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Follower [289]
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What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 15, 2013, 9:47 PM
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I was at Clemson when we built Littlejohn and I was amazed back then at the corners we cut to save a few dollars back then. The most obvious were the exceedingly poor line of sight from end zones, small seats, and small steps. I feel very strongly that we should build a new arena with all of the bells and whistles that will accelerate us towards becoming a basketball power. But what will we do with Littlejohn? I feel that we could tear out the entire lower arena seats and back fill it to the level of the concourse and make a practice facility out of that structure that would be second to none. We could then have three full sized basketball courts perpendicular to the existing court with additional room in between the courts. This new venue could also be utilized for many other events such as gymnastic, basketball camps and many other various events and still have the entire upper arena seats intact for spectators. Offices, dressing rooms, recruiting areas (i.e. South Goal Zone), and other needed additions could be either remodeled into or added to Littlejohn. The new arena could then be built attached to the current practice and weight room facility with its 9500 capacity arena with students circling the floor (build it and win and they will come) with all of the quality amenities for old codgers like myself.
The possibilities of what to do with Littlejohn are endless to successfully propel Clemson into the future of competitive basketball. For you “we are only a FB school defeatist”, HOGWASH! Remember there are schools throughout the nation and even in the SEC other than Kentucky that have won National Championships in basketball and football. We can make it happen and I feel the power brokers at Clemson now feel the same way. One last point, our basketball arena is a major component and show piece in our football recruiting weekends.
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Orange Blooded [2213]
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How about an athletes only "wellness" type center?
Feb 15, 2013, 10:20 PM
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...swimming pool where the court use to be, video arcade on the top level, restaraunts and stuff in the seating area.. ...
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Follower [289]
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Re: How about an athletes only "wellness" type center?
Feb 15, 2013, 10:24 PM
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Instead of totally backfilling Littlejohn, you could make it two levels with basketball practice courts on top level nad all of these other amenities on the lower level.
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All-Conference [449]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 15, 2013, 10:33 PM
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The Number One Question I have for you--How are we going to pay for a New Arena?..2)Littlejohn was renovated about six years ago..Do we just scrap our recent investment?..3) I have regularly attended men's basketball games for many years..To me-Littlejohn has a great atmosphere..What do South Carolina and Tennessee have to show for their recently built arenas?..The Answer is NOTHING..Both are average to below-average programs..4)In Conclusion--the best bang for the buck is investing in Clemson Tiger Football..The WestZone addition coupled with the new indoor practice facility have brought the biggest return in Clemson Athletics for the forseeable future..
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Head Coach [785]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 16, 2013, 8:34 AM
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to Polecats point...the Columbia scenerio is a great point, new arena, crappy program...let me ask this; how great of an arena does Coastal Carolina have? Remember their team just pounded our team early in the year, they might could slap us around again if we played again and I seriously doubt any of their players went there for the facilities. Beach maybe, facilities, no...please, leave Littlejohn alone
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Legend [16714]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 16, 2013, 9:08 PM
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I just saw coastal's coliseum a few weeks ago. It is nicer than anything in their conference. It's all brand new with an adjacent wellness center.
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All-Pro [661]
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Invest in football, football provides a much higher rate of return and worry about basketball later
Feb 15, 2013, 11:11 PM
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The only two problems I see with LJ is no luxury boxes and e seating distribution. Is there a way to take away upper level seats especially on the ends and build up boxes? We could spare a few seats. We need to get students around at least one side of the arena to help the atmosphere instead of empty iptay seats during week games. It is sad if iptay is so disfunctional as to require a new arena to be able to redo the ticketing.
What to do with old littlejohn? Makeshift football practice arena.
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110%er [5977]
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UNC says hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Basketball can be very very
Feb 16, 2013, 12:51 AM
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lucrative..... Just ask UK, KU, UCLA, Duke, Cuse, U of L, and UConn. Clemson needs to invest in basketball or very soon they will never finish above 8th in this league and they need to hope ND doesn't become a full time member or UCinn or UConn will be number 16 only making it less likely.....
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Scout Team [170]
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Hmm...When was the last time Duke gutted Cameron?***
Feb 16, 2013, 1:05 AM
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Follower [289]
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Re: Hmm...When was the last time Duke gutted Cameron?***
Feb 16, 2013, 9:37 AM
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Duke is a freak. Cameron is iconic and Duke does not need the revenue. The Duke Foundation could buy all of Clemson and bulldoze it over and plant tobacco. Duke has built a tradition and history that outweighs any basketball structure ever built. UNC's Dean Dome" replaced Carmichael which was similar to Cameron, but I have even heard some "weenie heels" type people are calling for vast improvements even in it.
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110%er [7191]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 15, 2013, 11:18 PM
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Hey Cazzie,I have had a bad day today,nothing has gone right,but you gave me a good laugh.
National Championship- in "basketball"!
A 13-11 record,a 5-7 ACC record,no conference regular season ,or tournament championships ever,with only one Sweet Sixteen appearance,and you think that building a new coliseum is going to change that.
And when was the last time you spoke with the power brokers at Clemson?
Tear down Littlejonn,use a Robin Hood approach( rob from the rich to pay for it mentality) if need be, only you had better recruit some shooters because right now we ain't got anybody like Robin that can hit a bullseye with any consistency and until you do you could build a Madison Square Garden and it wouldn't matter.
And please don't bother to drill me about being a football school ,or even playing competitive basketball,or label me a coot.The Gamecocks have had two new areana,if you consider the old Carolina Coliseum and what did they get?
Oops ,they did get back to back NIT titles.Bring on the contractors.You maybe on to something!
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Follower [289]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 16, 2013, 9:27 AM
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defeatist! I was talking to several "power brokers" at last home game. Based on what I see from your post we ought to abandon basketball totally. Having started my basketball college career at Clemson and being very competitive by nature, I will would never use your tone of voice in any aspect of my life. I may be an old codger now and battling to stay alive, but I AIN"T dying because I gave up the ghost. We can compete if we decide to do so. One time, years ago it was highly recommended that Clemson NEVER build a football stadium bigger than what Riggs Field could support. You and I are both estatic that we did not follow that path. Be positive and aggresive and the results may suprise you.
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110%er [5330]
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Head Coach [757]
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And we were in the final 8 in 79-80 losing to UCLA.....
Feb 17, 2013, 12:13 PM
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who were national champs that year.....
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All-Pro [661]
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If a new arena, where?
Feb 15, 2013, 11:43 PM
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I would like it near Clemson house near old married student housing. This is close to all the dorms and towards all the apartments in central. It's also right by downtown for before and after a game. They are currently planning a Greek village there but you could cancel that and move it a number of places, heck to even where little John is now which would be great for football game day.
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Orange Blooded [3573]
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West Endzone parking lot
Feb 16, 2013, 11:07 AM
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That links all of the sports back together. It would create a full athletics culture again like when everything was in Jervey.
Move the west endzone spaces to where LJ is now.
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Recruit [81]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 16, 2013, 1:38 AM
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I'm pretty sure they like the current Littlejohn location for the basketball arena, and so do I. All of the athletic venues are on the West side of campus, and Littlejohn provides the best bathrooms for football tailgating as well.
The renovations were 10 years ago, and most of the money was spent in sprucing up the concourses and adding the practice facility we currently have.
I would say that the new facility needs to keep one main feature: noise. Despite being a middle or lower level ACC team recently, we still have a pretty good home court advantage that consistently ranks with Duke as one of the toughest places to play and I think the new facility should be designed to provide the same type of atmosphere.
As for size, 10,000 seats is a good number for Clemson; possibly even less (I think I read GT's new facility only holds ~8k?).
The only issue with building an all new facility is that it will cost a LOT of money, and it might take a corporate sponsor to fund it (i.e. we could have the next KFC Yum! Center), which would stink considering all of our other venues are named for donors/coaches/university presidents/veterans/etc. Since the facility is not used just as an athletic venue, some funding could come from the Clemson/Anderson cities, which use the facility for school graduations. It will be interesting to see how things come together from a funding standpoint.
Obviously, the new facility should include everything Littlejohn has, plus the extra practice and office facilities they wanted to put in. They also need to include a large storage area as right now they have stacks of plywood that they use to cover the court for concerts just sitting out in the tunnel as an eye sore to recruits.
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All-In [27348]
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Re: What to do about Littlejohn??? My idea. What's yours?
Feb 16, 2013, 8:10 AM
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The plans to improve LJ have already been decided. It will be a great venue when completed. JOIN IPTAY EVERYONE.
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CU Medallion [50350]
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Why bother back filling the lower level? Just build a second
Feb 16, 2013, 8:50 AM
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floor across from that level and keep the current floor as a huge basement (just imagine the possibilities). Or maybe we could use it as a fourth "full sized" basketball court.
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Orange Blooded [3573]
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A new arena won't make us a basketball power
Feb 16, 2013, 11:06 AM
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If anything a new facility might keep us from backsliding. Rupp Arena is basically a metal structure attached to a hotel. THey have so many McDonalds All Americans that they have french fries falling out under the bench.
A new arena isn't going to bring in more revenue. We are one of the cheaper tickets in the ACC. Would you be willing to shell out $40 a game? Thats what GTs tickets have jumped to. We have to run ticket specials to get folks to come to most games. A new arena will boost that for about a season or 2 and then fall back to normal.
Upgrade baseball first. New lockerrooms could be the difference in that sport moving back to the top 10 on a regular basis. Then work on building a new arena in the West Endzone parking lot and create a massive athletics complex. Littlejohn is outdated and should be replaced. But lets not kid ourselves into thinking that a new building is going to put us in the top 10 or that it will be paid for in new revenue/new fan interest. It will be an investment to keep us at the status quo.
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Recruit [81]
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Re: A new arena won't make us a basketball power
Feb 16, 2013, 12:44 PM
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From what I've heard, the baseball complex is almost 100% funded at this point. It will come well before they do anything with LJ.
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110%er [7390]
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I say we scratch basketball n' focus on hockey.
Feb 17, 2013, 12:10 AM
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Gotcha!
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All-TigerNet [10871]
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If a new arena is to be made, we must name it something
Feb 17, 2013, 12:12 AM
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completely original that would not be a rip off of another university...so how about Deaf Valley?
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Oculus Spirit [93575]
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Thanks, I needed that.***
Feb 17, 2013, 12:15 PM
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All-In [25381]
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Cazzie, I was a senior when LJ opened, and most of us
Feb 17, 2013, 6:16 AM
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thought we had graduated into the "big time" of college BB with our new facility. I agree that as time progresses, some buildings become functionally obsolescent and have to be replaced, but since I haven't been in LJ for many years, I can't speak to its utility.
I do know this: until the entire Clemson family, beginning with the BOT, makes a firm commitment to BB, then I'm afraid we will continue mediocrity with occasional bright spots. I say that meaning no disrespect to Coach B. nor the team; however, Clemson must move away from the attitude that it is a football school only and find the ways to build all of our programs.
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All-In [27348]
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Re: Cazzie, I was a senior when LJ opened, and most of us
Feb 17, 2013, 11:56 AM
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You need to meet the new AD and discover what his thoughts and attitude is about basketball at Clemson.
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