Fisch Tank: CCU Arena

Thanks for diving into the Fisch Tank.

This week’s topic is almost not a topic, but I am going to dive into it anyway. Let’s look at the Coastal Carolina (not going to happen) arena situation.
Tonight is the final home game of the regular season for the Chanticleers at Kimbel Arena (gymnasium). It seats 1,000 people in which only seven hundred show up on average, which is pretty good for a division II school. Countless times this season the new and well regarded Head coach Cliff Ellis has had to wave his hands in the air to get people on their feet and enthused to cheer in crucial points of the game. When I generally take a look around the population of attendees is closer to the average age of fifty five than twenty. Now I understand Coastal Carolina is not a huge school and consists of a lot of commuters, yet they should still be able to have a bigger student section. I have only scene one kid consistently going ape for the teal and black. I don’t know his name, but if you go to a game he sits under the hoop by the band and is threatened by the referees once every four games or so for his behavior.

Now that I have scattered some thoughts and background on what it is like there, let’s look at why this arena ordeal is not happening anytime soon. First and foremost, football feeds the beast. CCU is going to take care of their football program that shows promise before they touch hoops. Second, they can’t even sell out Brooks Stadium most of the time, so how do you think they will be able to sell out a multi-thousand seat arena for hoops. Third, the company that was heading up the project had dropped the ball more than Jerome Simpson did in his whole career.

The Buzz factor is: he never saw them building this thing and that is one of the reasons he skipped out of town. If Buzz Peterson had top facilities for a smaller Division I school and an arena to recruit, are you trying to tell me he would have taken off faster Ben Johnson on the juice. I think he may have stayed, but the past is the past as far as the future, I say 2015 is when you will start to see some ground work on the new Arena.

Coastal needs to start small and think big, get some students to fill a whole side of the gym. The reason it’s a gym to me, I saw much bigger gymnasiums in South Dakota, than what CCU calls an arena. They need give away nights, and promote their team and upcoming games better. When UNC-Asheville brought 7’6 Kenny George to town, it sold out, they need to promote all games like that. Jack Leasure is going for history tonight by attempting to break a 3-point Big South record. They need to let that be known. So as I go to cover CCU tonight against High Point, I am hoping to see a packed house, but I won’t be surprised if it isn’t.

Log In | Register as a new member