I mean, is it possible to renovate and transform Reed into a good (if not great) basketball venue?

If so, what would have to be done to get it there?

Or is it a lost cause that needs to be replaced as the home of Aggie basketball?

I really don't see A&M building a new basketball arena. Reed will either be renovated or stay the same. I could see A&M renovating the exterior to look more similar to Olsen & Kyle Field.

The main reason to renovate would be to increase engagement and ticket sales/revenue per seat. Look at the Hofheinz redo as an example.

For a solid MiLB team the average revenue per seat runs $12-17 depending on park and team. The scoreboard was designed to help some with butts in seats (v. TV) so the only thing left might be club/suite space.

The lighting strikes me as dim and cool (think it's 5000 Kelvins) but I need cataract surgery. The scoreboard added quite a bit of warmer light at my daughter's evening graduation ceremony in December that I hadn't noticed on previous trips to Reed.

The need for a special events center is still higher than the need for a basketball arena. But generating revenue for the basketball program helps pay for the entire athletic department.

I can't believe there is a huge demand for suites at Reed. Just like the Irwin Center in Austin, the problem with both of these buildings is too many seats and too few butts. And I don't have an easy answer to change the fan culture. Last year's team went to the Sweet 16 and we still didn't come close to filling the building.

Get rid of that ugly wall at the west end. Add suites? Sell alcohol?

Let's wait and see what Buzz has in mind...

The biggest issue with Reed from a basketball standpoint is how far the end student sections are from the court itself. It's like ten feet, at least, from the baseline to the front row. The places with the best atmospheres it feels like the students and other fans are right on top of the court.

I'm not sure that's something that can be changed without some major overhauling.

McInnis80 said:

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I can't believe there is a huge demand for suites at Reed. Just like the Irwin Center in Austin, the problem with both of these buildings is too many seats and too few butts. And I don't have an easy answer to change the fan culture. Last year's team went to the Sweet 16 and we still didn't come close to filling the building.

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The Hofheinz redo was more club and box-style comfortable seating oriented and lowered overall count of seats. Most of the MiLB teams I'm aware of don't heavily use suites but some do use them for high-visibility events and for larger groups.

I have zero clue what the art of the possible is. Just know the 300k we made in profit for 2015-2016 will need to be improved on if we up the costs of running the basketball program. Just to pay for the transition.

End zone??

And yes, fire the DJ

And yes, I'm old.

All Reed needs is a good and reasonably consistent product on the court.

I don't want to lose my seats to a redo. Already went through that at Kyle.

I like Reed as it currently is on the inside. The location is not great, the exterior is not the best.


I agree that opening up the concourses to the floor would likely be a huge improvement in terms of modernizing it. There were legitimate complaints about how bush league it was 10+ years ago. I would say most things wrong with it now are just "well it could be a little better" type line items.

I'm sure they've done analysis, but charging for parking for basketball games is a joke. We should be getting paid to go at this point. 1 price for all tickets for at least non-conference, 1st come 1st serve on seats with the exception of a few sections for season ticket holders.

When A&M is winning (i.e. making the tournament) you can expect the average season attendance to be around 9K-10K fans. When A&M is mediocre that number drops to the 7K-8K range. When A&M is bad it bottoms out around the 5K-6K range. Needless to say, in a 12K seat arena that looks like *****

It seems like Reed Arena complaints are correlated to the percentage of fans in the seats. 12K fans in a 12K seat Reed Arena (100%) and the atmosphere will be electric. 10K fans (83%) and there will still be a nice buzz in the crowd. 8K fans (66%) and you can still have a good time but there will be some energy lacking. 6K fans (50%) and it just feels kinda sad.

In order to increase the ratio of fans to seats then either more fans need to show up or there needs to be fewer seats. Attendance is correlated with wins but there is also a clear and established ceiling of support here (~10K). The easy way to fix this "problem" would be to reduce the capacity from around 12K to 9K or 10K which is more in line with the established ceiling. Of course that isn't possible because Reed is a multi-purpose facility needed for graduation, etc... That gets at the fundamental problem, A&M built a stadium bigger than its fan base. So either tarp off parts of the upper deck, build a retractable/removable "ugly wall" on the East (?) side upper deck or win so much that the fan base increases.

bobinator said:

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The biggest issue with Reed from a basketball standpoint is how far the end student sections are from the court itself. It's like ten feet, at least, from the baseline to the front row. The places with the best atmospheres it feels like the students and other fans are right on top of the court.

I'm not sure that's something that can be changed without some major overhauling.

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hopefully the AD will rethink the whole basketball marketing strategy while we hire a new coach... putting butts in the seats will make Reed Arena look a lot better to start with... and once we get the culture going, then we can worry about improving Reed. I for one think they need to drop the nose-bleed section ticket price to peanuts... something like $5 per seat type deal, and basically free for November/December games. And yeh, paying for parking... discount that will help too.

stardustag said:

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hopefully the AD will rethink the whole basketball marketing strategy while we hire a new coach... putting butts in the seats will make Reed Arena look a lot better to start with... and once we get the culture going, then we can worry about improving Reed. I for one think they need to drop the nose-bleed section ticket price to peanuts... something like $5 per seat type deal, and basically free for November/December games. And yeh, paying for parking... discount that will help too.

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I love your thinking at the opening. But let's not yet worry about pricing just butts in seats. I think basketball needs to be viewed as a premium brand and ought to eventually command more dollars rather than fewer. Use marketing to sell the new opportunity to start the journey with the new coach. I'm absolutely positive that if we start consistently winning unless the marketing is much better then the last 2-3K will still be difficult to sell.

We need a method for re-scripting the whole game day so the marketing/advertising and student spirit feels like they work seamlessly without getting that letdown when filling timeouts.

We should play in Kyle...

there used to not even be seats down to the floor at all on one end

bobinator said:

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Our pregame videos have sucked for a while. Nobody needs slow mo videos of our current players dribbling on an empty court or whatever. Throw some historic moments up, the shot, the baptism, whatever; and then throw up some current player highlights. It seems like a pretty simple formula.

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There is a serious scarcity of current highlights

That place must have been loud

stardustag said:

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hopefully the AD will rethink the whole basketball marketing strategy while we hire a new coach... putting butts in the seats will make Reed Arena look a lot better to start with... and once we get the culture going, then we can worry about improving Reed. I for one think they need to drop the nose-bleed section ticket price to peanuts... something like $5 per seat type deal, and basically free for November/December games. And yeh, paying for parking... discount that will help too.

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To get more butts in the seats...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28484536

Quote:

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those who cannot make it to the stadium now have the option of having a robot stand in for them.
As well as being able to control some robot movements, fans can upload their own face to the machine.

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we are an engineering school, after all.

biobioprof said:

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stardustag said:

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hopefully the AD will rethink the whole basketball marketing strategy while we hire a new coach... putting butts in the seats will make Reed Arena look a lot better to start with... and once we get the culture going, then we can worry about improving Reed. I for one think they need to drop the nose-bleed section ticket price to peanuts... something like $5 per seat type deal, and basically free for November/December games. And yeh, paying for parking... discount that will help too.

---

To get more butts in the seats...

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-28484536

Quote:

---

those who cannot make it to the stadium now have the option of having a robot stand in for them.
As well as being able to control some robot movements, fans can upload their own face to the machine.

---

we are an engineering school, after all.

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Suh-WEET!

What year were these pictures taken? Man where have all those folks gone? They must be in their 60's at least!