New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Season

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Local news story on the new arena from KMTV here in Omaha:

http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Take-a...ear-up-for-customers-291331681.html?lc=Tablet

If you watch this carefully, you can see the progress that has been made in the interior as far as concrete work for seating from other recent videos I have posted.

First sentence of report: ".......starting to take shape........"

LOL, it's 60% complete. Other news sources have said they will make test ice by the end of March.

At the end of the story they duly note this being the 4th facility opening (none of which are expressly for hockey but it is played in all of them) since 2002 here in Omaha, which seat, respectively, for hockey, 4,061, 6,924, 7,800, and 17,100 people. To say nothing of the Omaha Civic Auditorium that is still standing, about to be demolished, at 8,314. There are two other rinks (one of them is actually a dual rink facility with both NHL and Olympic ice that the Lancers used to play in the early days) in Omaha that seat 800 and 1,000 people, respectively.

Anybody need a spare arena?

 

[5thYearFreshman]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

If you are correct, then the school will have revenue "problems" right out of the gate since the revenue projections they released are predicated on selling out every game, at least as far as next season is concerned.

If that is the case, they would be even worse off if they had put 9-10K seats in the arena as there would be little chance of filling it more than twice a year.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I spoke to Pat Morris of the Athletic Department again today. I needed some clarification to my "points" situation. He dropped several tidbits on me.

1. Pat tells me the arena design is very similar to that of AmSoil Arena in Duluth. He mentioned that Coach Kemp also made trips to Agganis Arena at BU, Kelley Rink at BC, as well as to Mathews Arena at Northeastern (a school UNO has never played) to look at their arenas. He said Coach Kemp was particularly impressed with Mathews. School officials also looked at the Ralph and, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I personally witnessed Coach Kemp looking over the facilities in Duluth.

2. I told Pat one of the things I personally don't like about AmSoil is that there are no concessions or restrooms on the upper level. Pat says our building is not going to have them, either.

3. They have held meetings with all donors of a 100 grand or more (there are 32 of these, alone), with all donors of 30 to 99 grand, as well as all that have donated 15 to 29 grand, and they are currently working on the next tier of donors below that. This is as it relates to seat quantities "desired" and where.

4. Almost all club seating is spoken for (but not all). 750 seats times $1,500.00, each

5. I'll reiterate that the first time I spoke to Pat, mentioned earlier in this thread, that he expected all 15 suites available to the "public" will likely be purchased by the 100 grand+ contributors. I've seen commentary (serious or not, I don't know) by UNO fans at Mavpuck who think they are going to put together a consortium of friends/fans and buy a suite. Ain't happenin', folks.

6. He indicated that all remaining individuals to be contacted (the remaining donors and season ticket holders) would have another mailing from the school in the next week or two about the purchasing of their specific seats.

As an aside, he did tell me that my t-17 ranking (meaning tied for 17th) at my donor and season ticket holder level should equate to seats that I'd be happy with.

For any body interested in the overall pricing structure, the 15 suites are 40K or 50K, depending on size, and require a 5 year minimum commitment. As already mentioned, the 750 club seats are 1500 bucks apiece. The other pricing is as follows:

Glass (green): $495.00
Lower "Premier" (orange): $495.00
Lower End Zone (yellow): $455.00
Upper "Premier" (blue): $295.00
Upper End Zone (lilac): $265.00
UNO Students (grey): Free (750 of theses seats in the building)

Seating chart (corresponding colors above):

https://www.facebook.com/MavpuckPag...0082859013724/885317404823596/?type=1&theater

The suites are numbered 1 through 17 on the chart.

Parking will be freebie. Suite and club seating owners will receive "Premier" parking passes.

Once all the people on the current season ticket owner and donor lists have been taken care of (and this appears it will end up being upwards of 5,000 season ticket holders, Pat told me in prior communication), then, and only then will season tickets be made available to the general public. That number includes student tickets, by the way.

And, to reiterate, the school expects that every game next season will be a sell out.

 

[JoeGopher]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

1. Pat tells me the arena design is very similar to that of AmSoil Arena in Duluth. He mentioned that Coach Kemp also made trips to Agganis Arena at BU, Kelley Rink at BC, as well as to Mathews Arena at Northeastern (a school UNO has never played) to look at their arenas. He said Coach Kemp was particularly impressed with Mathews. School officials also looked at the Ralph and, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, I personally witnessed Coach Kemp looking over the facilities in Duluth.

Are you sure he was talking about being impressed with Matthews? I was out there this past November to watch a game and while the place has a fresh coat of paint, it is perhaps one of the worst arena's I have been in for hockey. It's old, has virtually no concessions or bathrooms (it was built in 1910 for crissakes) and I would estimate about 60 - 70% of the seats have either obstructed or terrible views of the ice. It took us about 5 attempts (The arena was pretty empty) to find a seat where we could see about 80% of the ice/action.

I can't imagine anyone would be looking at that place as a model of good.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Are you sure he was talking about being impressed with Matthews? I was out there this past November to watch a game and while the place has a fresh coat of paint, it is perhaps one of the worst arena's I have been in for hockey. It's old, has virtually no concessions or bathrooms (it was built in 1910 for crissakes) and I would estimate about 60 - 70% of the seats have either obstructed or terrible views of the ice. It took us about 5 attempts (The arena was pretty empty) to find a seat where we could see about 80% of the ice/action.

I can't imagine anyone would be looking at that place as a model of good.

I couldn't speak to this, having never been in this facility.

I can tell you that Pat Morris of the UNO's Athletic Department was quite emphatic about this, however. He really went out of his way to mention this particular arena standing out to Coach Kemp during our conversation.

It might not be aesthetically pleasing but, perhaps, there was something about the overall design of Mathews or one particular thing that stuck out to him, even if it is, to paraphrase your comments "lipstick on a pig". It is certainly quite a bit smaller than what UNO is building.

Maybe a Northeastern fan can weigh in, here?

I know Northeastern completed a renovation of the facility in late 2009. That said, the place is about 6 weeks shy of being 105 years old.

It doesn't look awful in this historical timeline on the school's web site:

http://gonu.com/sports/2010/1/28/matthewsarena.aspx

 

[TheRevengeance]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

The NU thread was linked in here, so I'll throw my opinion in. First of all, this is Matthews. The picture is probably a good 5-10 years old and predates the most recent round of renovations and the big new jumbotron, but the basic function of everything about the place remains unchanged. http://www.campusrec.neu.edu/images/matthews.jpg

I've only been to Matthews, UNH, and BC as far as college rinks go (BU is getting added on Friday) but I see the reason for the critical perspective. Matthews is a 100 year old cramped arena with no concessions or bathrooms and a bunch of oddly shaped intricacies. Nobody should build Matthews down to a T ever again. If you're building an arena, I coudn't think of a better place to base it on for a hockey watching experience than starting with Matthews and modernizing it by removing the oddball parts that exist in a 100 year old arena that's also used for basketball and has an abnormally sized ice sheet. You can make the footprint bigger and throw more concessions and bathrooms around the outside, that's no problem. We just don't have the physical space to expand because we'd be expanding into the street. What makes Matthews special to me, and the reason it blows Kelley and Agganis out of the water, is the intimacy of the crowd to the game and in my humble opinion the best view in college hockey. The balcony/higher level starts out at barely twice the height of the glass and is offset only a few feet behind the boards at each goal. It actually starts hoizontally closer to the end boards than the lower bowl does (On the sides of the rink it is curves further out as you can see.) It gives a new meaning to the word "on top of the action" and there isn't a bad place to watch a game the entire way around it. We can and do have conversations with our players from the first row of the upper level while they wait to get on the ice for warmups/each period, to show how close it is for an upper level. As for the lower bowl, "between the 20's" I think the views and sightlines down there are pretty standard. The reason it gets a bad rap is because near and behind the goals, the lower bowl has some odd angles and views, as well as the giant pillars that are staples of 1900 sports stadium architecture (Looking at you, Fenway) that cut into the seating area at some points. But I think all the problems down there are easily fixed by just building a 21st century hockey rink. The cause of most of the problems is that the seating area down there doesn't actually extend all the way to the boards everywhere, and some of the first row-to-boards gaps are easily ten feet. That affects the viewing angle the whole way back when it happens, and frankly it's terrible and reminds me of the sightlines when they have hockey games at Fenway/other baseball stadiums. But that distance issue is easily fixed by just building a rink that fits in the arena (or building an arena that fits around the rink.) The pillars you can get rid of by just using modern engineering. And just like that you're good to go and have views that are no different than the lower bowls everywhere else, while maintaining the uniqueness that the upper level provides.

tl:dr: Matthews has some old quirky parts that can cause just criticism, but a Matthews built in 2015 would be amazing.

And looking at this picture from the news article in post 81 http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Take-a...ear-up-for-customers-291331681.html?lc=Tablet
It looks a lot like what I have pictured in my head and what you guys are building are really similar. So if it really was Matthews influenced, I can certainly see where it came through. For comparison, Kelley and Agganis are both one level of seating that goes up and up like high school gym bleachers. They're newer and shinier, but I'd rather watch a game at an arena that's made for actually watching the game.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Inside_Agganis_Arena.jpg

 

[HumRsky]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Some good pics of Matthews here too: http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/matthews-arena-s1128/images

 

[supertacks]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

I couldn't speak to this, having never been in this facility.

I can tell you that Pat Morris of the UNO's Athletic Department was quite emphatic about this, however. He really went out of his way to mention this particular arena standing out to Coach Kemp during our conversation.

It might not be aesthetically pleasing but, perhaps, there was something about the overall design of Mathews or one particular thing that stuck out to him, even if it is, to paraphrase your comments "lipstick on a pig". It is certainly quite a bit smaller than what UNO is building.

Maybe a Northeastern fan can weigh in, here?

I know Northeastern completed a renovation of the facility in late 2009. That said, the place is about 6 weeks shy of being 105 years old.

It doesn't look awful in this historical timeline on the school's web site:

http://gonu.com/sports/2010/1/28/matthewsarena.aspx

Matthews Arena was originally built for boxing. If you walk around the arena, and sit in several seats, you will quickly realize that every seat has an unobstructed view to center ice. Many seats have poor sightlines to either end of the ice surface. A few seats are next to a large concrete support beam that completely obstructs half the ice, but would be ok for viewing a boxing match at center ice. One of the best features of the building is the first row balcony. You are on top of the action with an excellent view of the entire ice surface. (I recall that many of the balcony seats do not have backs) The way the roof is built and braced, creates an amazing amount of noise, when the building is near capacity. Matthews is a great old barn with a large ice surface (I think it is 200 x 90). If Northeastern could figure out a way to fill it to near capacity (like in the 1980's), it really creates a home ice advantage.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Here and now, I publicly air my desire that UNO call our new barn the "Orena".

Catchy, huh?

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Here is video from inside the new arena from yesterday from WOWT, the NBC affiliate here in Omaha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtIkBDuj-n0

The interior is coming along nicely. First look we've had in a month or so.

Its some measure of how out of touch the local news media here is with UNO hockey, really. The school long ago announced the actual capacity of the new arena is going to be 7,800, instead of the originally announced 7,500, which is the number stated in this piece.

 

[purpleinnebraska]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Here is video from inside the new arena from yesterday from WOWT, the NBC affiliate here in Omaha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtIkBDuj-n0

The interior is coming along nicely. First look we've had in a month or so.

Its some measure of how out of touch the local news media here is with UNO hockey, really. The school long ago announced the actual capacity of the new arena is going to be 7,800, instead of the originally announced 7,500, which is the number stated in this piece.

Looking good! I'll definitely have to sneak down there this year. Rumor is there may be an ASU Saturday-Sunday series in late December. If that's the case, that might be the perfect time to go. Also, are you guys coming to Kato this year?

Best of luck tomorrow!

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Rumor is there may be an ASU Saturday-Sunday series in late December.

Not a rumor. ASU is on the schedule. December 19th & 20th. This is a a Saturday/Sunday series, by the way.

Tickets will be a breeze to get for this game, though:

http://www.gospartans.ca/sports/mice/2014-15/releases/MH_NCAA_Games

I may not even go to this game, myself, and sell my tickets for that night, perhaps. One of the NCAA national semi-final bowl games is almost certainly on this night.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

As of 3:00 P.M., central, today, UNO has 2,480 seats that are still unspoken for in the new arena. There are 2 sections of the building, at this writing, that are sold out and 5 other sections have under 20 seats remaining in them.

Meaning that 4,270 season tickets have been sold, so far, for next season (7,500 - 2,480 left - 750 student seats = 4,270).

The season ticket selection process continues at least through next Friday, the 17th, for existing season ticket holders and One Fund Contributors. I have an idea it may last longer than that since public sale of whatever is left is not commencing until April 27th.

I've been told that there is only a single individual, so far, that has not renewed (or bought even more tickets than they already had) and that is because that person is moving away from Omaha.

Just to reiterate, the student section comprises 750 seats in the building and those 5 sections involved are blocked out from season ticket purchasers. This section is on the lower level at one end of the rink.

And, North Dakota fan, you'll be happy to know the school is going to hold back 500 (seat) tickets every game for sale to the general public, to say nothing of the 300 standing room tickets that will also be available for each night.

Even without UNO's Frozen Four appearance it was likely the team would have sold out every game next season. Now it is a lead pipe cinch and the possibility exists that the entire season gets sold out (well, there IS that stupid Trinity Western game on January 2nd) before the next season even starts, now. If out of town fans want to come to any of their games in our building I think I'd be buying them the day they become available. Local fan demand for the North Dakota series next season, for example, will be high. The out-of-towners are going to be competing with locals for those 800 tickets available on a given night, particularly in high demand situations.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Tickets sales clipping along, steadily, at around 100-125 seats per day (meaning the days the ticket office is open).

At this writing, down to 2,208 left. That means that 4,792 have been sold.

It will be fascinating to see if, by 4-27, the date season tickets are scheduled to be made available to the general public, if there are actually any left to sell (probably). The predetermined point system of the selection process for boosters and current season ticket holders is still ongoing, at least through this upcoming Friday.

The school says it has a public waiting list of season ticket buyers that numbers over 200 names, already.

They are going to cut off season ticket sales at 7,000. Will we get to that number before or after 4-27? My guess is after, but not by very much.

I have heard nothing yet as to when single game ticket sales might commence at all. Since UNO has not publicly revealed it's '15-'16 schedule, as yet, it certainly won't be until after that happens.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Season ticket sales up to 5,515 seats as of 3:30 P.M. Central, today.

1,985 seats left.

Only 7,000 season tickets are going to be available, though.

We know another couple whose "day" for choosing seats is tomorrow, so they are still going through the selection process with One Fund and existing season tickets holders. How far into next week that lasts, I don't know. Presumably through next week, since public sale begins on Monday the 27th.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Final tally on season tickets as of 5:00 P.M. today, prior to sales to the general public. All One Fund and prior season ticket holders, if they have not purchased seats to this point, have now been at least afforded the opportunity to do so.

1,907 seats remain available in the arena.

Season ticket sales are currently, therefore, at 5,593 purchased. Since season ticket sales are going to be cut-off at 7,000 seats, that means that there are 1,407 seats that actually remain available for season ticket purchase by the general public.

Remember, UNO intends to hold back 500 tickets per game for sale to the general public as well as 300 standing room tickets.

FYI, single game tickets are likely to be available for sale on or about August 1st, I have been told by the Athletic Office.

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

In the FWIW category, the UNO Athletic Department says there are no concessions nor restrooms on the second level of our new building, much like Amsoil Arena in Duluth. In fact, there is no upper concourse in the building whatsoever and restrooms are in the corners of the building on the lower level.

Only 14 club seats remain in the entire arena and the naming rights have now been secured by some entity and an announcement is coming up in the near future about that.

Still hoping for the "Orena".

 

[Red Cows]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

Season ticket countdown saga continues.

As of 5:00 P.M today, April 20th, down to 1204 seats remaining for potential purchase as season tickets. 5,296 season tickets have now been sold for next season. That's 297 tickets sold since the same time this past Friday afternoon the 17th.

 

[Biddco]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

In the FWIW category, the UNO Athletic Department says there are no concessions nor restrooms on the second level of our new building, much like Amsoil Arena in Duluth. In fact, there is no upper concourse in the building whatsoever and restrooms are in the corners of the building on the lower level.

Only 14 club seats remain in the entire arena and the naming rights have now been secured by some entity and an announcement is coming up in the near future about that.

Still hoping for the "Orena".

Well of course it's like Amsoil because it looks like almost the same exact stadium plan.

 

[Biddco]

Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea

What's the name of the arena?