Crisler Arena Renovations? Basketball Practice Facility? Ideas..

Submitted by anup414 on
Every once in a while I think about Michigan Basketball and how the Crisler Arena Renovation and the Basketball Practice Facility projects are going to work. This is one of those times, I had an idea and I wanted to know what others thought about it. Bill Martin mentioned that only once the stadium is finished would they start any construction on Crisler Arena, so I guess that means a practice facility is in the more near future. In terms of location, I think the most convenient (and by “most convenient” I mean least interrupting to Michigan Football) location is in the lot southeast of Crisler Arena (northwest of the intersection of the railroad and E. Stadium, on the other side of the Field Hockey and Rich Rodriguez stolen soccer fields (that sucks!)) I think that location would allow the facility to be put in somewhat of a sizable corner and still allow for some parking spots to be retained. Now the big problem, how the hell do you renovate Crisler Arena without displacing the Men’s and Women’s Basketball team along with Gymnastics, Wrestling, etc. for a year (or more)? Well, from 1923 to 1967 the Basketball team played and practiced in Yost Fieldhouse, while Ice Hockey played in the Sports Coliseum until 1973 when the Fieldhouse was converted into Yost Ice Arena. What if they put the Basketball teams back into Yost for a season or two? There are a lot of professional and college arenas that convert back and forth from basketball to hockey venues, no reason why Michigan couldn’t do it as well. In addition, there are many other benefits to this. The AD could advertise this as Michigan Basketball’s RETURN TO YOST and maybe give our fans some sense of sports history. Maybe a Men’s basketball game would sell out or at least look full on television and I am sure the Maize Rage would have much more rage in Yost. Maybe for two years Michigan would have the most intimidating atmosphere to play basketball in the Big Ten (similar to Ice Hockey) and just possibly (I hope!) they can make a C-YA Chant for foul outs, technical fouls and ejections and take those with them when they go back to Crisler Arena.  Gymnastics and Wrestling? Try to keep as many meets as possible in Cliff Keen, but I am sure if the basketball floor was already installed in Yost it wouldn’t be too hard to put some mats down for them to compete. The soccer team was supposed to have a few fields built near the Tennis and Gymnastics Centers down south on State Street, but I guess that didn’t go through and now they play at Eastern. I don’t think the Athletic Department would move Basketball anywhere, hopefully. A farfetched solution to this problem is as follows. Directly south of Michigan stadium, right next to the UM Golf Course is the Ann Arbor Golf and Outing Club, a 9 hole golf course with two tennis courts and a small clubhouse (www.aagoc.org). The idea? Buy the “private club” out (we spend so much money on buyouts that go to West Virginia, let’s put some money into Michigan!) and put the soccer fields and Basketball Practice facility there. It’s crazy and not likely at all, but it makes sense. I think. Instead of rushing construction and only making minor renovations to Crisler, I think Michigan Basketball and Michigan in general deserve a total overhauling of Crisler Arena. There is no reason why we should be lagging behind in basketball facilities and I think it would be a great advantage to have one of the best and most up to date arenas in the nation. The temporary move to Yost has some advantages too and I think this makes it a very good plan for the Athletic Department to follow. However, I don’t make any of these decisions, don’t know anything about construction or transforming an ice hockey rink into a basketball court on a daily basis, didn’t even know there was a private club next to the golf course – so this was all just wishful thinking on my part. What do you think?
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Blake

September 24th, 2008 at 4:47 PM ^

it is my understanding that the practice facility will be built into the hill on the east side of Crisler where the commuter bus stop is right now.

As for renovating the arena itself, there's no reason why it couldn't be phased in over the course of a few years like the current Michigan Stadium project is now. The only issue with that would be if they wanted to gut the bowl and completely re-structure the upper Yellow seats into an upper deck that overhangs the lower bowl. (though I doubt that to be feasible).

Joined: 06/30/2008

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goody

September 24th, 2008 at 5:06 PM ^

because the lack of paragraphs and structure.  Sorry.

 But Martin has addressed this issue saying, that after 2010 when the Big House is complete they will turn their focus onto Crisler.

Joined: 06/30/2008

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Musket Rebellion

September 24th, 2008 at 6:29 PM ^

They've done a little bit to the arena in the past few years. New lighting, new sound system, and they have painted the floor in the past few weeks which looks like a marked improvement over the old design. Bill Martin has said that he will take care of Crisler once the Big House is finished, but the practice facility was supposed to be on track but ran into a lack of funding. www.umhoops.com is the only UM basketball blog that I know of, and he does a great job. That would be the best place to look for updates on the situation.

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ckersh74

September 25th, 2008 at 12:35 PM ^

As an example, the maize seats in the upper bowl gotta go immediately, if not sooner. I went to a game a couple years ago and sat up there. Those seats aren't maize anymore. They're brown and don't look like they've been dealt with in about 20 years. That's just flat out shameful.

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