THIS IS LONG, IT IS THE LONGEST THING I HAVE WRITTEN IN MONTHS, BUT I HAD IDEAS AND A SPARK AND NO WORK TOMORROW. FOR THE LAZY AMONG YOU LOT, JUST SKIP THE POST, FOR THOSE AT WORK LOOKING TO KILL TIME OR THOSE WHO FANCY INTERESTING IDEAS WHICH MAY PROVE THOUGHT PROVOKING EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE, PLEASE READ ON AND DISCUSS. If you find it worth while, give me another topic and I'll write a well researched piece-we have off this week and I just gave my students a project so I have no papers to grade and nothing to do but golf.
When you watch games at Duke/UNC/UK/WU/UM/etc, you immediately note that this is a big time college basketball game, even if you didn't know who was playing. The arena's a pristine, the fans are loud and unified and it LOOKS like a big time college basketball game. Aside from a select few, UConn home games do not feature this and there is no reason that cannot change.
Our arena should be as big of a home court advantage as possible-and while it probably is record wise-much of that disparity has to do with the annual 5+ weaklings we play early). Beyond the obvious cosmetic upgrades to fix the crumbling sealing, pathetic excuse for concessions and concrete castle look (even on the inside it's all plastic and concrete), there are a number of things I believe would improve the in game atmosphere, the ascetic of the arena and program and create a truly intimidating arena to play in.
First off, as OP said, you need to find a way to dim the lights on everything but the court, benches and a few rows. Not only does this look better on TV as it highlights the court, but it masks the fact that half our fans show up in blue or white and the rest are wearing every color of the rainbow (unlike say, Wisco/OSU or UK/KU where everything in the arena looks red or blue. This has always annoyed the crap out of me: how hard is it to wear blue or take off your jacket?. I can think of another option to take advantage of the super white lights too-either make every game at Gampel a complete white out or make one half of the arena white and one blue (by putting TV's on seats obviously). I can see a few reasons people might not like this, but it would immediately become a school trademark and be instantly recognizable as our thing. Opposing teams would literally be playing in the midst of a "Yukon snowstorm". If thy chose the blue-white option, we could steal the Penn St "BLUE-WHITE" at the start of halves or something (We could steal the chant anyway-more on that later).
Second, the student section needs to be upgraded. Right now-at no fault of the students- it is pretty pathetic (the students have not been great in volume or attendance at lesser games, but I cannot be too harsh on the latter), our in game and TV appearance/experience are both lacking. They need to find a way to bring unity to a student section that puts 1/4 of the kids in prime spots and the rest up in the rafters making zero noise. I understand that apparently our tenuous financial position means giving the students one sideline is out of the question, but what if we compromised. Instead of the 2nd far end upper deck section, what if the SS started behind the opponents bench and morphed into the behind the net lower/upper? The sideline has 5 real sections (plus two corner pieces with 10-12 seats each), so you would still have 3/5's for season ticket sales and you could put a rail/barrier on the end of the SS closest to mid court (ST holders) so that students cannot use the same walkway as ST holders and must all use the middle steps (look at a seating chart it will make sense). This is another feature hat would be incredibly unique, look good on TV and improve our home court advantage. Bringing the sections closer would devastate opposing teams and increase the SS's collective volume both because they are closer together and the increased motivation due to having a legit chance at affecting opponents.
Third, the way we use wall space for banners, to my eye, looks incredibly cheap. Perhaps the lighting set up permits it, but I believe all National Championship, Final Four and Retired numbers should actually hang from the rafters. You can leave conference titles, E8/S16 and other minor markers on the wall-and maybe make them bigger with more space-but the real banners should be displayed proudly and hung over every opponents head. Also, I would love a simpler design on the banners-I hate having the logo of each FF there. I would make them solid UConn blue with White Collegiate Blocker lettering. Above, in smaller font, would read "University of Connecticut":the middle would say "National Championship *Year*" in the largest letters: and the bottom would read "Division 1 Men's Basketball". The simple, classic design reeks of the tradition we are always accused of lacking and put forth a very classy, understated message-after all, the banner itself is not what matters, its just a reminder to all whose house your in. The same would go for Player jerseys although I would do those in White with the same collegiate block lettering. Again, our marketing department has tried to (IMO) develop an imagine of a forward thinking, with the times program (fiercer logo replacing a classic, uniforms), but has utterly failed in matching the brand to the on court success. Without a Nike/UA alum/connection to truly be at the forefront of the modern branding, I say we go classic and shove it down peoples throats that we've been up here for 25 years, we are in the same league as those powers. Obviously we also need to drastically improve our merchandise and expand its reach but thats for another day.
Finally if any of you are still reading my dissertation, I return to the issue of in game chants, fan unity and atmosphere. None of us on here have the power to orchestrate this, but just as UConn soccer has the "Goal Patrol", men's basketball should have some sort of student section leaders. If they were big enough, they might get an audience with Slow Warde to make a case for improved conditions, but at present all I expect two things. First, they-along with the help of the BY, should come up with some new in game chants other than "U-C-O-N-N" & ""U-Conn" *Huskies* *Huskies* WOO". I love them both, but you can only hear them so often in one game. Secondly, the StSec leader or Leading Committee would do research on opposing teams to target individual players. This may not improve the experience for the TV viewer, but if done right, it will annoy the other team and get our guys pumped (our new great chants), but loose as well (us making fun of opponents).
FIND A WAY TO FIX CONCESSIONS
KNOCK DOWN GAMPEL AND THE FIELD HOUSE, REBUILD A TWO TIERED, FULL BOWL ARENA
