Should Basketball Use the Ralph?

[nodak651]

Anyone think the athletic department will move some basketball games into the Ralph now that there will be more open dates?  I like the idea of packing the Betty to the rafters, but I think it could help with recruiting (and attendance) if we could tell prospects that they will be playing some games there.  I can't see there being enough demand in Grand Forks to fill all of the extra women's hockey slots with concerts.

I'm not in favor of playing only one big game there - would rather just stay in the Betty, but is there any possibility of playing like 3-4+?  Could potentially host a tournament there also, like the Sanford Pentagon does (I think).

 

[SiouxVolley]

Think when we are back in the NCC we should schedule the USD and SDSU games some weekend in the REA as well as separately the NDSU one.  But make them doubleheaders with the women, even if it means a schedule adjustment.  It takes money to set up basketball in the REA, but a visit to the REA might even entice South Dakotans up.  It's not the BSA.

Without women's hockey, the State Hockey tournament can probably be permanent in the Ralph.

The Ralph should also consider getting bidding on the Class B tournament at least once if not just for getting more kids on campus.

[UND-FB-FAN]

I think they should schedule a couple weekends there, again. It would potentially draw more than the 3,000 that the Betty holds. Why? Because it's just a treat to be in that building, especially if it was a Saturday game with the bars up and running. 

I think UND could maximize UND basketball by playing in there - it would boost attendance in my opinion, particularity if they are playing the right opponent (NDSU, USD, SDSU, Montana, Weber State, etc.). 

Keep building basketball, UND. It is tremendous to have a building like the REA to potentially use; think about it. 

[geaux_sioux]

The perfect situation would be for basketball to need more room and then move in to the Ralph. It is very possible. The team needs to be really good though.

[gfhockey]

Simple questions n a simple answer

 

no

[UND-FB-FAN]

1 hour ago, gfhockey said:

Simple questions n a simple answer

 

no

Futile overexploitation of a niche sport. UND athletics should want to expand and become more competitive regionally.

There will be several weekends where the REA will go unused, unless UND decides to utilize that facility with one of the two most popular sports in the nation. 

[northernraider]

Might be a good incentive to lure in a P5 game...(Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc) even if a two for one arrangement. 

[ChesterFritz90]

3 hours ago, northernraider said:

Might be a good incentive to lure in a P5 game...(Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc) even if a two for one arrangement. 

I really like the idea of having a P5 team coming in and playing in the Ralph against UND, but I think the biggest thing is getting our WBB and MBB teams to want to play in the Ralph. They have said that they don't like playing in there because it doesn't feel like a home game to them. They supposedly like the atmosphere of the Betty more.

[fightingsioux4life]

6 hours ago, ChesterFritz90 said:

I really like the idea of having a P5 team coming in and playing in the Ralph against UND, but I think the biggest thing is getting our WBB and MBB teams to want to play in the Ralph. They have said that they don't like playing in there because it doesn't feel like a home game to them. They supposedly like the atmosphere of the Betty more.

Of course they do. The Betty, when full, is a very intimidating environment for a visiting team. Why else do you think the women won the Big Sky tournament when it was held in Grand Forks and haven't done it since? Basketball has been tried in the main arena before and it didn't work. It won't work any better now.

[The Sicatoka]

I believe Alerus in basketball configuration is a better hoops venue than The Ralph. Why? You can better "cozy up" the fans to the court by design in The Al. 

[lawkota]

I bet I've attended over 300 events in the Ralph, from hockey to concerts to the f'n circus. And if you asked for my top 5, one would be a basketball game.

IMHO, the possibility is there.

[darell1976]

Keep basketball in the Betty. 

[nodakhoops]

7 hours ago, ChesterFritz90 said:

I really like the idea of having a P5 team coming in and playing in the Ralph against UND, but I think the biggest thing is getting our WBB and MBB teams to want to play in the Ralph. They have said that they don't like playing in there because it doesn't feel like a home game to them. They supposedly like the atmosphere of the Betty more.

I am willing to bet Jones and Brew would be all for this with the following.

Each gets 3-4 games a year in Ralph (Saturday night when men's hockey is gone would be perfect.) 

Each has a locker room there. Betty would still be main locker room but also have their own in the Ralph for those games and practice there on game weeks after men's hockey has left town. There is space for this now I'm guessing.

Each team has access to Ralph weight room as well as Betty. Women's hockey used to so I'm guessing you could fill there time in the training area with bball.

Talk about bringing the wow factor to recruits. You go to one of the best mid major facility packages in the country by doing that. Willing to bet the coaches would be all for this. If UND wants to take basketball to the next level getting them access and making them an almost joint or half joint tennet at REA would be smart.

Omaha does this with their facility for all games I believe, so it's doable.

im a bigger fan of the Betty but the Ralph will help bring a new level of basketball recruit to UND imo.

also think with title 9 they may have to give WBB some of this stuff or another women's program but basketball makes most sense.

 

[SiouxVolley]

If the cuts have demonstrated anything to this board, a school needs to maximize revenue to the great extent without harming winning.  WIH did the opposite.  What school would use a 12,000 seat arena for games that attract less than 1000 people that don't actually pay for a ticket?  That's a gross misuse of an asset, which would drive the owner broke over time.  Not saying mbb or wbb is the answer, but coming off this championship season, what better time to try it again?  Helped managed an industrial facility and if anything was underutilized, their would be cuts in bad times.  That is what's happening here.

WIH had a budget of $1.9 mill.  MBB has a budget of $1.5 mill.  Meanwhile, even bottom schools in the MVC like Drake have mbb budgets more than $2.0

[geaux_sioux]

2 hours ago, The Sicatoka said:

I believe Alerus in basketball configuration is a better hoops venue than The Ralph. Why? You can better "cozy up" the fans to the court by design in The Al. 

Having played in the Alerus I can vouch that it is terrible for basketball.

[northernraider]

33 minutes ago, geaux_sioux said:

Having played in the Alerus I can vouch that it is terrible for basketball.

I almost find it terrible for football besides the great crowd noise! But there is another board for that complaint.

Anyway, just read an op-ed piece in the WSJ about how the NCAA should stop Final Fours in large Football stadiums due to a loss of "coziness".   Can someone tell me the size difference between a hockey rink and basketball court. 

[ChesterFritz90]

2 hours ago, nodakhoops said:

I am willing to bet Jones and Brew would be all for this with the following.

Each gets 3-4 games a year in Ralph (Saturday night when men's hockey is gone would be perfect.) 

Each has a locker room there. Betty would still be main locker room but also have their own in the Ralph for those games and practice there on game weeks after men's hockey has left town. There is space for this now I'm guessing.

....

To the first highlighted point, you would have to be careful. If you notice, even when the MHKY team is out of town, the school is careful not to schedule anything during the game time for the men's hockey team where ever they are playing. They know that basketball games scheduled during a hockey game would suffer on attendance because many people are going to be at home or at a bar watching the game. The school did have a good change this year with having game times later than the normal 2pm during Saturday's with no hockey in town. I think it helped with overall atmosphere at the games and the way the season went down for both MBB and WBB we are most likely to see the atmosphere flourish more (I hope). Men's hockey, though, is an unwieldy animal though, and can cause eyes to be diverted away, no matter how far away they are playing.

To the second highlighted point, we have to watch ourselves after these most recent cuts, practice on the game weeks may sound like a good idea but we would have the added cost of having a crew come in (they need more people than the normal REA staff) to help cover the ice and install the floor every time, which would not exactly be a cheap endeavor. It would have to be limited to only before they have games in there to make it more cost efficient, but even then we cross the line of the players not feeling like it is their home floor. We are at a disadvantage because of the fact that UND does not own this facility, meaning that the school has to pay for anything new it wants. I'm sure they get a discount because UND is the main tenant, but its nothing like owning your own building.

1 hour ago, SiouxVolley said:

If the cuts have demonstrated anything to this board, a school needs to maximize revenue to the great extent without harming winning.  WIH did the opposite.  What school would use a 12,000 seat arena for games that attract less than 1000 people that don't actually pay for a ticket?  That's a gross misuse of an asset, which would drive the owner broke over time.  Not saying mbb or wbb is the answer, but coming off this championship season, what better time to try it again?  Helped managed an industrial facility and if anything was underutilized, their would be cuts in bad times.  That is what's happening here.

WIH had a budget of $1.9 mill.  MBB has a budget of $1.5 mill.  Meanwhile, even bottom schools in the MVC like Drake have mbb budgets more than $2.0

I agree that this is probably the best time to revisit the thought of maybe having games back in this building, but, and this goes back to a point I made up above, we need to watch ourselves. We just got through some very ugly, very public cuts, and any spending that happens with UND athletics is going to be under very strict watch by the public and those who felt wronged by the cuts. Having basketball games in there is a novel idea and can be good, but it needs to be approached very gently.

[SiouxVolley]

1 hour ago, northernraider said:

I almost find it terrible for football besides the great crowd noise! But there is another board for that complaint.

Anyway, just read an op-ed piece in the WSJ about how the NCAA should stop Final Fours in large Football stadiums due to a loss of "coziness".   Can someone tell me the size difference between a hockey rink and basketball court. 

A college BB court is like 50' x 94'.

An NHL rink is 85' x 200'.

The REA seats on the curvature are not good for bball, but straight on seats are fine.  

[Siouxfan69]

1.  Building a 3000+ seat arena for D I basketball made no sense at all .  The junior college at Wahpeton has a facility that seats that many.  When  Bill Fitch had his Phil Jackson lead teams and Dave Gunther had his program on a roll it was common to have 5,000-6,000+ fans in the old Hyslop.  I know, I was in the crowd at many of those games.  Those were years when we were in the top 5 in NCAA Div II attendance.

2.  Coach Jones wants the cozy confines and atmosphere of the Betty?  Come on man, this is D1 basketball.  Grow a pair, market your team properly and put thousands of more butts in the seats of the Ralph for your big demand games. NThe extra money that would bring in would be very welcome.

[Nodak78]

I think the Ralph would be a great for marketing a preseason tournament.  Bring in a P5 and a couple other teams plus.  set it up so UND would play the final game against the P5.

[northernraider]

Here is a list of all the D1 arenas and capacity. No doubt playing in the Ralph would put us in the better half of the list.

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_basketball_arenas?wprov=sfla1

[Sioux>Bison]

The NDSU game in the Ralph was pretty fun. The corners were blocked off to fill up the sideline seats. I want to go to a BB game in the Ralph again. If BB ticket demand goes up you will see games moved to the Ralph. It's the natural progression .

[Siouxfan69]

When Roy Williams brought the Kansas Jayhawks  into the Ralph I believe they drew around 13,000 fans.  Does anyone have access to the correct stats for that game? 

[sioux24/7]

12 minutes ago, Siouxfan69 said:

When Roy Williams brought the Kansas Jayhawks  into the Ralph I believe they drew around 13,000 fans.  Does anyone have access to the correct stats for that game? 

http://www.undsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=775007 13,280

[bincitysioux]

12 minutes ago, Siouxfan69 said:

When Roy Williams brought the Kansas Jayhawks  into the Ralph I believe they drew around 13,000 fans.  Does anyone have access to the correct stats for that game? 

13,280