The arena is all we need to be in place in 3 1/2 years, as the downtown hotel and restaurant/bar options are already light years ahead of where it was back in the old tourney days. Would be easy, also, for the city/event to coordinate a trolley car shuttle route from the arena throughout downtown. Also, a no brainer for the CAA HQ office having it in their backyard. With the Richmond Convention Center next door, plenty of space to hold a CAA kids and party zone.

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17,500 seems huge, I get they can make it smaller for the CAA Tournament or whatever, but what events are they gonna host that'll draw 17k? That'd take 1/12th of the people in the city to fill up

They are located in the center of the East Coast. Very attractive for things like the NCAA Tourney, with good airport, good food scene and plenty of hotel rooms.

Richmond is also an Amtrak stop, as well as being at the intersection of a major east-west interstate, and a major north-south interstate.

Looks more like a practice facility than an arena. Not impressed.

https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/vid...nd-mystics

I disagree, the arena is a bit small, but I think it looks nice and modern.

Rather have a new smaller arena that's full than a huge arena that's 3/4 empty.

Will be a good idea to get the tourney ticket package next year.

Here is a link to the actual arena. They dont really have a name for it.

Small and modern, yes, but this just seems a bit too small for a conference championship. It is essentially half the size of Kaplan, not just in seating, but also concourse space, concessions etc. Seems like it will be cramped. We will see.

https://esaontherise.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEBAcZ5VPNc

I've checked out a few GoGo games on ESPN+; it looks very professional on TV, for whatever that's worth.

Here's what you will get with the new arena.

Location is not the best in terms of things to do or hotels. You can take the metro from downtown or Uber.
Seats are all close to the court, so no bad seats.
Locker rooms, training facilities, meeting rooms are all modern.

4500 seats is more than plenty. Don't be surprised if you have to get tickets for each game rather than for the whole day for days 1 and 2. Day three and 4 will never attract 4500 fans given the location. Having it in Charleston was a terrible idea in hindsight given the home advantage for one team.

I still vote for having a rotation with each team hosting every 10 years. Teams could opt out if they don't want to host or host at an alternative location to their home arena.

(04-08-2019 09:46 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Here's what you will get with the new arena.

Location is not the best in terms of things to do or hotels. You can take the metro from downtown or Uber.
Seats are all close to the court, so no bad seats.
Locker rooms, training facilities, meeting rooms are all modern.

4500 seats is more than plenty. Don't be surprised if you have to get tickets for each game rather than for the whole day for days 1 and 2. Day three and 4 will never attract 4500 fans given the location. Having it in Charleston was a terrible idea in hindsight given the home advantage for one team.

I still vote for having a rotation with each team hosting every 10 years. Teams could opt out if they don't want to host or host at an alternative location to their home arena.
If JMU and W&M play for the championship the arena will not hold the people. JMU had 8,000 fans at the Richmond Coliseum the last time we won the championship.
I am all for another location but this arena is way too small.

Since ODU/VCU/Mason left the conference, there can't have been more than one or two tourney games (if even that many) that have drawn more than 4,500. I know the attendance numbers for some are listed as higher than that, but that's counting tickets distributed (including many free ones to groups), not people actually there. This arena seems like the perfect size and location.

(04-08-2019 09:46 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Here's what you will get with the new arena.

Location is not the best in terms of things to do or hotels. You can take the metro from downtown or Uber.
Seats are all close to the court, so no bad seats.
Locker rooms, training facilities, meeting rooms are all modern.

4500 seats is more than plenty. Don't be surprised if you have to get tickets for each game rather than for the whole day for days 1 and 2. Day three and 4 will never attract 4500 fans given the location. Having it in Charleston was a terrible idea in hindsight given the home advantage for one team.

I still vote for having a rotation with each team hosting every 10 years. Teams could opt out if they don't want to host or host at an alternative location to their home arena.

Not sure you can square saying Charleston was terrible for giving the Cougars home court advantage and then suggest rotating to campus sights.

Charleston was chosen to help ease the Cougars into the CAA, a good decision overall. CoC and UNCW helped support decent attendance in the three years there. Charleston as a weekend destination was also outstanding. The arena was surrounded by hotels. Trips into the historic quarter were easy. It's one of the country's most beautiful cities, we are lucky to have a CAA presence there.

I like the DC location, it's geographically as good as it gets for the CAA. Given a choice in DC between a 4700 new arena and an 18,000 arena, we were smart to take the former. While we had only 2 Championship games in CAA history with attendance below 4,500 (this year being one), even the old days of the CAA wouldn't fill the bigger DC arena.

Home sights to me are for bottom feeder leagues who can't muster a central tourney location. If any of them could, they would. We still can and it is a great weekend and a great showcase for the CAA.

Also, for the players, it's alot more fun to be playing in a packed house. I bet it could even be a recruiting tool - showing the conference tournament packed with Tribe fans.

(04-08-2019 12:40 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  

(04-08-2019 09:46 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Here's what you will get with the new arena.

Location is not the best in terms of things to do or hotels. You can take the metro from downtown or Uber.
Seats are all close to the court, so no bad seats.
Locker rooms, training facilities, meeting rooms are all modern.

4500 seats is more than plenty. Don't be surprised if you have to get tickets for each game rather than for the whole day for days 1 and 2. Day three and 4 will never attract 4500 fans given the location. Having it in Charleston was a terrible idea in hindsight given the home advantage for one team.

I still vote for having a rotation with each team hosting every 10 years. Teams could opt out if they don't want to host or host at an alternative location to their home arena.

Not sure you can square saying Charleston was terrible for giving the Cougars home court advantage and then suggest rotating to campus sights.

Charleston was chosen to help ease the Cougars into the CAA, a good decision overall. CoC and UNCW helped support decent attendance in the three years there. Charleston as a weekend destination was also outstanding. The arena was surrounded by hotels. Trips into the historic quarter were easy. It's one of the country's most beautiful cities, we are lucky to have a CAA presence there.

I like the DC location, it's geographically as good as it gets for the CAA. Given a choice in DC between a 4700 new arena and an 18,000 arena, we were smart to take the former. While we had only 2 Championship games in CAA history with attendance below 4,500 (this year being one), even the old days of the CAA wouldn't fill the bigger DC arena.

Home sights to me are for bottom feeder leagues who can't muster a central tourney location. If any of them could, they would. We still can and it is a great weekend and a great showcase for the CAA.

Terrible because it was several years. Once every ten years is a different ball game. Having a neutral site is great for teams near that neutral site, but it get's tough for teams that are far. Honestly, most of our competitors don't travel well anyway so it only matters when the geography sets up for an unfair advantage. Rotating sites solves a lot of this.

(04-08-2019 02:51 PM)Tribe32 Wrote:  

(04-08-2019 12:40 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  

(04-08-2019 09:46 AM)Tribe32 Wrote:  Here's what you will get with the new arena.

Location is not the best in terms of things to do or hotels. You can take the metro from downtown or Uber.
Seats are all close to the court, so no bad seats.
Locker rooms, training facilities, meeting rooms are all modern.

4500 seats is more than plenty. Don't be surprised if you have to get tickets for each game rather than for the whole day for days 1 and 2. Day three and 4 will never attract 4500 fans given the location. Having it in Charleston was a terrible idea in hindsight given the home advantage for one team.

I still vote for having a rotation with each team hosting every 10 years. Teams could opt out if they don't want to host or host at an alternative location to their home arena.

Not sure you can square saying Charleston was terrible for giving the Cougars home court advantage and then suggest rotating to campus sights.

Charleston was chosen to help ease the Cougars into the CAA, a good decision overall. CoC and UNCW helped support decent attendance in the three years there. Charleston as a weekend destination was also outstanding. The arena was surrounded by hotels. Trips into the historic quarter were easy. It's one of the country's most beautiful cities, we are lucky to have a CAA presence there.

I like the DC location, it's geographically as good as it gets for the CAA. Given a choice in DC between a 4700 new arena and an 18,000 arena, we were smart to take the former. While we had only 2 Championship games in CAA history with attendance below 4,500 (this year being one), even the old days of the CAA wouldn't fill the bigger DC arena.

Home sights to me are for bottom feeder leagues who can't muster a central tourney location. If any of them could, they would. We still can and it is a great weekend and a great showcase for the CAA.

Terrible because it was several years. Once every ten years is a different ball game. Having a neutral site is great for teams near that neutral site, but it get's tough for teams that are far. Honestly, most of our competitors don't travel well anyway so it only matters when the geography sets up for an unfair advantage. Rotating sites solves a lot of this.

Three years because of the contract.

Fact is the top three drawing teams in the CAA are Charleston, UNCW and W&M - in that order. Beyond the top three, it drops pretty quick. Charleston worked because the top two were nearby. DC will work if W&M is in the top 4 mix. Secondarily, Towson, JMU, Delaware and Drexel. I'm expecting it will be similar to Baltimore where we pretty much dominated the gate.

Many uncw fans do not care to go to this venue in dc.

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That's good for us

(04-08-2019 07:23 AM)nogretheogre Wrote:  Here is a link to the actual arena. They dont really have a name for it.

Small and modern, yes, but this just seems a bit too small for a conference championship. It is essentially half the size of Kaplan, not just in seating, but also concourse space, concessions etc. Seems like it will be cramped. We will see.

https://esaontherise.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEBAcZ5VPNc

Viewed the same link and reached similar conclusion.