Changes coming to EagleBank Arena?

Dawgs99

Starter
I find this article frustrating. No mention of any actual changes coming to EBA. Was the point of this article to announce that the university hired someone to look into what to do with the building? Is that really news worthy? Call me when there are actual plans to fix up the place ala The Robbins Center.
 

mkaufman1

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I mean it’s the mason way. Brad and officials toured other arenas in like 2014 to see what they could do. It’s 2021 and they are still “seeing what they can do”.

Maybe a new arena by 2040.
 

GMUgemini

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I mean it’s the mason way. Brad and officials toured other arenas in like 2014 to see what they could do. It’s 2021 and they are still “seeing what they can do”.

Maybe a new arena by 2040.

That’s what I thought. How are they still studying this instead of unveiling their plan? Makes no sense.
 

KAOriginal

All-American
I mean it’s the mason way. Brad and officials toured other arenas in like 2014 to see what they could do. It’s 2021 and they are still “seeing what they can do”.

Maybe a new arena by 2040.

Have we not learned that this is the Mason way when it comes to athletics?

It's almost a case study in gas lighting. Constantly told how important athletics, esp men's basketball is to the University. They act as if they are giving us the world.

Yet the adminstration moves slower than a dead snail or not all on anything reasonably important to making a difference to the program.
 

GMUgemini

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You could understand it with the other facilities (soccer stadium, baseball field, etc.) but EBA is a cash cow and also a community asset (given how many non-university shows are there, and you'd think they'd want to keep that as state of the art as possible.
 

mkaufman1

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You could understand it with the other facilities (soccer stadium, baseball field, etc.) but EBA is a cash cow and also a community asset (given how many non-university shows are there, and you'd think they'd want to keep that as state of the art as possible.

They at least brought some upgrades to the building within the last 5 years that were like 10 years overdue, but yeah going forward they need to really think about something state of the art. It can only help.

I'm not going to put out exactly what I was told in confidence, but I was told that athletics facilities are part of the master plan going forward. Take that for what it is.
 

KAOriginal

All-American
They at least brought some upgrades to the building within the last 5 years that were like 10 years overdue, but yeah going forward they need to really think about something state of the art. It can only help.

I'm not going to put out exactly what I was told in confidence, but I was told that athletics facilities are part of the master plan going forward. Take that for what it is.

I have been told in confidence that we don't have a "master plan" anymore.

As part of the social justice realignment, that word could not be used. Cannot even use the plan now, even if renamed.
 

mkaufman1

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I have been told in confidence that we don't have a "master plan" anymore.

As part of the social justice realignment, that word could not be used. Cannot even use the plan now, even if renamed.

funny, but simply not true.
 

MasonSAE4

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Even if changes are in the master plan, those things are largely aspirational. Go look at the old Mason Master plan and tell me how that worked out. Even the buildings that do get built look five times uglier in their final design. The Health and Human Services building was supposed to have this gorgeous pond with a pedestrian bridge in front of it and instead they just unearthed some septic water.
 

mkaufman1

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Even if changes are in the master plan, those things are largely aspirational. Go look at the old Mason Master plan and tell me how that worked out. Even the buildings that do get built look five times uglier in their final design. The Health and Human Services building was supposed to have this gorgeous pond with a pedestrian bridge in front of it and instead they just unearthed some septic water.

Yeah- what is in the plan and what actually happens are two different things usually. I haven't looked at the new one or been a part of anything, it was just told to me when I was discussing facilities about an "athletics facilities part of the plan".

At the rate Mason goes, anything they implement will be when I am in a nursing home.
 

GMUgemini

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Even if changes are in the master plan, those things are largely aspirational. Go look at the old Mason Master plan and tell me how that worked out. Even the buildings that do get built look five times uglier in their final design. The Health and Human Services building was supposed to have this gorgeous pond with a pedestrian bridge in front of it and instead they just unearthed some septic water.

Yes, splitting off the track from the soccer stadium (as was shown in the last master plan) would be a big improvement and would help with the atmosphere at soccer games (if they bothered to promote the team), especially if they went with an intimate 2,500-3,000 seat modern soccer specific stadium. And, you know, had they just dragged the D.C. United deal over the finish line they could have just had Segra Field there:

FirstGame11-e1573670033888.jpg


But, yes, a tear down and rebuild of the field house as well as a big renovation of EBA would be 1a and 1b on the list of improvements needed.
 

MasonSAE4

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Yes, splitting off the track from the soccer stadium (as was shown in the last master plan) would be a big improvement and would help with the atmosphere at soccer games (if they bothered to promote the team), especially if they went with an intimate 2,500-3,000 seat modern soccer specific stadium. And, you know, had they just dragged the D.C. United deal over the finish line they could have just had Segra Field there:

FirstGame11-e1573670033888.jpg


But, yes, a tear down and rebuild of the field house as well as a big renovation of EBA would be 1a and 1b on the list of improvements needed.
Mason Stadium is such a f**king embarrassment. But I have a hard time seeing changes coming considering we can't even fun an outfield wall for baseball.

That random rendering from a few years back was gorgeous. I would kill for a good soccer stadium. But alas, we'll probably just get a Paisano's blimp that can drop written warnings to people at basketball games who get too loud.
 

Pikapppatri8

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I find this article frustrating. No mention of any actual changes coming to EBA. Was the point of this article to announce that the university hired someone to look into what to do with the building? Is that really news worthy? Call me when there are actual plans to fix up the place ala The Robbins Center.

Reading the article. I think they are looking at potential opportunities for upgrading or replacing EBA Arena. It has been mentioned in previous master plan updates. The reason an article would be written about it is that EBA is used by a lot of stakeholders to include all the regional high schools for graduation.
 

ephoops

Starter
Reading the article. I think they are looking at potential opportunities for upgrading or replacing EBA Arena. It has been mentioned in previous master plan updates. The reason an article would be written about it is that EBA is used by a lot of stakeholders to include all the regional high schools for graduation.

There is an obvious precedent in the state. UVA replaced University Hall (approx 8,500 seats) with JPJ Arena in 2006 (seats approx. 15,000 for basketball). JPJ cost about $130 to build (likely $175 -200 MM if built today). Paul Tudor Jones gave $35 MM for construction costs. The arena is named after his father.
 
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