(http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9421/bokctrdr2.jpg)
This is apparently the setup for basketball at the BOK Center. Just slap a basketball court in the middle of the floor with minor seating adjustments.
Anybody know why this is? Every other hockey/basketball arena makes a much better basketball setup than what I saw Sunday.
Generally the seats extend to the floor without any huge voids. They make the hockey dasher boards less obvious. Every other hockey/basketball venue I've seen just generally look like they were built with basketball as a consideration.
Like here in St. Louis' arena.
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2040/2192272655_74ff1e953d.jpg)
Or here in Atlanta.
(http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1410/562038511_808850dcfb.jpg)
Did we just paid a huge sum for this new arena and we don't have the capacity to adjust the seating for basketball? Those seats behind the basket are miles from the court, thanks to the big void.
I realize we have way more hockey games than basketball games scheduled, but just about any basketball game at the BOK Center is gonna be seen by more people both in house and on TV than a minor league hockey game.
We're hosting the 2010 C-USA tournament and hopefully even bigger and better basketball tournaments. We need a basketball setup befitting of a big-time arena.
How do you know TU didn't request it to be that way? There were 12,000 and change there; maybe TU knew that and decided not to have a whole bunch of fans disguised as chairs.
Just a guess...
but perhaps because we are in hockey season and this was one game they half-assed it?
It indeed that was the setup I am somewhat disappointed, but not devastated.
That is not the full basketball setup. They probably new seats behind the backboard aren't great and they weren't going to sell out of the rest of the seats so they didn't put them in. Floor seats on the sidelines are normally high-dollar VIP seats and I doubt they had any VIP's wanting them.
If you look at the seating chart:
http://www.bokcenter.com/upload/image/TU-OU-MAP.jpg
It APPEARS that the end sections on the west side (the side that appears bare in the photo) are smaller than on the east section. It also appears that they didn't necessarily center the basketball floor in the middle of the ice surface floor. In the bare area you can see the pads they put down on top of the ice to separate it.
Mountain out of a molehill. This venue is a little over three months old. I think I'll cut them some slack over this.
quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle
That is not the full basketball setup. They probably new seats behind the backboard aren't great and they weren't going to sell out of the rest of the seats so they didn't put them in. Floor seats on the sidelines are normally high-dollar VIP seats and I doubt they had any VIP's wanting them.
Every other arena I've been in has the ability to change the pitch of the seats in the lower half of the lower bowl behind the baskets and extend the seats to the edge of the basketball floor.
Do we have this capability, like the arenas in the original post, like pretty much every other new arena?
I'm just upset because the way it was set up is rinky-dink. It's ugly and leaves quite a few really bad seats. If you're sitting in the 10th row behind TU's basket, you better be 6-foot-8 if you want to see much of the game.
quote:
Originally posted by Hoss
If you look at the seating chart:
http://www.bokcenter.com/upload/image/TU-OU-MAP.jpg
It APPEARS that the end sections on the west side (the side that appears bare in the photo) are smaller than on the east section. It also appears that they didn't necessarily center the basketball floor in the middle of the ice surface floor. In the bare area you can see the pads they put down on top of the ice to separate it.
Mountain out of a molehill. This venue is a little over three months old. I think I'll cut them some slack over this.
It looked centered to me. They did put only two or three rows of seating on the near end and maybe 15 rows on the far end.
But that doesn't really address my issue. Even if the void was filled with chair seats the setup would still be horrible.
Look at pretty much every other new arena, even NHL arenas that rarely host basketball. They adjust the incline on the lower half of the lower bowl and extend the seats out to the court, so there's an incline all the way to the court.
With the "let's just drop a bunch of chairs on the hockey floor" setup they had Sunday, good luck seeing anything from the 10th row of chair seats.
This video shows the hockey/basketball transformation in Toronto. This is the type of seating setup I had in mind.
Arena transformation (//%22http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwq1tFc3qI8%22)
quote:
Originally posted by TheTed
quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle
That is not the full basketball setup. They probably new seats behind the backboard aren't great and they weren't going to sell out of the rest of the seats so they didn't put them in. Floor seats on the sidelines are normally high-dollar VIP seats and I doubt they had any VIP's wanting them.
Every other arena I've been in has the ability to change the pitch of the seats in the lower half of the lower bowl behind the baskets and extend the seats to the edge of the basketball floor.
Do we have this capability, like the arenas in the original post, like pretty much every other new arena?
I'm just upset because the way it was set up is rinky-dink. It's ugly and leaves quite a few really bad seats. If you're sitting in the 10th row behind TU's basket, you better be 6-foot-8 if you want to see much of the game.
If I recall correctly, they had the whole setup for the NBA exhibition though...so maybe this is a point needed to be taken up with TU and/or SMG.
THe whole thing seemed a little half-assed; squirrel running around in the pre-game, somehow I had a $50 seat without a cupholder, and the sound was bad (though I assume that's the fault of the people usually responsible for TU games). Oh, and don't get me started on the Atari 2600 style statistics format and the fact TU's clock guys managed to screw up the BOk center clock . . .
A lot of arenas are set up with the format from Sunday.
quote:
Originally posted by Gold
THe whole thing seemed a little half-assed; squirrel running around in the pre-game, somehow I had a $50 seat without a cupholder, and the sound was bad (though I assume that's the fault of the people usually responsible for TU games). Oh, and don't get me started on the Atari 2600 style statistics format and the fact TU's clock guys managed to screw up the BOk center clock . . .
A lot of arenas are set up with the format from Sunday.
The sound is bad if you sit low in the lower bowl. I've noticed that now that I have my season tix for the Oilers in row B section 101. Those rollout seats don't have any cupholders on them at all; probably explains your situation.
quote:
Originally posted by Gold
Oh, and don't get me started on the Atari 2600 style statistics format and the fact TU's clock guys managed to screw up the BOk center clock . . .
I was upset more at this than I was the seating. We have this really nice video board, yet I feel they are not getting the intended use out of it. At the very least, I would like to see an occasional replay on the video boards.
quote:
Originally posted by Nik
quote:
Originally posted by Gold
Oh, and don't get me started on the Atari 2600 style statistics format and the fact TU's clock guys managed to screw up the BOk center clock . . .
I was upset more at this than I was the seating. We have this really nice video board, yet I feel they are not getting the intended use out of it. At the very least, I would like to see an occasional replay on the video boards.
This would be more the fault of the operator than of the technology. I know for a fact that replays ARE done at Oiler games pretty quickly. My only gripe is where they put the scoreboard makes it difficult to read the information since the font size is so small. I'm not as young as I once was to be able to read small type.
[:D]
quote:
Originally posted by Gold
A lot of arenas are set up with the format from Sunday.
A lot of third-rate minor league arenas are set up that way.
As far as I know, all NBA and/or NHL arenas have a much better set up for basketball, even NHL arenas that don't host basketball often. I can't even think of a major college hockey/basketball arena that's set up the way the BOK Center was.
All I've heard is how we have a first-rate facility befitting of a major metro. That setup Sunday is third-rate. I'd rather our arena not look like an NBA D-League venue.
quote:
Originally posted by Hoss
quote:
Originally posted by Nik
quote:
Originally posted by Gold
Oh, and don't get me started on the Atari 2600 style statistics format and the fact TU's clock guys managed to screw up the BOk center clock . . .
I was upset more at this than I was the seating. We have this really nice video board, yet I feel they are not getting the intended use out of it. At the very least, I would like to see an occasional replay on the video boards.
This would be more the fault of the operator than of the technology. I know for a fact that replays ARE done at Oiler games pretty quickly. My only gripe is where they put the scoreboard makes it difficult to read the information since the font size is so small. I'm not as young as I once was to be able to read small type.
[:D]
Oh, I'm sure its because of the operators. All this money spent on the equipment, surely they spared some for training. And the corner displays that had the information for a players points and fouls was awful. Blue font on a gold background with nothing but the information. Just...blah.
quote:
Originally posted by TheTed
quote:
Originally posted by Gold
A lot of arenas are set up with the format from Sunday.
A lot of third-rate minor league arenas are set up that way.
As far as I know, all NBA and/or NHL arenas have a much better set up for basketball, even NHL arenas that don't host basketball often. I can't even think of a major college hockey/basketball arena that's set up the way the BOK Center was.
All I've heard is how we have a first-rate facility befitting of a major metro. That setup Sunday is third-rate. I'd rather our arena not look like an NBA D-League venue.
I've been to a lot of NCAA tournament games and the BOK setup from Sunday is not uncommon. It could be better.
The facility is very nice. There were good seats available and I'm not certain how having some concrete exposed affected your viewing of the game. Yes, I'd like to see that covered up, also. But you have to have butts to fill those seats and they did not.
At most venues I end up sitting behind the baskets because that's the only way I can get anywhere close to the court without paying an arm and a leg.
I generally sit behind the basket at TU home games, maybe 15 rows up. They're not bad seats and they're affordable.
With Sunday's BOK center configuration, seats 15 rows from the court are very far from the court and not very elevated, generally bad sightlines.
The way they set up the arena Sunday, there were no decent seats for less than $50.
I can go to a TU home game or an OU home game and get decent seats for $20 or less.
If the BOK center is gonna be set up the way it was Sunday for every basketball game, I might as well stay home and watch on TV.
As I'm sure you know, good basketball venues put you close to the court and the elevations are steep.
Bad basketball venues have slight elevations put you farther horizontally from the court (like football domes that the NCAA is so fond of playing basketball in).
It sounds like your gripe is more with the ticket prices. I agree that the OU-TU tickets were way overpriced. TU was running the show for this event and while I'm a diehard of diehard TU fans, I think they could have done a much better job. Of course, I doubt anyone paid $50 to watch a slaughter like that (OU fans even seemed bored).
A lot of times in NCAA tournament games, that empty space is reserved for the bands. You'll oftem have four team bands in a flight of games and they need that space for all their gear.
GIA has one of the steepest setups ever, if not the steepest, and it puts fans pretty far from the action, in addition to giving them vertigo.
Risking vertigo is much better than trying to rubberneck around the people sitting in front of you, the basket, the floor moppers, the ushers and everybody else that obstructs your view when there's no slope to the seating area.
Even if they set up the BOK Center like most NBA arenas, the sightlines behind the basket wouldn't be that great. As an average height person, I've been unable to see much when a slightly above average height person sits in front of me at a hockey/basketball venue.
But that's just a general gripe with arenas built for hockey, which it seems most major arenas are.
Places like Conseco Fieldhouse and the FedEx Forum are among the few pro arenas with good sightlines because they didn't build them with hockey in mind.
At most college basketball games, the seats along the sidelines in the lower level are spoken for (season ticket holders, advertisers, school bigwigs, etc).
Behind the basket is the only place a regular non season ticket holder such as myself can afford to sit and still have decent seats.
Sunday's setup at the BOK Center made sure any affordable seats behind the basket were bad seats. And it was a small-time setup at a venue that's supposedly as good as any in the country.