We've had the best experiences and some bad experiences with HC's. In our recent bad experience.....With Gould everything looked good coming in (great recruiter, attitude, energy, resume), but it never translated into W's.
One thing Marion has that Gould didn't was the immediate impact the portal can make.
Like I said previously, Marion has a tall task getting all these guys settled in, on the same page, and doing what they are supposed to do on and off the field in a super short amount of time. This would be a masterclass in motivation and leadership.
This was a cool, but weird "clickbaity" write up... Prepare yourselves Aggies, I am telling you there is real substance to the Sac12 movement. Heads will spin when the announcement is made. And it's gonna be insane to see a FBS (MWC) v. FBS (PAC) Causeway Classic in the next five years.
I don’t mean this as a insult to Sac but if the Pac12 is having to grab a FCS school to be fill out it’s football obligation, they are a bit desperate. Any FCS school.
Late to the party but wanted to chime in on the Rec Hall / Pavilion renovations.
We had the opportunity to turn the joint into more of a Maples Pavilion type facility and totally blew it. Maples isn’t as elongated along the length of the court but still has a similar setup with the lower level separated from loge and upper levels which are accessible by the same concourse.
The upper pull-out seats with ginormous gaps between sections was a horrible oversight and looks half-hearted (I’d use another word, but…). Yes there are emergency exits up there but nobody clearly asked the question as to how wide and what kind of vertical clearance they required; that would have allowed the seats, if they still needed to be pull-outs, to maintain horizontal connectivity and not look temporary.
Agreed on the center-hung scoreboard, but at least the video board on the one end appears from a distance to be better than the boards that were previously attached in the corners.
this is a venue I worked on designing. I drew some inspiration from the Pavilion actually, but replaced the loge seats with a flexible suite/box level, stacked a fixed upper bowl on top, and moved the concourse behind the seating. It’s about 8000 seats. Not sure if the Pavilion has the vertical clearance to rework like this. We determined in this case it was more cost effective to narrow the function of the arena and build a 100,000sf expo hall adjacent than to add more transformable elements.
Makes sense! Something like that would be ideal depending on funding/budget, but by what was renovated I assumed that it was far too small for something like that.
it seems like the problem with the Rec Hall (going way back) was that it was a multi functional space. Basketball arena, but with all that open space up top for classes, indoor running, etc. The foldout bleachers feel like they are there only for graduation (and those early ESPN Games). Even with a good crowd it never feels very full.
The previous top bleachers that closed towards the court made it more intimate, seating what, 3500? It seemed to hold the noise in, too.
Reducing seating capacity seems like it was a disaster. There had to be other options. So now the community doesn't get the big concerts, and graduation seating is more limited.
I preferred the large numbers over the exits, and the IM photographs. It's current use seems surprisingly limited.
I liked the old configuration better too. My guess is that the new configuration better suits Campus Rec uses. Until the 2000s, the Pavilion/Rec Hall housed all functions of the ARC under its roof. They found a way to use every square foot and its size and scope were light years anything our D2 contemporaries had in the 1970s. It’s been nearly 50 years and it’s still probably one of the more capable venues in the Big West. Probably bottom third of MWC. Open question if it is worth a major renovation or if it makes more sense to fully absorb it as part of the ARC and build a new major venue in the next 10-15 years.
It seems Campus Rec and ICA control a lot of its activity, but it was built for students. Are physical education classes (or their substitutes) still held there?
I don't see a need for a larger venue, but many DI coaches want a "basketball only" facility.