There are so many new plans for renovations on campus, but does anyone know if they are planning on renovating Reed Arena in the near future? It still seems a little old to me. Maybe its just me.

no, they update things inside couple years ago, the concourse.

They did put down new grass on the outside. This was bothering a lot of posters here.

BQ_90 said:

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no, they update things inside couple years ago, the concourse.

They did put down new grass on the outside. This was bothering a lot of posters here.

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Yeah I remember they made those renovations while I was there. The concourse looks nice its just the actual court area and stands that look old I guess. I'm also wondering if eventually they make the outside look like the rest of the sports complexes (brick on the outside).

Lonestar18 said:

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BQ_90 said:

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no, they update things inside couple years ago, the concourse.

They did put down new grass on the outside. This was bothering a lot of posters here.

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Yeah I remember they made those renovations while I was there. The concourse looks nice its just the actual court area and stands that look old I guess. I'm also wondering if eventually they make the outside look like the rest of the sports complexes (brick on the outside).

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the also put up new giant screen video boards.

I don't see them doing anything major to Reed in the next 10 years.

It might take them 5 years to recover from the losses they'll take this year and next year due to Covid.

Yeah I can't see basketball getting a major upgrade for a while now unless Buzz brings us to significant heights and forces someone's hand.

The seats need to be removed and the whole thing needs a good power washing. The floor and seats are DISGUSTING!!!! I am generally okay with the facility overall, but the filthiness does bother me. Is it even possible/cost effective to do a deep cleaning on the seats and floors?

iisanaggie said:

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The seats need to be removed and the whole thing needs a good power washing. The floor and seats are DISGUSTING!!!! I am generally okay with the facility overall, but the filthiness does bother me. Is it even possible/cost effective to do a deep cleaning on the seats and floors?

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Maybe email Buzz some suggestions if we have another showing like we did vs TCU?

After seeing Dickies last weekend, Reed sucks. That place is beautiful.

You people clearly never experienced G. Rollie White

CapCityAg89 said:

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After seeing Dickies last weekend, Reed sucks. That place is beautiful.

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A brand new place was nicer than a 25 year old place? Weird

I still believe we start building a new arena within 5 years.

MarcAg said:

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I still believe we start building a new arena within 5 years.

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No way. They'd have to start fund raising now for that. It's not on any of the master plan list that soon.

Also the AD is losing wads of money this year. Next year it'll be the same if not worse. Remember all those people that rolled over their tickets to next year. The AD got that money this year, next year they won't get that money.

I guess we will see.

Once covid is truly under control and people are looking for entertainment outside the home (if they haven't fluffed their man caves to the point they'd rather stay "innit"), and if Williams truly delivers on building out our basketball program (think F4 but maybe E8 is sufficient though our women's program demonstrates apathy still can exist with multiple, deeper NCAA runs)...

Honestly, the Bryan-College Station area has to decide they want to support a great basketball program to have one of those. Out-of-town alumni leaving seats empty for extremely good basketball can't propel the team past whatever heights sheer coaching can provide. Whether we acknowledge or not, we had a couple of coaches reference that as excuses for vamoosing.

I think we need to look hard at teams like the St. Paul Saints. They know how to draw a crowd.

The athletics offices have moved out, and they just did an extensive remodel on the 2nd and 3rd floors at Reed. , It adds exactly nothing to the fan experience as far as I can tell, but it's pretty nice.

I posted the same thing back in May that I thought we would start building a new arena withing 5 years (granted that was only 2 moths into a pandemic). I din't have any inside info, just gut feeling based on getting a new coach, based on Texas building an awesome basketball arena, based on Tech having an old arena but one that blows away Reed, etc, etc and if we want to compete we need to step it up.

And at that time I was told I was crazy as well. Somebody reached out to me shortly after that and said; "It 1000% is gonna start in that time frame" and "There's no doubt it's next in line. It just doesn't match up with other facilities. It's a big topic in donor circles."

Take it with a grain of salt. Also things can change. But to completely dismiss it as no way probably is not correct. Sounds like it is a possibility.

How about this for a thought, much of the new arena complex will be part of covid stimulus and will include office and other entertainment space in central campus beyond the new arena. Gotta get people working.

Tobias Funke said:

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CapCityAg89 said:

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After seeing Dickies last weekend, Reed sucks. That place is beautiful.

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A brand new place was nicer than a 25 year old place? Weird

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Reed wasn't that nice for 25 years ago. But, they also spent magnitudes more money on Dickie's then we did Reed.

Dickies Arena is a municipal events center that cost NBA arena type money to build. To compare it to an on-campus basketball arena is a joke.

Dickies is designed to produce income for the rodeo (Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo) especially. It's owned by Ft. Worth and managed by a non-profit and operated by another organization for all public events.

It cost over $500 million which is pricy for B-CS (roughly as much in nominal dollars as the Kyle Field upgrade.)

I suspect merely building a new version of Reed would run $125 million though that might include more favorable revenue generation features. I'm fairly confident that if Buzz gathers a crowd or merely goes past the S16 in his first few years anything COULD happen. But it seems we are likely to do a less risky upgrade first.

MarcAg said:

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I still believe we start building a new arena within 5 years.

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Not a chance

I guess none of you noticed that the concrete floors in the stands were painted a light beige before the SE Louisiana game. They still need to finish the corner aisles.

I can't remember the specifics, but wasn't Reed a joint venture with CSTX? That may limit what can happen as to a new structure.

Also on a side note, does anyone remember how the sips threw their weight around at the legislature and the construction was stalled by the Higher Education Committee. I am so glad we are out from under their thumb.

GSPag` said:

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Also on a side note, does anyone remember how the sips threw their weight around at the legislature and the construction was stalled by the Higher Education Committee. I am so glad we are out from under their thumb.

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Yep it was delayed for several years, was whittled down from its original configuration and had to be a multi-use facility with no frills!

So yes it is great to be away from those asshats! Never go back!

GSPag` said:

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I can't remember the specifics, but wasn't Reed a joint venture with CSTX? That may limit what can happen as to a new structure.

Also on a side note, does anyone remember how the sips threw their weight around at the legislature and the construction was stalled by the Higher Education Committee. I am so glad we are out from under their thumb.

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No it isn't. It was run by the university but I think the AD now manages it operation

This web archive of an earlier version of reed.tamu.edu points to a Special Events Facility department running it explaining it's owned by Texas A&M. Wiki page references an additional endowment for the first five years of operations that was completely consumed before the time period was over.

Similar to the situation at Dickies I'm sure as the city of Fort Worth seeks to maximize return on investment. I recall one of the student government organizations programming Jolly Rollie. They had some other events there, too, but I didn't really pay attention at the time.

https://web.archive.org/web/20080924133531/http://www.aggieathletics.com/facilities/reedarena.html

Athletics took over Reed about ten years or so ago.

JJxvi said:

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Athletics took over Reed about ten years or so ago.

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I don't dispute that. The history is interesting in part because it shows we had some decent provision (the additional endowment) and poor execution on managing it like a multi-event center.

...

It's still an events center I guess, the athletic department is just who the general manager works for and basketball and volleyball are the primary tenants and not just another event.

JJxvi said:

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It's still an events center I guess, the athletic department is just who the general manager works for and basketball and volleyball are the primary tenants and not just another event.

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Early volleyball took possession of G. Rollie iirc. They moved to Reed about five years which is when they knew G. Rollie was going dormant and eventually coming down.

I mainly was looking at the parallels. No real conclusions either way.

Nm

Reed is likely not going to see a major expansion anytime soon. The average age/useful life of major municipal arenas is about 30 years before they are replaced, with College facilities lasting a little more. Reed is not a municipal facility. Although the construction started in 95, it was complete in 98, which means it's only 22 years old. We don't sell out many basketball games right now, so it's primary user isn't exactly pushing the envelope on capacity utilization. Don't forget that G. Rollie was around for over 50 years and the Erwin center for over 40.

Sure, we fill it up for graduation, but that's not many days/year.

Buzz can be successful enough to shorten the time-line, but as mentioned, the money is going to be an issue.

If Buzz starts taking us on deep tourney runs, and the economy starts to take off, AND the barrel price of oil takes off simultaneously, it could happen a lot sooner. That's a lot of ifs.

The new revenue deal for post CBS will also play a part, but we aren't there yet.

Otherwise, it's likely going to be till 2028, aka the 30 year mark before we get serious about expansion/replacement.

I actually like Reed. It's not as bad as so many here complain about. The concourses are very plain Jane, but we could easily jazz up the look there with some new lighting and trim out and make it look spectacular for not that much money. The issue seems to be that at 22 years, do you spend the $$$ to jazz it up, or wait a few more years to get the major overhaul/expansion/replacement?

The envelope could be pushed if the students and locals start to show in big numbers to get the team further along even faster.

That's my .02 worth.

We don't need an expanded arena. We need a higher quality arena in central campus. Ending up at 10,000 seats is plenty. B/CS is a college town. Half of basketball games are played on week nights. That isn't going to change.

The upgrade to Hofheinz is worth tracking. Is less truly more???