(02-04-2023 09:06 AM)FairwayEagle Wrote:  Ours is old (from 1965) and the arena itself hasn’t changed a lot. We have updated dressing and office areas to be modern. There is a sales tax addition ongoing for more renovations in conjunction with the city, and that is being planned now.

But when we are playing well and the crowd is into it, it is a great old place for hoops. Thursday night vs UL should be really fun. It will definitely be the largest crowd in several years.

Pretty much what he said. It's old and a dump but like most places it can be really loud when we get 4k or more in there (cap is approx 7200) The locker room areas were renovated about 10 years ago and are pretty top notch as well as a weight room for basketball and volleyball was put in that's about average size for a 15 team member sport.

(02-04-2023 09:38 AM)JMURocks Wrote:  

(02-03-2023 06:32 PM)FrankyP Wrote:  What???!!! The Cajundome just had a fantastic $25 million interior renovation about 5-6 years ago. Totally gutted and new seats, lighting, scoreboard, etc., added. They also cut new mid-level entries, as the old configuration you just entered from the floor, so this has been a great thing for crowd flow.

About the only thing we didn’t do, and is really needed, was add/expand the suites. I think they renovated what was built in the mid-80’s, but it needs much more than that.

The Cajundome is easily top-notch in the SBC. As are all of our facilities. Well, Cajun Field is a dumpster fire, lol.

Interesting, have never seen it in person, just some photos online which might not be up to date with recent renovations. It is a place I think would be fun to visit sometime. That's also true for the majority of SBC hoops, overall superior to what CAA teams have, and even some of the newer members of AAC.

Here are some pics of it

Cajun Dome

This Conference has some really nice arenas.

ODU's Chartway Arena has 3 levels where fans sit to watch basketball games -

1) Upper Level - contains the Club Seating areas and the 16 Luxury Suites (8 on each side). It also contains the Production Booth where things such as the piped in music (not the DJ), lighting, etc. are controlled.

2) Middle Level - contains the Concessions and VIP area. People hang out there to watch the games as well while eating and socializing.

3) Lower Level - contains the majority of the seating. ODU also has a row Courtside Seating which is just a few feet off the sideline on the side of the court opposite the team benches.

There is an elevator at each end of the arena that runs between the 3 levels. You have to have a special pass to access the Club Level - which is provided with the tickets if purchased for that area.

Here is a very informative article complete with photos of the arena -

https://odusports.com/facilities/chartway-arena/3

Yeah I also really like ODU and JMU....

Our arena is in dire need of a remodel. Especially on our ceiling.

(02-04-2023 12:31 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Our arena is in dire need of a remodel. Especially on our ceiling.

Might need a bit of a facelift but from what I saw watching last week's game it's a very good venue all-in-all. I know in person is quite a bit different than seeing it on television but it certainly didn't appear to need structural changes.

(02-04-2023 12:54 PM)WARDAWG93 Wrote:  

(02-04-2023 12:31 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Our arena is in dire need of a remodel. Especially on our ceiling.

Might need a bit of a facelift but from what I saw watching last week's game it's a very good venue all-in-all. I know in person is quite a bit different than seeing it on television but it certainly didn't appear to need structural changes.

Our paint on the ceiling is in dire need of a resurfacing and coat.

We just completed an amazing remodel of our practice facility, so I imagine the ceiling could be next.

(02-03-2023 03:11 PM)SkullyMaroo Wrote:  

(02-03-2023 03:09 PM)Blue_Trombone Wrote:  I look forward to a very unbiased and objective discussion

You’re in the wrong place for that.

Stealing a line from the old war movie, "Sands of Iwo Jima":

"That's for sure, that's for dang sure."

For the record, I actually like the Cajun Dome. There is a huge capacity, but no one sits in section 300 for basketball anyway, so it is not really a problem. I have attended most of the games lately and the crowd, while not huge, have been loud and it has been fun. The seats are ample size to be comfortable and most of them provide a pretty good view of the court. The only thing that they did wrong in the renovation was putting that stupid swamp scene on the court and somewhere down the line, that disappeared. The Cajun Dome detractors are mostly a few fans that remember the glory days in Blackham Coliseum who hold on to the idea that it was the arena that created the atmosphere. Blackham is a creepy looking old cow palace that is sorely in need of a razing. (That last statement, although true, would create a riot on Ragin Pagin ) It probably could not be renovated anyway because it would require the building be brought up to code, and that would be impossible without a huge investment, but you still have a few people who insist it should be done.

(02-04-2023 12:31 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Our arena is in dire need of a remodel. Especially on our ceiling.

Y’all actually have one of my favorite arenas. I love the two sided seating structure. Very unique and seems like it would be loud! Very cool spot.

(02-04-2023 01:51 PM)Big Buds Wrote:  

(02-04-2023 12:31 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Our arena is in dire need of a remodel. Especially on our ceiling.

Y’all actually have one of my favorite arenas. I love the two sided seating structure. Very unique and seems like it would be loud! Very cool spot.

Thank you! Your arena is quite impressive as well. Here's to a fun game tonight!

(02-04-2023 01:58 PM)rileylives Wrote:  

(02-04-2023 01:51 PM)Big Buds Wrote:  

(02-04-2023 12:31 PM)rileylives Wrote:  Our arena is in dire need of a remodel. Especially on our ceiling.

Y’all actually have one of my favorite arenas. I love the two sided seating structure. Very unique and seems like it would be loud! Very cool spot.

Thank you! Your arena is quite impressive as well. Here's to a fun game tonight!

The wife and I are walking down to the game tonight and can’t wait! Should be fun!

(02-04-2023 09:41 AM)jmutoml757 Wrote:  ODU is nice. Great venue for basketball, no bad seats, and the concerts I have been to there sound great too. I was thinking the listed seating capacity is inflated based on the fixed seats in the bowl, but there is a lot of capacity on that top level and in the suites. What they do well: concessions. Seamless, grab and go set up. I thought the DJ who also served as emcee for the contests was effective. The students seemed into it. They pick their spots for the pep band. Another thing they do better: getting in and out of the parking garage was not as bad as I expected for the crowd at the game- could have been worse, like at the UVA at JMU game last year.

I think part of it is that we've been working with these facilities for 20 years. After enough time you kinda figure out how best to run it! Some of that seems like it's more logistics/standards based than infrastructure so once y'all get settled into that facility I'm sure that'll get ironed out.

I really want to go see JMU's facility. Looks great, but why on Gods green earth did the Sun Belt schedule BOTH ODU/JMU mens' bb games for Thursday nights???

(02-03-2023 07:08 PM)WARDAWG93 Wrote:  

(02-03-2023 06:44 PM)OsageJ Wrote:  We have some good looking arenas. The two that I really don't care about is ULM and USM. The round floor area moves the sideline so far from the playing floor. What reason for that design?

It was a pretty common design in the late 60's early 70's. Fant-Ewing opened in '71 as a multi-purpose facility (hence the round floor design). The lower floor held the Physical Education Dept with labs and classrooms as well as the lockerrooms.

Purdue’s and Ga. Tech’s (which is practically a twin to ours aside from being bigger) arenas were cut from that same cloth, as was Ole Miss’ former coliseum.

I’m all for the needed gutting and rebuilding of the interior, but you’d think over the decades, we would’ve at least added the extra floor seating like Ga. Tech did. Seems like a relatively inexpensive improvement that makes a huge difference.

Having been at stAtes venue with roughly 10,000 attendees, it can be something to take your breath away. We all miss that. Even when they were bad they would draw 6000. They need coaching and winning badly.

Three pages of comments and no one has mentioned the Trojan Arena at Troy. It gets my vote for the best facility. ODU and JMU are right up there Haven't seen GSU yet...looking forward to it.

The Cajundome, since the renovation, looks more like an NBA arena than anyplace else in the Sun Belt. But I'm one of those who wish the Cajuns had a basketball only facility with about 7000 seats tops.

I think for the Joe the Fan of average means, JMU's arena is great. Very close to the action and state of the art in everything. ODU's arena definitely has a leg up regarding premium seating, with the ring of self enclosed luxury suites.

(02-05-2023 09:59 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  Three pages of comments and no one has mentioned the Trojan Arena at Troy. It gets my vote for the best facility. ODU and JMU are right up there Haven't seen GSU yet...looking forward to it.

The Cajundome, since the renovation, looks more like an NBA arena than anyplace else in the Sun Belt. But I'm one of those who wish the Cajuns had a basketball only facility with about 7000 seats tops.

This part. it really feels like a NBA arena. which is a personal preference when deciding where to rank it among a college list. Just feels different.

(02-05-2023 09:59 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  Three pages of comments and no one has mentioned the Trojan Arena at Troy. It gets my vote for the best facility. ODU and JMU are right up there Haven't seen GSU yet...looking forward to it.

The Cajundome, since the renovation, looks more like an NBA arena than anyplace else in the Sun Belt. But I'm one of those who wish the Cajuns had a basketball only facility with about 7000 seats tops.

Troy as a nice place. Capacity is very good. I wish ours was about 6000. The pull closed the upper deck end seats but that just makes our attendance problems look worse.