiderate jerk who should be thrown out of the arena.
Another factor was the overreaction to one of the complaints about the old Fieldhouse. "It takes forever to get out following the game" was something many of the high end season ticket holders mentioned in surveys. So, of course they way overcompensate and we get Carver Hawk-aisle arena...as someone once put it.
In some sections there's an aisle....6 seats...another aisle SIX SEATS! All that open space is an intensity killer. Look at other basketball arenas you won't see anything of this sort. Even half way up the bowl the rows are only 10 seats between aisles. The thing is way too broken up.
Not sure what the concert angle has to do with it. You can have a concert in most any major indoor sports arena. Nothing special in the design of CHA that makes it better. The Kohl center in Madison is multipurpose (including hockey). It doesn't have the drawbacks of CHA. Same with the Shottenstein Center at tOSU.
CHA is our version of the metrodome...it was designed with too much compromise and outdated the day it opened. The evidence...is all the changes they've tried to make since it opened. A well-designed building doesn't require constant refit and upgrade attempts. The place started falling apart (literally) shortly after it was built. (The floor sagged and cracked)
Concerts were part of the consideration for the size of the open space before the bowl starts. It was also part of the acoustical design which allows noise to get out and the material they originally used n the ceiling for better acoustics rather than noise level.
You mean the guy who made it to the Final Four and won the Big Ten while playing at The Field House? He didn't need the Taj Mahal to be successful. Maybe get a coach in here in the last 4+ decades who can win the Big Ten and doesn't think making it to the round of 32 is a big deal. Maybe then fans will get excited again.
Do you go to games???? What students?? The band? Pep squad??
For those who are asking 'do you go to the games?' Iowa's schedule this year sucks and isn't at all convenient for out of town fans to come to games.
Iowa has 2 Saturday games all year. One of them was last night in Sioux Falls. I want to come to games but it's a 4 hr+ drive. The schedule makers didn't do out-of-towners any favors with late Sunday or weeknight games. Half of the conf schedule there's no weekend Iowa bball at all. For comparison ISU has Saturday games every week from Jan. til tourny time, with a half dozen or more home games.
I live in a midwest town comparable to IC. The civic center here was built in the early 80's, around the same time as Carver was. And like Carver, it was in desperate need of renovation. It finally got it and now it looks great. Carver needs the same, inside and out.
Iowa basketball as a brand leaves so much to be desired.
Iowa has 2 Saturday games all year. One of them was last night in Sioux Falls. I want to come to games but it's a 4 hr+ drive. The schedule makers didn't do out-of-towners any favors with late Sunday or weeknight games. Half of the conf schedule there's no weekend Iowa bball at all. For comparison ISU has Saturday games every week from Jan. til tourny time, with a half dozen or more home games.
I live in a midwest town comparable to IC. The civic center here was built in the early 80's, around the same time as Carver was. And like Carver, it was in desperate need of renovation. It finally got it and now it looks great. Carver needs the same, inside and out.
Iowa basketball as a brand leaves so much to be desired.
I agree with the scheduling……it is terrible. There needs to be more Saturday games. Fewer weeknight games that start later than 7:00.
I just wish all of those fans that have the premium seats and just don't show up would consider not renewing them and let some fans that want to be there move on down. There was no valid excuse to not show up today. Decent weather, no snow or ice, Saturday afternoon, etc. Does just having the tickets serve as some sort of status symbol?
If people don't show up, I'd rather have the lower seats filled.
Or turn them back in. Or donate them to the Ronald McDonald house. We have done that and some great families had a chance to get away from the sadness in their lives for a few hours.
