The Sicatoka

That's "box" lacrosse and yes, The Ralph would be a place to play that. However, the NCAA plays "field" lacrosse and you'd play that on the turf in Alerus Center.

From the NCAA, here are average home attendance numbers for the 2003-2004 season: Team Men Women UND 2550 2387 NDSU 2440 2512 SDSU 3375 2484 USD 3076 2006 Augie 2591 1891 SCSU 2764 <1588 (not in top 10) Mont 3605 4210 Mont St 3644 1779 Weber St 4984 963 E Wash 2765 753 Port St 981 284 Sac St 1017 318 Idaho St 2140 883 N Az 1782 408 BSC 2672 1376 NCC 2574 1767 DI 5154 1572 DII 864 472 DIII 427 212

Amen.

The only folks crying down there are the ones who didn't by season tickets. And that's what sports teams want: season ticket holders. If you can walk up to the windows and buy a ticket and get in that's not what any sports team wants. They want full, pre-sold arenas. If they turn some folks away at the game day window that might encourage more folks to buy the full season ticket package for next year. (That's what they want.)

Not fully funded there; not fully funded here. I believe you'll have better "gate" with lax (compared to those two) which could solve some of the problem.

Just another note about the new UND VB coaching opening: UND's senior womens administrator, Betty Ralston, was a decorated volleyball coach before going into athletic administration at Eastern Illinois. I'm sure UND will be able to find a volleyball coach willing to coach in and recruit to The Betty.

Read the notions in the thread that brings up lacrosse. Quick summary: - if go DI, drop baseball, softball, and golf (M/W) and add M/W lax. - it'd be a Title IX "wash" - M lax would (hopefully) draw better than what we have now Read the thread that was linked to.

And now the plot thickens .... http://www.fightingsioux.com/sports/wvball...RELEASE_ID=4558

Hmmm .... what to do, what to do, in Grand Forks, if you wanted to host both hockey and a state basketball tourney in the same town, at the same time, what to do, what ever to do .... http://www.theralph.com http://www.aleruscenter.com Question for someone who's seen them and counted: How big are the end unit seating systems at The Betty? I'm guessing about 9 or 10 rows and about 38 seats wide for about 750 "end seats" total. I ask that because the same units at The Al are 19 rows by 39 seats (741 seats) each (for a total of 1482 on the ends). Yes, I counted. Could the end units from The Al be used in The Betty? If my estimate is close, instant extra (roughly) 800 seats and suddenly "4000" seats.

Who cares what the other guys built. The key questions are: - Are you consistently filling yours? - Do you have somewhere to go if yours no longer is big enough? This conversation is based around one or two dates where it was full. You don't build churches for Christmas and Easter, especially when you have a cathedral next door and another down the street. As far as "no atmosphere in The Ralph", why not try to get more BB fans out consistently and create the atmosphere? As far as schedule, Wisconsin (Kohl) and Ohio State (Schott) do just fine making schedules work. It can be done. To me, the extra $10-12 MM would be better spent on an indoor training facility. Again, we'll agree to disagree.

What headaches? These? I guess we'll have to agree to disagree because I don't see the logic in building a 5500 seat arena (that'd probably not have the configurability of The Betty) next to an arena with a 5500 seat lower bowl.

Starting here also http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?s=...ndpost&p=128975 and reading pages 2 and 3 of that thread give some good pro/con thoughts. The "similar to soccer" notion is new (but not a selling point to me because I'd rather watch paint dry than watch soccer ).

But those 2000 seats would have doubled the cost of the arena. For example: Gonzaga - 6,000 seats, $25 MM http://www.spokesmanreview.com/sports/story.asp?ID=37430 Northern Illinois - 6,100 seats, $22+ MM Any hope of getting Dale and the football lads, and the other teams, an indoor training facility would have been all gone.

Which is why some of us have started to advocate, in the event of a "DI UND", dropping baseball and golf, sure money losers, and adding mens lacrosse, something that has a possible facility, would have potential gate revenues, and better chances for titles than any of the afore mentioned. (Rather than rehashing the lacrosse conversation, start reading here if interested: http://siouxsports.com/forums/index.php?s=...ndpost&p=128601 ) If you're serious about getting "bang for the buck" (cost/benefit ratio), you have to look at everything with a truly open mind.

I still believe that the sizing of The Betty is right because of the following: Expected crowd : Best facility 0 - 3300 : The Betty 3300 - 6500 : The Ralph (lower bowl, plus suites, plus Club Rooms) 6500 - 9000 : The Al in BB configuration (if 13500 around a FB field make it loud, that should do)* 9000 - 13000 : The Ralph (ala Kansas at UND) * If The Al doesn't work for that, go back to The Ralph for that range and open the upper deck. The Betty added needed training and workout space. Sure, it's not perfect. But it's four more courts and lockers and a weight room and a study room and a film room and office space. And it was relatively inexpensive ($8 MM) because much of the infrastructure for an arena already existed (due to The Ralph). Sure, you could have spent more like $20 MM for a new 5000-6000 seat arena, but why? You already have The Ralph and The Al. What you wouldn't have in that scenario is the possibility of putting up an indoor training facility for about $10 MM some time in the not so distant future. I see this as a choice broken down as: - three great arenas, but not much training space, and not much athletic facilities money left - two great arenas, a very good non-conference BB and VB arena, and training space, and the potential for even more space or facilities for other sports Not everyone has to agree it was the right choice, but I always heard RT say, and still hear Buning say, the issue wasn't playing facilities, but training facilities and facilities for the other sports.

The "where froms" surprised me. The shear number of recruits surprised me more. Wazzup widdat?

Gee, what a couple of crazy concepts hidden in that sentence: - Control what's yours to control. - Winning solves myriads of problems.

Not according to RT, back then, would've it been cheaper to redo the Hyslop. I heard him say it at Boosters. Part of the issue was renovation would have meant asbestos remediation work --> big bucks. (Asbestos is best left alone. It's fine if you leave it alone and don't mess with it. Once you tear into it you have to follow all of the OSHA and EPA regulations.) And all of those things could have been done. There's just one item not addressed in that list: Total (all sports) available training space. That issue wouldn't have been addressed.

Looking at this from a profit and loss point of view, and using the 2004 EADA data, if you only want UND playing sports that it profits at then say good-bye to everything except mens hockey and womens basketball. And I've given the easy solution to you all already: Rework old REA into a new basketball facility. It held 6067 for hockey so it'd hold more for basketball. If The Betty isn't good enough, why aren't basketball fans out raising the funds for an arena? It's not like they're short from paying for The Betty.

I'm tellin' ya, they'd rather play them in The Ralph (think: Club Rooms and suites). Then again, if someone ponied up the bling I still think moving the remaining sports out of Hyslop to The Betty and renovating old REA for BB/VB only wouldn't be a bad solution either. Getting Athletics completely out of Hyslop would open that space up for academic buidings down the road which wouldn't be a bad thing. The only "catch" in this notion is "Hyslop pool". Then again, I thought I read a musing by someone in student government about adding an aquatic center to the new Wellness Center.

I dunno. Some grassy field or park with trees maybe?

Too many folks trying to ride zebras would be my guess.

Why is it easier to play on the road this year? My suspicion is "fewer distractions".

Clean out completely. Start anew.

Sure she does, just the one that grows peaches, not the one that docks lakers. ;)