Playing mens basketball in the Big House

Submitted by ThadMattasagoblin on

What if we decided to play the new game with the Pac 12 inside the friendly confines of the Big House?  We could play it in the beginning of November and try to get the world record for most people watching a basketball game in the world.  That would be sweet!

go16blue

December 30th, 2011 at 6:00 PM ^

I think we should start sellng out Chrisler consistently before that becomes a possibility. But it might be enough of a novelty to draw a big crowd, who knows. Another issue would be visibility, but if you can play hockey in the big house you can play basketball.

MichGoBlue858

December 30th, 2011 at 8:04 PM ^

This wouldn't work but you said "we should start selling out Crisler consistently before that becomes a possibility." Basketball is more popular than hockey and hockey got 100,000 people, I'm sure basketball could too. However, like you said, visibility would make this impossible. 

justingoblue

December 30th, 2011 at 8:11 PM ^

Like you say, visability is an issue (a basketball court is 94*50, an Olympic sized rink is 200*98) but also there's something about the experience of playing in the cold. In hockey it's somewhat natural, and people shell out dollars to freeze at Winter Classics and events like the Big Chill; would people pay to watch basketball in a coat and hat? I don't think that's ever been tested before.

FeelinBlue

December 30th, 2011 at 6:01 PM ^

compared to the big chil, i dont think a basketball court is big enough to be constructed in the middle of the field and then viewed from the regular sitting. 

but a nice idea i think.

LSAClassOf2000

December 30th, 2011 at 6:06 PM ^

...if I am not mistaken, the regulation court is 94 ft. x 50 ft.

If that is the case, and you're sitting, for example, in row 60 behind the south end zone, the game might as well be in Brighton. It's a problem of scale more than anything. 

If you could figure out how they would get risers on the field to accommodate enough people, then it might be worth it just because of the venue. The problem I had with Ford  Field is that the views, for the most part, were still bad from the stands themselves. 

State Street

December 30th, 2011 at 6:11 PM ^

One thing I was thinking of when looking around a deserted Crisler at the beginning of the year - Why don't they play the cupcakes at the beginning of the non-conference schedule at Yost?  Think about a few thousand Maize Ragers crammed in there...would be a great home court advantage and would bolster the price of non-student tickets.

With McGary and Co. on the way next year, it's probably not a possibility.  But a cool idea nonetheless. 

kakusei

December 30th, 2011 at 7:10 PM ^

We do something similar at Georgetown - a few of the early season games are played at McDonough Arena, which is a much smaller, but is actually on campus (unlike Verizon center) - makes it easier for students to get to the game and can get noisy when it fills u. For this reason I think games at Yost would be a great idea.

snarling wolverine

December 30th, 2011 at 7:14 PM ^

I think that'd be cool, but financially it wouldn't make sense.  We probably have more than 6,000 season ticketholders for basketball, so we'd be losing money to play at Yost.  Maybe we could do it as a one-time event.

The crowds are starting coming back to Crisler, though.  Yesterday's game was a sellout.

oHOWiHATEohioSTATE

December 30th, 2011 at 8:52 PM ^

Which could have a double double header. A Piston-Lakers followed by Michigan-UCLA basketball in the south end odd the stadium. In the north endzone we will have the Redwings-Bruins followed by Michigan-BC. It will be epic.

sboening

December 30th, 2011 at 9:18 PM ^

You can't play a college basketball game outside in Michigan in November.  Even this year when it's been extremely warm as compared to an average November.