Arena?

[b.mann]

I attended the Hartford Alumni Gathering this evening; we had quite the crowd. McShane spoke, eloquently, about Fordham and its mission and said that the public phase of the fundraising campaign would be announced at the Waldorf a week from Monday. He hopes to have 260 million in pledges by then and proceeded to show artists' renderings of the new law school, the Lincoln Center dormitory, residence halls at Rose Hill, the revamping of McGinley, and a new rec center. All of these were stunning...at least in their conceptual forms. But there was no mention of a new arena at all. Somewhere on this board there are suggestions that Phase III of the project includes such an arena. Does anybody know anything more definitively? GO RAMS!

[John]

There is a little line-drawing of an arena in one of the schematics for the Student Life complex [a title that ominously suggests it would fall under the control of one Jeff Gray]. Nothing you couldn't do with a pencil and a straight-edge.

Odds that it gets built before the heat-death of the universe are running about 50-50 right now.

[ramfan01]

Better chance of randomly selecting all 64 games.

[Bronx Boy]

Odds that it gets built before the heat death of the universe are running about 50 - 50 right now.

Those are optimistic odds, John.

[ayteefie]

But there was no mention of a new arena at all. Somewhere on this board there are suggestions that Phase III of the project includes such an arena. Does anybody know anything more definitively? GO RAMS!

Nobody asked McShane that question?

[room 106]

This isn't worthy of a thread but I had to put it somewhere. Why can't we attract players as good as Siena / North Dakota State / Cleveland State and don't give me that admissions crap. We all know that kids have gotten in who were borderline. Is every Musketeer a scholar, heck no but they "coach em up" and "school em up." How sweet would our morning coffee be if we had knocked off Ohio State or Wake ( actually the Rams effort often resembled the Deacons', but that's because Dino is an idiot who can recruit but can't coach and knows how to distance himself from his players. Wait, maybe that's the Rams' model ?). What a great recruiting mantra we could have created if we were the Saints - "Harvard during the week and beating Ohio State on Saturday". It was after midnight when Moore's jumper went in, just moments before he told whoever was left watching that "Siena has a great program and a great coach." How sweet would that Danish be now ? If you're one of the Fordhams of the world - oh, that's right there aren't any others - How do you not pull your players into a really dark room today and show them video of the Sienas, Cleveland States and North Dakota States of the world and ask them - Don't you want to be these guys ? What are you willing to do to get there ? And if you don't see the right look in their eyes you know you need different players.

[The Grinch]

Room106 - Agreed.  I don't want to hear about admission requirements or facilities.  There is no reason we can't be a Cleveland St., Siena, or heck American U.

[John]

The answers to your questions about Siena, Cleveland State and North Dakota State, respectively, are: facilities, facilities and facilities.

Siena is hardly Harvard during the week. It's hardly Hofstra during the week. But it does have access to the Times Union Arena (formerly the Pepsi arena), a 19-year old county-owned facility that can hold 10,000 for hoops. Someone in Albany county, seeing the lack of a modern convocation center, had the brains and foresight to build that arena.

Cleveland State occupies a 13,000+ seat campus arena, the largest college-owned arena in the State of Ohio. Someone had the foresight to secure funding for that arena.

North Dakota State's Bison Arena, opened in 1970, holds 8,000 for hoops. They had an old field house that seated 2,100. They renovated it and gave it to the volleyball team as a homecourt. Someone had the foresight to build and renovate those facilities.

Fordham, on the other hand, has for decades lacked anyone with the foresight, dedication or energy to consider the creation of a new facility for convocations. As a result, we have to hold things like grauation ceremonies outdoors for those decades. We have no mid-sized convocation facilities in the metropolitan area available to us. MSG, which we allowed to oust us, would also come down feet first on anyone who tried to build such a facility for the public [look at the Jets' Manhattan stadium proposal, a much better idea than the beast being constructed in the swamps].

Other schools, recognizing the need, would empanel a group of alumni and advisers to tackle the problems. Other schools say, "How can we?" Fordham just says "We can't", "We can't now", "Maybe someday", or "Perhaps we should just give it up altogether." Even if there were no sports, this school would still lack a facility big enough to house its graduation ceremony. Even primitive man built shelter for his gatherings.

We've going into someone's Silver Anniversary Year. We can hang some banners:

FORDHAM -- 125 YEARS OF FOOTBALL
FORDHAM -- 150 YEARS OF BASEBALL
FORDHAM -- 25 YEARS OF BRAINLESS, WEAK ATHLETIC MANAGEMENT

[T1L]

The problem is that those teams have coaches who can maximize their players abilities, both by teaching and coaching them to develop their physical skills, and by motivating and inspiring to get great effort, focus and determination out of them.

The frustrating part is that I bet a fair share of our players over DW's tenure have been more physically talented than a lot of players from these successful mid-majors. Not saying our whole roster, but a good portion of our contributors. It's just that their skills were never cultivated and their potential has gone to waste because DW is not capable of helping them attain it. That's why it doesn't matter how good our incoming recruits are supposed to be; chances are, they are going to underachieve under DW.

[ace93]

room 1006, I agree and I am sure most of us have had similar thoughts recently.

I am a little bit concerned about that breakfast of yours though.

[fordahmballer]

That's why we need a new coach...if we can keep the talent we have coming in, and actually have someone who can coach them. We have a chance to be good very soon!

[kenman]

Room 106, thanks for that rundown on the arenas.  My post is just another weak echo of the other guys' posts which mused on how sweet it would be to wake up and read a headline with "Fordham" instead of "Siena."  And also to recognize ayeteefie's very, very insightful question: "Did anyone ask McShane about the arena?"  No, basically we just sit around (me too, of course) and take it... and wish we were Siena or Dayton or....

[RAM71]

Let's go easy on Father McShane today. He must be disappointed in his alma mater's loss last night (How many goals did we score?)

[ayteefie]

What?   Rambacker stated a few weeks ago it was planned, I guess McShane needs to speak with Rambacker to get information.

[rambacker]

What?   Rambacker stated a few weeks ago it was planned, I guess McShane needs to speak with Rambacker to get information.

Yeah, and "Jio Fontan is the worst point guard in the A-10!"(quote from 85).  I think we should rely on you for information.