Crisler Fanciness Detailed Comment Count

Brian

A reader was kind enough to forward along some artists renditions of what Crisler Arena looks like now and what it will look like once it gets the future created on it*. Virtually all of this is supposed to be done by the beginning of the 2012 basketball season, which, like, whoah.

Commence the envisioning!

First I was like…

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…but then I was like:

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And then I was like…

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…but then I was like…

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And then I was like…

TOAC-CorLit-774966[1]

…but then I was like:

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Further shots of Crisler all gussied up and ready for serious, national-relevance-type basketball have been stored after the jump.

Jump with me, my pretties.

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MVictors just noticed the verboten block M in the background of this shot. No more bars through the block M. Just M, they say. M and stars worthy of ten-forward on the ceiling.

Anyway. After this is done, Michigan will have a facility on par with anyone's, removing a significant hurdle between the program and slaying all comers with big pointy teeth and top-50 recruits.

That we have to do this now says something about pre-Martin ADs more than anything. Now that everyone's slagging on the guy because he was caught flatfooted on the football coaching search, it's worth noting that he's the guy who figured out football tickets were massively underpriced and fixed that in a way that had the federal government subsidize the athletic department, thus paving the way for the Michigan Stadium renovations and the revenue that allows M to do things like this and put enormous scoreboards everywhere.

I have no idea if I am sincere about that or not.

*["Create the future" here used in its positive, non-irony-laden sense. So I probably should have said something else. ]

**[Not without reason. He had an entire year between Lloyd telling him he wanted to retire and actually retiring, and after that year he didn't know if Tony Dungy wanted the job, that Mary Sue Coleman would stab him if he tried to hire Kirk Ferentz, or that Lloyd Carr would stab errybody up in here if Les Miles was even considered. Argh.]

Comments

Don

October 26th, 2011 at 11:28 AM ^

David Brandon has made a deal with the aliens from Zeta Reticuli, and what looks like a freshened-up Crisler is actually a UFO that's settled down on top of things. Bow down to your new pick-and-roll insect overlords.

snoopblue

October 26th, 2011 at 11:49 AM ^

I like it, hopefully comes with new lighting.

Next priorites for the Athletic Department..

1. Track and Field facilities - Indoor and Outdoor. The Indoor facility is a joke. They need to build an Al Glick Fieldhouse like facility with new locker rooms. The outdoor track actually borders the IM building. It needs to be moved away and some type of seating structure should be built. Screw the parking lot.

2.Cliff Keen Arena - Have you seen the banners in there? It looks like a junior high gym! Need a FULL renovation of that place to make it legit for our great wrestling/volleyball programs.

3. Lacrosse, which is already in the works.

Get those two done, I think Michigan will be a perrenial force to unseat Stanford as the Director's Cup champ.

UMfan21

October 26th, 2011 at 11:51 AM ^

It's been about 10 years since I've been to Crisler, so I don't remember every detail...but currently Crisler does not have the row of windows along the top, correct?   I'm assuming that's what will make the concourses so much brighter.

superstringer

October 26th, 2011 at 11:59 AM ^

I did a diary piece on this a year ago or so.  I looked at three Big 10 hoops arenas that were built -- Breslin, Value City, and Kohl -- and the records of the men's and women's basketball teams (and hockey for VCA) both before and after the stadiums.

Suffice it to say, the new stadiums MARKEDLY increased the teams' records.  I attribute this mostly to getting better recruits.  MSU was the perfect test; Heathcoat was the coach for years before and after Breslin opened, and his records got way, way better in the new arena.  tSIO was harder to measure, because when VCA opened, they switched coaches that year.  But their records got way better in the new arena, FWIW.  U-Dub, I think, had the same coach (Bennett at the time, IIRC) before and after and got a definite record-bump too.  Women's bball didn't show exactly the same bumps but overall the new stadia had better teams.

So improving Crisler should, over 3-5 years, result in much better recruiting and records -- to say nothing of what Coach B is doing already.

lakeside

October 26th, 2011 at 12:01 PM ^

Looks like Iowa is also dealing with a somewhat ugly facade.  Carver will be used for wrestling and volleyball as well (which I don't think Crisler is used for, I have seen a gymnastics meet at Crisler and it seems to work well for that.)  More Carver photos available.

Before:

After (slightly different angle):

 

 

superstringer

October 26th, 2011 at 12:03 PM ^

I did a diary piece on this a year ago or so.  I looked at three Big 10 hoops arenas that were built -- Breslin, Value City, and Kohl -- and the records of the men's and women's basketball teams (and hockey for VCA) both before and after the stadiums.

Suffice it to say, the new stadiums MARKEDLY increased the teams' records.  I attribute this mostly to getting better recruits.  MSU was the perfect test; Heathcoat was the coach for years before and after Breslin opened, and his records got way, way better in the new arena.  tSIO was harder to measure, because when VCA opened, they switched coaches that year.  But their records got way better in the new arena, FWIW.  U-Dub, I think, had the same coach (Bennett at the time, IIRC) before and after and got a definite record-bump too.  Women's bball didn't show exactly the same bumps but overall the new stadia had better teams.

So improving Crisler should, over 3-5 years, result in much better recruiting and records -- to say nothing of what Coach B is doing already.

Raoul

October 26th, 2011 at 12:52 PM ^

Virtually all of this is supposed to be done by the beginning of the 2012 basketball season

I believe this is mistaken. The Yost renovation is supposed to be done by the beginning of the 2012-13 hockey season, but the reports on the second phase of the Crisler renovation all cite "winter of 2014" as the completion date for that project. See, for example, this September 12, 2011, Michigan Daily article:

The 63,000-square-foot addition to the arena will include new entrances and retail, ticket and private club areas. Another 54,000-square-foot addition will add handicap-accessible seats, additional restrooms, concession stands and other “fan amenities,” the communication states.

Construction on the arena is scheduled to be complete in winter 2014.