TCU Basketball Not Ready for Prime Time

[PonyKai]

I don't think it's such a poor use of resources.

[Charleston Pony]

there are several schools around the country that have arenas cut from that same basic circular design that TCU had to work with and remember that Moody was not unique (same basic design as Cameron Indoor at Duke). We made major changes to accommodate those willing to pay more for more comfortable seating and ultimately to boost revenue through the new design, despite a lower seating capacity. The acoustics were always better at Moody than almost any other facility we have played in. As for the level of opening game excitement at TCU vs SMU...to be fair, we opened against a much more attractive opponent than Abilene Christian.

[StallionsModelT]

Good God that looks awful.

[Topper]

Reed, are the TCU bigwigs happy with Johnson? In his fourth season at TCU, he doesn't seem to be doing much to improve the program, and I haven't noticed TCU landing any significant recruits lately. Josh Parrish is a nice player, but I don't think he's a program changer. Just curious if he is feeling any heat?

I think he is feeling a moderate level of heat. A lot of people (myself included) don't think he is the right guy but I also think you have to give him at least one season with the new facilities. The guy has been recruiting to a HS gym so the results should not be surprising. Our style of play is boring and that doesn't matter where you play your games.

I really think that injuries to Washburn and Williams (2 starters) derailed the season before it started. With those guys I think we have enough to make postseason play. Without them we will win 4-6 games in conference and finish under .500 based on what I have seen. We do have a couple of promising younger players for a change (Trent and Brodziansky) but we lack athleticism. We must have the fewest dunks of any college bball team in the country over the last 4 years.

As for the arena...it is a vast improvement. Short of imploding and starting over, they did a great job.

Looks much better I'm just not a fan of bowl basketball arenas. On the other hand, envious of your football stadium. It is a great look and a perfect size. I sat in a booth at lunch a few months ago next to a couple of high school fb coaches who compared notes on what their kids thought about their recruiting trips. They loved TCUs facilities.

[DanFreibergerForHeisman]

TCU's football stadium has great concourses too.

Are they as good in the new basketball arena?

[CalallenStang]

Well if you can do a top notch reno for ~90M and a tear down/rebuild for ~160 million, I'm sure as hell not going to boosters for the additional ~70M just to deal with the structure. Nothing to do with the economy, or hoops support from boosters, just a poor use of a limited resource.

You can do a tear down/rebuild that's really nice for much less than $160 mil. See Auburn

[PonyKai]

Reed mentioned that the figure for a tear down and rebuild incorporating what the final design had would run ~160M. You can take that with a grain of salt, but he would know more than I do on the project.

[East Coast Mustang]

How much did they spend? It doesnt look any different to me

[CalallenStang]

Reed mentioned that the figure for a tear down and rebuild incorporating what the final design had would run ~160M. You can take that with a grain of salt, but he would know more than I do on the project.

I know that is what they said, but I don't think they priced it out well. Somewhere someone got a bad quote on the project

[ReedFrawg]

Since some of you are curious, the arena itself looks relatively similar. Fresh paint, better seats, much better lighting, and much better sound system and video boards. The big difference is everything else - very wide concourses, new bathrooms, concession areas (food courts) so there are no lines in the concourse, plus all the locker rooms, mtg rooms, etc. The highlight is the large main entry with a great Hall of Fame area with bowl trophies, all americans, heisman trophy, pics of guys in the pros, etc for all sports. It's a cool area and should get a lot of use on both football and basketball game days.

It's very well done. The arena is what it is...and I don't care for the court design.

As for funds, I am not privy to all of it but TCU doesn't start these projects until every dollar is in the bank (not just committed) so I guess they used the funds they had and the full implosion must have simply been cost prohibitive.

[SMUer]

Bringing the sideline seating up to the actual sideline finally made it look like a basketball stadium instead of a rodeo arena hosting a basketball game. Good job.