OT: Nebraska turned old 13,500 seat Arena into premier volleyball facilitiy

[Knight_Light]

In a perfect world, RU would end up with a new arena and new basketball practice facility.

One way to do that is to breath life into an old facility and that is something Nebraska did.

Some schools turned old basketball arenas into multi-sport practice facilities, Nebraska took their old 13,500 seat basketball arena and did a $20 Million renovation project on it and turned it into a premier 7,907 seat volleyball facility, complete with new amenities/upgrades (i.e. suites, concessions, restroom, new strength/conditioning facility, new locker rooms, offices, ready room, study areas, etc...)

The 13,500 seat Devaney Center opened up in Lincoln in 1976 and was total renovated 3 years ago when the basketball team moved into the new 15,147 Pinnacle Bank Arena downtown.

Old Devaney Center:

New Devaney Center:

New Nebraska Volleyball Locker rooms/ready room, etc....video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjIIdEdMrIY#t=51

 

[huskersalways]

Unlike nearly every school in the country(I think there are 3) NU volleyball is a revenue booster and not a money loser. When NU hoops moved into the new BB arena they wanted something to do with the old arena, The volleyball team had played at the 4500 seat Coliseum for years and tickets were very hard and expensive to get. The volleyball coach didn't want to give up the major home court advantage of the Coliseum so he said they would only move if they made it resemble the Coliseum inside. They were able to do that so he was happy about the move. It is still a very difficult ticket to get seating 7900 and NU has a current home sellout streak between the 2 arenas of over 100 straight matches. Volleyball is very popular in Nebraska and I think they made just over $1mil in profit last year.

 

[Mr_Twister]

I bet if you go to Trip Advisor for things to do in Nebraska, this Volleyball facility probably makes the list. It works for Nebraska. Even a reasonable expenditure for volleyball at Rutgers would draw ridicule in the local NJ newspapers. This is a sport that Rutgers will participate in, but not compete. BTW, Hoboken, NJ's Div-III powerhouse Stevens Tech was ranked #1 in Div-III men's volleyball somewhere along the line this year. The Ducks opened the season playing Div-I volleyball in Honolulu. Stevens Tech is having no problems recruiting student/athletes to Hoboken, unlike years ago. Does Rutgers travel to places like Honolulu? The Ducks mens lacrosse team is also drawing votes for national top-20. Probably could give Rutgers a run for their money ... amazingly, given the results we've seen so far.