Raise the Roof (or Lower the Floor)

[Veritas]

Shox are going to need a larger arena.
Should WSU keep it as is, add suites, raise the roof, or do as TCU did and lower the floor?

http://www.star-telegram.com/sports/article3834665.html

[shoxplode]

What happened to the idea of luxury boxes discussed 3 years ago?

[AndShock]

Koch Arena is perfect as is. Look at the top row, especially Section 125 and 126.

[Aargh]

If you raise the roof or lower the flooor, you get a wall. You don't get more seating. raising the roof without increasing the circumference doesn't give any way to support a second tier of seats unless you build a whole bunch of pillars to support the upper tier. That's butt ugly.

To maintain a round shape and increase the seating, you'd have to increase the circumference enough so the second tier could be anchored into the ground. That would require an upper tier above and behind the current bowl of seats. Putting another tier above the current seating without going further out and back is probably not workable. The roof is already at or near its capacity to support weight.

Adding seating on the east side would require demolition of existing facilities and offices and a complete rebuild of those. Seats could be added on the west side without destroying existing structures, but that would make for a really weird shape .

Adding seats for an on campus facility would probably require complete demolition and an entirely new facility designed and built.

The latest renovation cost $25 mill. Schaus evaluated adding seating capacity. That design would have been $50 million and it was Schaus's opinion that that amount could not be raised, so he went with the lower figure and pretty much created a permanent maximum seating for the on campus facility.

[WheatShock]

It doesn't seem like lowering the floor would gain very many seats and I suspect that the cost of raising the roof would be high enough to justify building a whole new arena.

Honestly I think we should keep what we have for a while, the roundhouse has plenty of life left in her.

[Aargh]

What happened to the idea of luxury boxes discussed 3 years ago?

Want to knock out maybe 500 seats to put in maybe 100?

[shoxplode]

I don’t but Coach Marshall was on board with the idea.

[ShockerEngr]

Want to knock out maybe 500 seats to put in maybe 100?

The plan they showed had the luxury boxes above the existing roofline, only two rows were affected.

[Veritas]

One thing I noticed about TCU’s renovation is that it no longer has that “Roundhouse” feel to it. WSU’s “Roundhouse” has in itself become a national brand.

[ShockTalk]

Last I knew, there was no longer a waiting line for season tickets.

[60Shock]

Shock Talk, just wondering with the success WSU has had over the last 10 years, one would wonder (maybe just me) why there is no longer a waiting line for seats?

Certainly, a number of older fans may have passed over the years, but the increase in Wichita's population and the tremendous success of the program should have increased as well.

Just curious.

[1972Shocker]

I don't see how lowering the floor would had that many seat plus I am not sure how feasible it is to lower the floor due to water table concerns. The volleyball team use to have an above ground net system that looked something like this:



This worked well but at the time players were allowed to run around and under the net to save balls and the NCAA wanted the less instrusive in ground systems which the Shocks now have in place in order to be considered for post-season hosting duties:

http://www.goshockers.com/news/2018/...ttendance.aspx

The Shockers deliberated over this for several years before final installing the current below floor level support systems and my understanding was that issues with the water table were a concern. On the positive side I think the Koch Arena floor would float it they id manage to flood the arena.

Bottom line is I am not sure how much, if any, they could lower the floor without encountering real or potential problems with the water table.

[wufan]

FWIW TCUs arena capacity increased from 7200 to 8500 with the renovations.

[bleed yellow]

Oklahoma State raised the roof and personally I think the inside looks a little awkward architecture wise.. By the sounds of that situation though, they had quite the debate to either raise the roof of build anew.

[Aargh]

If anyone is looking at what a school with BCS football money can do and wanting anything resembling that in facilities at WSU, you're going to be terribly disappointed.

[DwShock]

Cameron Indoor arena holds 9,314, the Roundhouse holds 10,506. I think we are just fine.