RAC Atmosphere

[RUChoppin]

Overall I am not crazy about the RAC as a facility for a major D1 basketball program. From the outside it looks like a 1960’s era airplane hanger. Inside the layout is horrible, concessions suck and the bathrooms are a nightmare. I will never understand why Rutgers cannot figure out bathrooms at RAC and SHI, just terrible.
I however agree the noise is the difference. For whatever reason the acoustics in the RAC make it really loud. Other arenas, even double the size filled to capacity don’t seem nearly as loud. In those larger arenas the sound is sucked up into the rafters. In the RAC, the sound bounces around off the walls and converges at floor level, seems loud AF.

Some of those aren't that difficult to fix, though. The exterior can get a facelift - but I'm sure they'd want to couple that with an expanded lobby area of some kind, which could also improve the bathroom and concession issues. If you expand out the front doors, you can also add more seating on that end without sacrificing lobby space - which would also help contain the sound even more.

There are definitely things that "can be done" to improve the RAC itself - it's just a matter of nailing down exactly what those things need to be, and then raising the money for them. If we keep selling out the arena, there will be much more appetite for expanding/renovating it.

 

[RU848789]

Some of those aren't that difficult to fix, though. The exterior can get a facelift - but I'm sure they'd want to couple that with an expanded lobby area of some kind, which could also improve the bathroom and concession issues. If you expand out the front doors, you can also add more seating on that end without sacrificing lobby space - which would also help contain the sound even more.

There are definitely things that "can be done" to improve the RAC itself - it's just a matter of nailing down exactly what those things need to be, and then raising the money for them. If we keep selling out the arena, there will be much more appetite for expanding/renovating it.

Exactly. There were plans a few years ago to expand/upgrade that got posted here - no idea if those might be considered in the future or not. Sure, it would be nice to have better concessions, bathrooms, and even more fans/luxury boxes, as long as they don't eff up the acoustics.

 

[AreYouNUTS]

I was at the Garden for a RU/St. John’s game many years ago. Way before the billion dollar renovation. Wasn’t a sellout, not even close, and we were winning for awhile. But when St. John’s tied it up on an old fashioned 3-pt play it was really, really loud. .

Let’s be very clear: I am about 99.9% certain that Madison Square Garden, as they use to do in Chicago for the Bulls abs since at many other professional arenas, pipes in crowd noise.

 

[RUChoppin]

And in the vein of selling out more games, it looks like there are only 413 seats still available for the Indiana game on sk.com, and just 585 (plus some student seats in 109) still available for Minnesota.

We may come close to selling out Indiana before the Illinois game... but if we beat Illinois, I'd imagine both of those games will sell out very quickly.

 

[RUSK97]

Exactly. There were plans a few years ago to expand/upgrade that got posted here - no idea if those might be considered in the future or not. Sure, it would be nice to have better concessions, bathrooms, and even more fans/luxury boxes, as long as they don't eff up the acoustics.

But jf you blow out the front, how can you not eff up the acoustics? You’re creating a big void in place of the glass of the offices, the canted metal of the front facade and the cinderblock units of the ticket office. I’m not even sure a huge grandstand above 118 (or whatever that section is) would reflect the noise back.

 

[BellyFullOfWhiteDogCrap]

I wonder if the 118 facelift was actually worth it financially? Anyone know?

 

[bac2therac]

There needs to be a spanking new front concourse entrence built...period. Allow for better concessions and better than a high school dump feel. The remaining area needs to be rennovated with walks and grass. The circle needs to be eliminated there is no need for even police vehicles to park that close to RAC they can be situated on the sides and back of building

 

[WhoRU?]

Was posted in another thread.