Crisler Arena renamed The Crisler Center

Submitted by Wolverine Devotee on

Per Michael Rothstein twitter.

https://twitter.com/#!/mikerothstein

"Greetings from the Crisler Center (new name as of yesterday) where Christmas music is plentiful. Oh, basketball in 31 minutes, too"

Here is the reason:

"@ChrisVannini They are changing it to the entire place (practice facillity, arena)"

MGoBoard
Basketball

goldenmug8

December 22nd, 2011 at 6:17 PM ^

I woulda been kinda mad if Brandon changed any other part of that name...

I mean technically it is still the Crisler Arena, which is part of the Crisler Center, right?

Joined: 03/23/2010

MGoPoints: 447

Wolverine Devotee

December 22nd, 2011 at 7:19 PM ^

I mean when Michigan eventually moves out of Yost and needs a new arena. I love Yost but I can't see it lasting past 2025. The program deserves a much bigger place than Yost. And when they get it, rename it the Red Berenson Centre (Centre because Red is canadian). They should keep Yost up though and use the rink as a practice facility or make it a museum that displays all of Michigan's championship trophies and make the rink open for open-skate.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

BlueDragon

December 22nd, 2011 at 7:28 PM ^

make it a museum that displays all of Michigan's championship trophies and make the rink open for open-skate.
Sounds like a decent Tuesday night date for the 2030 married-with-kids homeowner, or a worthy pilgrimage stop for a group watching another game that same day or weekend. Not to mention youth hockey events. Yost could be even more valuable to the AD after the team moves on to the next barn.

Joined: 11/14/2010

MGoPoints: 21757

Wolverine Devotee

December 22nd, 2011 at 9:22 PM ^

I'm already in the process of using Google Sketch to make the Red Berenson Centre. The guy who made the New Olympia Stadium blog with all of his google sketch designs of the future barn of the Wings, is along the lines of what I'm doing. Hockey barns are supposed to be classy and pay tribute and homage to your past. Yost should stay up and preserved just like the old Weinburg Coliseum (home of Michigan hockey before Yost).

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

WindyCityBlue

December 22nd, 2011 at 8:47 PM ^

...who thinks they should have changed the name completely. I mean, it's a basketball arena named after a football great. I understand we are football school, but it seems it wouldn't be too outlandish to name after Cazzie Russel or equivalent.

Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 40451

Alton

December 22nd, 2011 at 9:10 PM ^

It's not a basketball arena named after a football coach, it's a basketball arena named after the athletic director who had it built. 

Crisler gets overshadowed by his predecessor (Yost) and his successor (Canham), but Michigan probably had more overall athletic success during Crisler's term as AD than any other time in their history.

Joined: 07/05/2008

MGoPoints: 13273

WindyCityBlue

December 22nd, 2011 at 9:56 PM ^

...but I'm pretty sure he was also our football coach.  He was probably most known at Michigan as a coach not an AD - after all, he introduced the winged helmet at Michigan.

Either way, whether named while he was our AD or not, our basketball stadium is named after a former football coach.  I'm a big a MBB fan (not as big as football) and it never sat right with me.  I have always hope that we would show a renewed commitment to basketball with a new arena named after something basketball related (or just rename the current arena).

Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 40451

Wolverine Devotee

December 22nd, 2011 at 10:06 PM ^

Show a renewed commitment?!? Have you been to Crisler recently? They completely redid the interior, concourse, scoreboard, seating, court paint job and a new monster scoreboard. It was a multi-million dollar project. I think that's commitment. Plus a brand new practice facility, something the school NEVER had, including lockerooms, practice courts and training rooms for both the men and women Michigan ballers. The only sport that will get a new arena within the next 15 years will most likely be hockey since they need an arena the SIZE of the program's success.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

WindyCityBlue

December 22nd, 2011 at 10:31 PM ^

...but I hear it looks great.  I suppose I was going a bit overboard.  Mea Culpa!

However, these improvements were far overdue and after updgrades to other facilities that probably have less significance to our Michigan image (i.e. baseball).  I still think its not too much to ask to name our basketball arena after someone more closely tied to basketball.  While its quite obvious that we are (and always will be) a football school, I think we can satiate prospective b-ball recruits more if they know they will be playing in, say Cazzie Russell complex or Rudy T Center, etc etc, as oppose to a football coach.   

Just some loose comparisons:

Duke - Cameron: named after their former basketball coach

Kentucky - Rupp: um...

Kansas - Allen Fieldhouse: named after former basketball coach

Arizona- McKale Center: named after former basketball coach

North Carolina - Dean Smith: um...

I know these are just a few examples, but I think there is a valid correlation (not necessarilty causation)

Joined: 07/23/2008

MGoPoints: 40451

Wolverine Devotee

December 22nd, 2011 at 10:51 PM ^

Yost Fieldhouse (now Yost Ice Arena) was built while Yost was AD at Michigan in 1923, and he named it after himself. Fielding Yost had no direct association with the hockey program, other than making it a varsity sport and then the hockey team moved into the fieldhouse in 1973 converting it to a hockey arena. Yost will always be Yost. The "Berenson Rink" idea is rather pointless given the old barn won't last much longer due to it's old age and the program getting bigger. I can almost assure you that the new hockey arena will be named after Red Berenson. The only way Crisler gets a direct 180 name change is when the teams move out someday, which will not be for most likely 20-25 years in my estimation with these new rennovations. Of course if the success of the program is very consistent and ticket demands go up, the lifetime of Crisler may be be shorter than 20-25 years. By then, who knows who that new arena would be named after because there could be a player someday who is the equal to Michael Jordan or a there could be a coach the equivalent of John Wooden-success. The other option that would be a lot sooner would be a Russell Court at The Crisler Center name change.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

Bando Calrissian

December 22nd, 2011 at 10:44 PM ^

Michigan Hockey needs the most signature building in college hockey.  And that arena is Yost Ice Arena.

Give it a rest.  Given the amount of cash that's about to get dumped into Yost this offseason, and the commitment Michigan has made to that building over the years, it's not going anywhere.  The capacity is probably right at about the ceiling Michigan can reasonably fill on any given night, down year or championship run alike.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 67973

Wolverine Devotee

December 22nd, 2011 at 11:04 PM ^

You really think it will last 15-20 more years? If so, Yost will be over 100 years old. I think they will always keep Yost up, as a practice facility or a museum & keep the rink up for open skate or youth hockey, but I don't think it makes it past 2025 as the home of Michigan hockey. It will be very hard to let go of for me but it's inevitable that day will come. It felt like someone took my heart out and stomped on it 50 times when the Olympia in Detroit closed and was torn down. But like I said, I firmly believe they will preserve Yost and try to do what I said above.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

Wolverine Devotee

December 22nd, 2011 at 11:19 PM ^

It's a sports arena. There isn't an arena, I know of at least, that is 100 years old or older. The AD by then might want a bigger arena too. Ralph Englestand Arena at North Dakota is a perfect example. Can't say the same for notre dame, because they played in a bingo hall at joyce.

Joined: 06/29/2009

MGoPoints: 31528

snarling wolverine

December 22nd, 2011 at 11:30 PM ^

Well, how many sports arenas were built before 1911?  Part of the reason why there aren't any that are 100 years old is that there literally weren't many in existence a century ago.  Yost was one of the first of its kind. 

North Dakota is apples/oranges.  Hockey's the biggest game in town over there.  It's to them what football is to us.

 

Joined: 12/14/2011

MGoPoints: 97906

Bando Calrissian

December 23rd, 2011 at 12:33 AM ^

You realize The Ralph is essentially an NHL arena tossed up in the prairie by an eccentric, Nazi-sympathyzing, casino-owning Sioux alum, and there's no way they could have justified it without the fact that Ralph Engelstad wanted to build a temple to his alma mater and the Fighting Sioux mascot, right?  It's a completely different animal at a different kind of university.

I've been to The Ralph.  It's amazingly beautiful.  But it's not Yost.  I know you're really passionate about this little idea you have about the "Red Berenson Center," but the fact of the matter is that Yost IS Michigan Hockey in a million ways the Coliseum never was.  It's a perfect capacity, and has been able to support the infrastructure this program has required over the years.  For those of us who remember what Yost was like before the 1996 renovations, it's made a fantastic transformation over the last 15 years.  We don't need a 10-12,000 seat NHL-style in-the-round arena.  And I don't see New Yost springing up anywhere in the crowded South Campus complex, either.

Yost is Michigan.  Period.  Let's quit it with the "Red Berenson Center" speculation.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 67973