Wichita Bids on NCAA basketball Games

[wsushox1]

The main flaw is it is just Way too small. Built on a bad site. 15000 isn't too small seat wise but the arena they put the 15000 seats in is way to small. Not big enough atriums or hallways or concourses. They are much better than Kansas Coliseum's but compared to the BOK centers, there is no comparison.

The parking issue is not a big deal. Dedicated basketball fans will walk two miles in the snow to see a game. The parking issue will be alot better then I think anyone will think it will be. I was disheartened to hear that the configuration for Thunder hockey is only 13,500, and that center stage is only 15,750. Should be more than that.

Thirdly, I don't think the Eagle has done enough for the arena. Now, I know it is not their job to try to promote anything. However, I followed the BOK center in the Tulsa World Journal and they were much more informative and had alot of straight facts. I would just like to see that here.

Fourth, I think that after a couple of years of operation then the NCAA tournament might rethink coming to Wichita. With all the money riding on each site I think it is too big of a risk for the NCAA to give an untested Arena a contract on games. The NCAA is all about money so honestly I am not too surprised.

Lastly, this makes me more excited for the arena to open. I will try to be there for some events and I cant wait to see some basketball there.

A long and rambling post but this is just my opinion.

[Ricardo del Rio]

The main flaw is it is just Way too small. Built on a bad site. 15000 isn't too small seat wise but the arena they put the 15000 seats in is way to small. Not big enough atriums or hallways or concourses. They are much better than Kansas Coliseum's but compared to the BOK centers, there is no comparison.

The parking issue is not a big deal. Dedicated basketball fans will walk two miles in the snow to see a game. The parking issue will be alot better then I think anyone will think it will be. I was disheartened to hear that the configuration for Thunder hockey is only 13,500, and that center stage is only 15,750. Should be more than that.

Thirdly, I don't think the Eagle has done enough for the arena. Now, I know it is not their job to try to promote anything. However, I followed the BOK center in the Tulsa World Journal and they were much more informative and had alot of straight facts. I would just like to see that here.

Fourth, I think that after a couple of years of operation then the NCAA tournament might rethink coming to Wichita. With all the money riding on each site I think it is too big of a risk for the NCAA to give an untested Arena a contract on games. The NCAA is all about money so honestly I am not too surprised.

Lastly, this makes me more excited for the arena to open. I will try to be there for some events and I cant wait to see some basketball there.

A long and rambling post but this is just my opinion.

Parking is a problem and probably will be forever. The damn facility is almost complete and there is not an action plan to solve the problem. However, there is a lot of study going on.

[ShockerFever]

The main flaw is it is just Way too small. Built on a bad site. 15000 isn't too small seat wise but the arena they put the 15000 seats in is way to small. Not big enough atriums or hallways or concourses. They are much better than Kansas Coliseum's but compared to the BOK centers, there is no comparison.

The parking issue is not a big deal. Dedicated basketball fans will walk two miles in the snow to see a game. The parking issue will be alot better then I think anyone will think it will be. I was disheartened to hear that the configuration for Thunder hockey is only 13,500, and that center stage is only 15,750. Should be more than that.

Thirdly, I don't think the Eagle has done enough for the arena. Now, I know it is not their job to try to promote anything. However, I followed the BOK center in the Tulsa World Journal and they were much more informative and had alot of straight facts. I would just like to see that here.

Fourth, I think that after a couple of years of operation then the NCAA tournament might rethink coming to Wichita. With all the money riding on each site I think it is too big of a risk for the NCAA to give an untested Arena a contract on games. The NCAA is all about money so honestly I am not too surprised.

Lastly, this makes me more excited for the arena to open. I will try to be there for some events and I cant wait to see some basketball there.

A long and rambling post but this is just my opinion.

You are spot on in everything. kai should copy this post onto Word, print it out, and take it with him to bed every night. Maybe he'll finally get it.

Like you said, the NCAA doesn't like awarding construction sites (what the arena essentially is still) tournament bids. When the area and venue gets further established, I fully expect us to be a chosen site next go around.

It's still very discouraging to have the city/county leaders that we do. Hopefully in the next coming years, we get forward-thinking individuals into those seats and this city will be on a serious upswing. There was very little input from the taxpayers when this arena was voted upon. The county had their 15,000 seat mindset and stuck with it. Lame.

[ShockerFever]

The main flaw is it is just Way too small. Built on a bad site. 15000 isn't too small seat wise but the arena they put the 15000 seats in is way to small. Not big enough atriums or hallways or concourses. They are much better than Kansas Coliseum's but compared to the BOK centers, there is no comparison.

The parking issue is not a big deal. Dedicated basketball fans will walk two miles in the snow to see a game. The parking issue will be alot better then I think anyone will think it will be. I was disheartened to hear that the configuration for Thunder hockey is only 13,500, and that center stage is only 15,750. Should be more than that.

Thirdly, I don't think the Eagle has done enough for the arena. Now, I know it is not their job to try to promote anything. However, I followed the BOK center in the Tulsa World Journal and they were much more informative and had alot of straight facts. I would just like to see that here.

Fourth, I think that after a couple of years of operation then the NCAA tournament might rethink coming to Wichita. With all the money riding on each site I think it is too big of a risk for the NCAA to give an untested Arena a contract on games. The NCAA is all about money so honestly I am not too surprised.

Lastly, this makes me more excited for the arena to open. I will try to be there for some events and I cant wait to see some basketball there.

A long and rambling post but this is just my opinion.

Parking is a problem and probably will be forever. The damn facility is almost complete and there is not an action plan to solve the problem. However, there is a lot of study going on.

Parking is a problem, but it is for any medium-sized arena that houses a downtown arena. I'd like to see how things work first before calling the parking thing a failure.

Let's face it though. People will have to walk here or in any other downtown arena in any other city. For some reason our city can't comprehend this idea.

[Ta town]

The main flaw is it is just Way too small. Built on a bad site. 15000 isn't too small seat wise but the arena they put the 15000 seats in is way to small. Not big enough atriums or hallways or concourses. They are much better than Kansas Coliseum's but compared to the BOK centers, there is no comparison.

The parking issue is not a big deal. Dedicated basketball fans will walk two miles in the snow to see a game. The parking issue will be alot better then I think anyone will think it will be. I was disheartened to hear that the configuration for Thunder hockey is only 13,500, and that center stage is only 15,750. Should be more than that.

Thirdly, I don't think the Eagle has done enough for the arena. Now, I know it is not their job to try to promote anything. However, I followed the BOK center in the Tulsa World Journal and they were much more informative and had alot of straight facts. I would just like to see that here.

Fourth, I think that after a couple of years of operation then the NCAA tournament might rethink coming to Wichita. With all the money riding on each site I think it is too big of a risk for the NCAA to give an untested Arena a contract on games. The NCAA is all about money so honestly I am not too surprised.

Lastly, this makes me more excited for the arena to open. I will try to be there for some events and I cant wait to see some basketball there.

A long and rambling post but this is just my opinion.

Parking is a problem and probably will be forever. The damn facility is almost complete and there is not an action plan to solve the problem. However, there is a lot of study going on.

Parking is a problem, but it is for any medium-sized arena that houses a downtown arena. I'd like to see how things work first before calling the parking thing a failure.

Let's face it though. People will have to walk here or in any other downtown arena in any other city. For some reason our city can't comprehend this idea.

I can't think of any venue in a downtown area where I didn't have to pay a butt load of money to park then haul my azz forever and a day to where I was going. Heck I went to the sprint center last summer, parked right next to it in a huge parking gargage. It still took me 20 minutes to get inside. I don't see how they could make parking convient for too many people with a downtown arena. Just part of it, I don't see what the big deal is.

[_kai_]

The main flaw is it is just Way too small. Built on a bad site. 15000 isn't too small seat wise but the arena they put the 15000 seats in is way to small. Not big enough atriums or hallways or concourses. They are much better than Kansas Coliseum's but compared to the BOK centers, there is no comparison.

The parking issue is not a big deal. Dedicated basketball fans will walk two miles in the snow to see a game. The parking issue will be alot better then I think anyone will think it will be. I was disheartened to hear that the configuration for Thunder hockey is only 13,500, and that center stage is only 15,750. Should be more than that.

Thirdly, I don't think the Eagle has done enough for the arena. Now, I know it is not their job to try to promote anything. However, I followed the BOK center in the Tulsa World Journal and they were much more informative and had alot of straight facts. I would just like to see that here.

Fourth, I think that after a couple of years of operation then the NCAA tournament might rethink coming to Wichita. With all the money riding on each site I think it is too big of a risk for the NCAA to give an untested Arena a contract on games. The NCAA is all about money so honestly I am not too surprised.

Lastly, this makes me more excited for the arena to open. I will try to be there for some events and I cant wait to see some basketball there.

A long and rambling post but this is just my opinion.

You are spot on in everything. kai should copy this post onto Word, print it out, and take it with him to bed every night. Maybe he'll finally get it.

Like you said, the NCAA doesn't like awarding construction sites (what the arena essentially is still) tournament bids. When the area and venue gets further established, I fully expect us to be a chosen site next go around.

It's still very discouraging to have the city/county leaders that we do. Hopefully in the next coming years, we get forward-thinking individuals into those seats and this city will be on a serious upswing. There was very little input from the taxpayers when this arena was voted upon. The county had their 15,000 seat mindset and stuck with it. Lame.

Perfect example of you being such a jerk. Now you are trolling me. What does his post have to do with me? Yet you comment on me in his post. You're a joke, little man.

[newshock1234]

Everyone who says we didn't get the tournament because of the Arena are blind. The reason we didn't get the tournament is because Wichita is an awful tourist destination. Do people from KC come to Wichita for the attractions or shopping? No, Wichitans go to KC. We can't even keep our own people in our city, let alone attract people from outside it to come here. Our airport is expensive, and doesn't have many flights from all over. We have no attractions, minimal hotels, and no atmosphere downtown.

Why try to keep acting like Wichita is a place to come to? We should try and work on playing up that its cheap to live, the crime is low, we have a nice university, and great surrounding schools. Stop trying to act like Wichita is, or is going to be this hub of midwestern entertainment. Its not.

and Tulsa is better, give me a break, the city of Tulsa is a big pile of crap

You must not get out much... Tulsa IS "better".

More dining, retail, and entertainment options.
More outdoor recreational opportunities (as in WAY more).
More job opportunities for people not fitting into the engineering or manual/production laborer categories.
Lower white trash factor.

Basically, one would be hard pressed to objectively construct a comparo between Wichita and Tulsa which would show Wichita on top. And no, I don't necessarily have any biases towards Tulsa, nor do I want to live there, it's just that Wichita sucks THAT bad.

actually i was out there this past summer and its still the same trashy city, where i feel like i have to keep my doors locked at all time.

[shockerfan]

LOL parking is a minor issue. But I do think it will be solved...sure it may be a year after the completion of the arena...but it wouldn't take tons. The issue is the people not wanting to pay or walk. I've been to many arena's and athletic facilities....almost always had to walk several blocks.

For now I think there is just too much construction planned on the streets...perhaps that was an issue? I don't know just throwing it out...alot of the streets directly around the arena are either being worked on right now or needs to be worked on badly in the near future.

Although really, I would think that by 2012 or so the streets would be finished...but this IS Wichita! LOL

[wsushox1]

LOL parking is a minor issue. But I do think it will be solved...sure it may be a year after the completion of the arena...but it wouldn't take tons. The issue is the people not wanting to pay or walk. I've been to many arena's and athletic facilities....almost always had to walk several blocks.

For now I think there is just too much construction planned on the streets...perhaps that was an issue? I don't know just throwing it out...alot of the streets directly around the arena are either being worked on right now or needs to be worked on badly in the near future.

Although really, I would think that by 2012 or so the streets would be finished...but this IS Wichita! LOL

Streets are under construction for the arena project lol.

[SubGod22]

Did anyone expect to get a bid before the arena was even open? Sure, it would have been nice but having it still be worked on and having not hosted anything put it in a bad spot for this go around

[shockerfan]

LOL parking is a minor issue. But I do think it will be solved...sure it may be a year after the completion of the arena...but it wouldn't take tons. The issue is the people not wanting to pay or walk. I've been to many arena's and athletic facilities....almost always had to walk several blocks.

For now I think there is just too much construction planned on the streets...perhaps that was an issue? I don't know just throwing it out...alot of the streets directly around the arena are either being worked on right now or needs to be worked on badly in the near future.

Although really, I would think that by 2012 or so the streets would be finished...but this IS Wichita! LOL

Streets are under construction for the arena project lol.

Yeah...that's what I said......

Although not ALL of them are. I travel those streets every day...they have a LONNNNNGGGGGGGGGG way to go.

[shockerfan]

Did anyone expect to get a bid before the arena was even open? Sure, it would have been nice but having it still be worked on and having not hosted anything put it in a bad spot for this go around

Not really. Would have been nice. But at least the NCAA is aware of the arena and have seen what is coming.

[ShockerFever]

Perfect example of you being such a jerk. Now you are trolling me. What does his post have to do with me? Yet you comment on me in his post. You're a joke, little man.

Now who's doing the name-calling?

What a freaking hypocrite.



I've been continually talking about the issue at hand. Meanwhile, you've been continually ignoring the discussion (because you got owned) and instead are crying about a little riffraff.

You have added exactly ZERO to the discussion ever since you got completely dismantled in your opening statements.

You read me right. D-I-S-M-A-N-T-L-E-D. :cry:

[fansince80s]

If the lux boxes would have been in the middle around the area like 99% of the arenas, what do you think the seating would have been? I say around 18-19k

I think too many seats are lost in the stupid design taking up ALL of the south side with lux boxes.

The thing looks huge close up and its hard to think it only seats 15k!

[Ashockalypse]

Yeah Hey lets everyone get a grip. I have noticed on this board when we get frustrated we immediately start lashing out at people with different opinions who by the way are our brother shocker fans. Step back for a couple of seconds then render a well reasoned and well written opinion and it will have much more of a persuasive effect on readers than pounding each other into next week. Save that for Creighton.