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[Mikovio]

I'm a big believer in infrastructure and that's why I feel our future is very promising because we simply have chosen to find ways to fund facility development at a level that I only see WSU as on par or better than us currently in the MVC.

The Princeton Review rates Bradley's athletic facilities 16th nationally:

http://www.princetonreview.com/BradleyUniversity.aspx#/

[MVCfans]

I'm a big believer in infrastructure and that's why I feel our future is very promising because we simply have chosen to find ways to fund facility development at a level that I only see WSU as on par or better than us currently in the MVC.

The Princeton Review rates Bradley's athletic facilities 16th nationally:

http://www.princetonreview.com/BradleyUniversity.aspx#/

Not to discredit any of our schools, but in 2013 this list had Kenyon #1 and Calvin #19. I've not seen the entire list, but I believe it's based on student rankings of on campus facilities rather than actual facilities used for NCAA sports.

edit: just found this online:

Best Athletic Facilities
Based on students' answers to the survey question: "How do you rate the recreational/athletic facilities at your school?"

[Mikovio]

Ha, good catch. That should be a relief for our library at least. Bradley did just pour nearly $100MM into the Markin Center and Renaissance Coliseum though, and they're pretty nice.

[BEARZ77]

I was curious about that as well; I knew the new facility for WBB was nice, and I think you also have a newer baseball facility[?], but the mbb arena, well it's a hockey rink and not on campus, both huge negatives I would think in most rankings. But I really don't know much about your facilities for other sports and athletes in general and would imagine they are solid if you present them as such.

[rlh04d]

I'm not saying this to you rlh04d, just in general, but I don't know why some on this forum respond to Casey as if he represents the general thinking of the MSU fan base. Some perhaps, a majority hardly. I respect Casey's zeal, but he drinks somebody's Kool-Aid in too massive amounts.

I don't think I responded to him except as an individual I tried not to make any generalities towards the program at large.

At the same time in eagerness to play with Casey's often fantastical thinking, some pretty off base generalities about MSU start being bandied about as fact. The "can't draw fans" assertion is one. Traditionally we have been the 4th best draw in the Valley, not that far behind Bradley, and while it is not close to the WSU/CU levels it has been very respectable when compared nationally. We can and will draw fans to basketball; I think we had a fairly significant number of years where we led the Valley in combined [ WBB/MBB] attendance and both programs were making money. Not the case in the last few years, but the ability and past performance is certainly indicative of a repeat.

I didn't make a generality ... I pointed out that the last official NCAA attendance numbers I have show MSU as having averaged 55% of arena capacity. That is not good. I don't believe those numbers went up this last season, either, or at least not by much.

From past discussions, I actually think MSU's attendance woes are more based on over-priced tickets than actual lack of interest. But still, 55% of capacity isn't a way to maximize revenue. The ticket sales are clearly generating barely more than $2million revenue, per MSU's report to the Department of Education, and given non-salary expenses, there simply isn't much wiggle room there for raising the salary of a coach.

But yeah, anybody thinking we will pay the kind of dollars for a coach that would in anyway compete to keep him at MSU vs a significant BCS offer is in ya-ya land. And frankly, I disagree with even attempting to be in that arms race , for us and most similar Universities. Jacking up your costs to entice someone to stay for another year or so, and then they still bolt [ like Turgeon did] or worse you get stuck with a non-performing albatross like Lowry[SIU] . It didn't hurt WSU because they a had the resources to stay and go beyond the salary level they moved to keep Turgeon another year, but it killed SIU.

Coaches are going to come and go at our level, but facilities and infrastructure don't, at least not every few years, which is why I like our current approach to trying to build a better, sustainable product. It's what can work for us, and that's all that really matters .

I agree. I think you have to know when to pay and when not to ... obviously there are the rare coaches, like Marshall, that you have to get into the arms race with. But for the most part, there needs to be a steady improvement of the entire program, which will attract better coaches. Another factor that would allow you to skip out on a coach like Lusk and attract a similar or better quality coach (as we did with Turgeon) would be fan support. Gotta get that 55% number up.

Regardless, MSU is a program that should be able to spend around $1 million on a coach, and I'd like to see them have the opportunity to do for a bit to show they're willing to do that when they have to. But MSU certainly isn't in a position like ISUb or Evansville, who will simply never pay a competitive wage.

[glm38]

There has been a lot of discussion about MSU ticket prices on our board and in the community. As stated in our local paper this past year we evidently had the highest overall prices in the Valley for MBB this past year. A lot of Bear fans find that to be ridiculous. Someone is evidently listening because there have been some nice adjustments in pricing particularly in the upper bowl for the coming year. If we put an exciting winning team on the floor hopefully we'll see a bump in attendance.

Rlh thanks for acknowledging what is right with the Bears program. We know we have some warts but the good outweighs the bad (IMHO anyway).

[Mikovio]

I was curious about that as well; I knew the new facility for WBB was nice, and I think you also have a newer baseball facility[?], but the mbb arena, well it's a hockey rink and not on campus, both huge negatives I would think in most rankings. But I really don't know much about your facilities for other sports and athletes in general and would imagine they are solid if you present them as such.

Yeah, I like Carver but I would agree the sightlines aren't as good as at Redbird. In its defense it's a great atmosphere when it's full, and it doesn't hurt that there's beer, especially with the recent play. I like it being downtown surrounded by entertainment options. It would have more students if on campus but it's easily accessible from campus (shuttles run every 15 minutes and the ride is just 5 minutes each way) and the students come out when the team is playing well.

The new Renaissance Coliseum is the home court for womens basketball and volleyball and houses a dedicated mens basketball practice facility and athletic training facilities. Some people think the arena can be sterile and I agree it lacks character but to be fair I still haven't seen it sold out. Here's its main page and a video tour:
http://www.bradley.edu/sites/coliseum/
http://www.bradleybraves.com/mediaPorta ... EM_ID=3400

The Markin Center serves the whole student body and is also state of the art:
http://www.bubraves.com/ViewArticle.dbm ... R_CONTENT=

All facilities:
http://www.bradleybraves.com/ViewArticl ... EM_ID=3400

Our baseball park is very similar to MSU's. Nice professional park but off campus. Soccer has a great stadium and the tennis courts are still fairly new. Softball is the one sport that could use a new facility, but it was given a facelift a few years ago and it can ride out at least another decade.