SEFCU Arena Renovation

More details. Excuse my spelling and grammar, multi-tasking.

• Ticket Seat Capacity is 3,579. Seat breakdown as follows: 1,295 Fixed Seats; 1,630 telescopic seats; 498 Telescopic bleacher seat; 28 Wheel Chair Seats; 28 Loge Chairs (ADA Companion); 98 folding chair Seats; and 9 ADA seats.
• Total Capacity on gameday, and this is how all arena's get their actual capacity, will be 3,767. My guess is official sellouts will be called at 3, 800. From the plans and due to 9,706 total capacity allowed, It looks like you can easily sneak 500-750 more in SRO.
• Accoustic levels will be even better than before based on construction setup. The place is deafening when packed.
• By flipping the court, we don't lose seating, which surprises me. The length of the new orientation 234.6 feet long by 189.10 wide. This is the length of construction area. That surprised me a little bit.
• The stairways in the building I think will be made larger however as for ADA upgrades, I could not find any. This makes sense (I work with ADA law all day) because we are calling this a rehabilitation. If it were new construction or a COMPLETE gut renovation, very expensive changes would need to be made throughout. This is very typical of construction, the way we are going about this. However, the new Annex building will absolutely be ADA compliant and it has an elevator design per the plans we have see on the Master Facilities planning.
• It's been awhile since I've walked the core section of SEFCU so I am not sure where the current basketball lockerooms are now. However, it looks like the new ones will be built where I remember the media room and equipment room were on the old design. Additionally, it looks like they are actually using that area PLUS building out to the current arena area under the current lobby entrance (NORTH) stands.
• Due to this, there are actually MORE fixed seats than previously planned, mostly on the north side, East to West Length of the main stands. This is excellent to have this many fixed seats.
• The team area (lockers, film room, showers, and lounge area) will run 57' long by 31.2' wide. That's significant space at just under 1,800 sq feet.
• More specifically, the locker room is 18'1" long by 31'2" wide. The lounge is 38'11" long by 17'2" wide. The film room is 18' long by 14' wide. These are really nice spaces.
• There will be storage for four goal stanchions and baskets under the West Side Fixed stands. The same setup under the East Side Fixed stands. Including the competition floor, there will be 10 total stanchions in the building.
• The South Side fixed stands will have 3 storage areas that will each run just under 32' long and maybe 10' wide.
• The benches will be on the North Side Stands (current Lobby Side). Same with the scorer tables and Daktronic Boards. The South Side will have Daktronic Courtside tables.
• The Corner Seats in the NE and NW corners are considered Club Seats and will have access to the NE Capital Club and NW Capital Clubs. Plus seats, I believe.
• The ONLY bench seating will be on the NW goal wall, likely student seating.
• Each lockeroom will have 16 lockers and an ADA bench.
• The film room features 21 plush seats and will be carpeted. It will be theater seating, three risers. Each seat will have a tablet arm and will be 22" wide . The LCD touch screen will be 84"
• There will be a large TV in each of the Capital Club Locations (NW and NE). The brackets are 19' long, which means we are getting LARGE TV's added. Interestingly the face the people who theoretically would be in line for concessions. My guess is it is either solely for concessions or multiple screens including game play.
• A new, synthetic floor is being installed under each stand, coming up the floor.
• My length for furthest seat was wrong yesterday. The HEIGHT of the top seat is 21'6 along the main stands (North and South). The length is about45-50' feet from last chair up top to last chair on floor. The math majors can do the algebra from visual distance from last seat.
• I don't believe this will be Volleyball ready. In fact, it looks like they will be infilling the long jump pit and volleyball inserts.
• They will replace the competition court, inlaying it with the old flooring (it seems).
• There will be East, West, North and South camera platforms at the Lobby Level.

Some ask about expansion.

I can't see any other structural way to expand other than UP to the roof along the walls because I believe there are load bearing supports every 15-20 feet that extend to the roof of the main part of the complex. To do that, you would have to do what SBU did and build a small concourse over a fixed stand.

If you do it on the main South Fixed Stands, you could go 130-ish feet by 15'. Based on my reading of the specs, if they are fixed, chair back seats...then you would get maybe 6 rows of seating. Based on the new South Fixed Seating specs, that would result in 375-500 seats depending on design. This could be done when they add the Annex Building since that will be on the South Wall (parking lot) side.

Additionally and theoretically, it looks like each corner could technically be expanded...maybe by 120 seats per corner, for a total of 450-500 seats depending on design, by putting concrete elevated fixtures that fans would need to walk under. Or you can do that plus a raised expansion on the East and West behind the basket wall. I find that less likely do to value for seat game view (less value placed by fans purchasing tickets) than either the corner expansion or South Fixed stands expansion.

If they did either East or West side raised fixed seating, not including corners, you would have around 90 feet and a depth of around 14'. That would result in about 4 rows and 160-180 seats per East and West Wall...or 320-360 total.

If they did all those above, you could potentially build approximately 1,145 to 1,360 to bring total gameday non-SRO capacity to 4,912 to 5,127 and non-SRO ticket sales only to 4,724 to 4,939. All are unlikely given the cost and demand. However, if the demand was there, e.g. we had a consistent season ticket based of 3,000, then someone would have to do a serious ROI on that to figure out if adding that many seats would result in the multiple millions likely required to construct that set-up versus playing a few games at the MVP.

If we need 500 more seats...we have a good problem and they could sell SRO regularly.

Ok, let's break this one down:

Notables

1. Where we will play- I would not be surprised to see us play a combination of games at St. Rose, the MVP, the Armory, and any local h.s. with large gyms (help build the game). From a HS perspective, I could easily see games at Shen and Colonie.

2. Funding- $12 million estimate for the Arena; $2.5 million for University Gym. The former being private money, it is quite impressive. I believe some of it comes from the Casey family donation, however that (based on what I was told in the past) is well less than half of that number.

3. Cost Differential- The original estimate, which include "bleacher seating" (noted for later) was for $7.5 million. However, the plan noted it would be increased due to CO's. My guess is that in addition to the cost of goods increasing (and thankfully we are not using a ton of steel, it would seem), the biggest addition is the two locker rooms. They are large spaces and there is zero doubt that the work for that is a pretty penny, so to speak. The good news is that it means less money will be required for the SEFCU core, which was to include the lockerooms. That project was slated to cost $12.5 million and is even noted in the original planning where they say "design likely to change somewhat pending anticipated changes to the Arena and planned changes to PE Phase02.

4. Changes- Clear statement that there will be plush, club seating in the northern corners. This is in lieu of luxury boxes and is probably the right move. Capacity will be right near 3,800 (something we also knew) and quite frankly other than the "sound" of the number feeling small, I'd rather have 3,800 seats in this configuration, with these amenities, then we would see with 400-1,200 more seats to get to the current 4,200 capacity and the former 5,000 capacity on gamedays. The look and feel are more "big time" now. I am sure they will get over 4,000 for big games. The lockeroom looks fantastic and I am very glad (as I am sure DK and staff are) that they moved this out of the Core Construction (third on the list of UA athletic needs) to the current construction. Massive selling point for recruits. THE TRACK IS GONE. This leads me to believe the Air structure is close to reality, plus it looks better.

5. PE Building University Gym- looks really good. Getting new scoreboards is lovely. The use of bleachers for one side only allows them to add the extra court, so it sounds like there will be 2 regulation basketball courts and a third "practice court". This is the first time that I have seen the comment that there will be a dedicated practice court for men's and women's basketball. While not its own building (I honestly don't get the separate building thing), having a dedicated section for men's and women's basketball helps the school schedule more events at SEFCU that can bring in revenue, and the teams won't be displaced. Again, this is great for recruiting.

6. Phase 2 PE Building- have not been announced but they are addressed. My guess is Phase 2 will have expanded sports medicine capabilities.

7. SEFCU- my guess is that we will hear a SEFCU announcement that coincides with the opening of the Arena after renovations. If you look at the overhead, the new Great Dane logo appears...so it is a new concept design document. If you look near halfcourt logo, you will see TWO SEFCU logos. Excellent if true, and great to see continued community engagement with athletics.

8. Air Structure- I think it is close to reality. The track team would only have beneath the podium to practice right now or the armory. I know recreation and club sports are also affected by not having the bubble. So I am presuming this is a go, and we can get State funding since only $2.5 was used for the PE gym. If we get all of this (SEFCU, University Gym, and an Air Structure)...it would be a boon and also a sign we are ready to play a level up.

9. Bleacher Seating- I came across this in a presentation about Summer 2022 construction at the University: Q: Is it cost prohibitive to eliminate bleacher seating and go with all chairbacks in the reno of SEFCU Arena? A: From the standpoint of staying within the budget we have committed to the project, we have decided to move forward with bleacher seating. I am hoping they mean bleacher seating with chair backs (telescoping bleachers) vs. bleacher seats. That WOULD be disappointing to lose 400 seats and not have chair backs as was originally intended for most of the arena.

I give Benson a lot of flack at times...but you need to give credit when it is due. Right now, he is crushing it with these upgrades, Kudos to Mark and his staff, including Vic Cegles.

Here are some new designs showing what is to come:





LOCKER ROOM



PLAYER LOUNGE AND SMALL SHOT OF FILM ROOM AREA





UNIVERSITY GYM- VOLLEYBALL

First real look into the renovation. That is the permanent part of the North Stands. To the left and right will be two "VIP" areas with food and beverages, in the corners. Below it, the Men's and Women's new locker rooms, film rooms, and lounges will reside.