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2014-15 Outside the Court Grades

MolivaManiac

MolivaManiac

Spider's Club
Feb 8, 2004
19,979
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Thought I'd start a thread about everything not basketball about Richmond basketball.

Here are my grades:

Spider Club Terrace: A-. I'd give it an A or A+ if it just had a slighly wider beer selection.

Concessions: B+. Solid but unspectacular. The clerks have gotten much faster over the last couple of years. Kudos. BWW seemed to be a very popular addition

Parking: A. Traffic Flow in and out was fantastic, even on the busiest nights.

Sticky Situation: B. Did the group get smaller? Quality is still good. Hoping that having a musician as President will bolster things.

Entertainment: B+. I feel like we dialed things back a bit this year and that's a good thing. We're there for badketball.

Mascot: A+. Tarrant got a us alot of run on the TV games. Very cool and long overdue.

Radio Show: C. Wish we could get back to a venue on this side of the river. Wasn't overwhelmed by Joe's food either.

What did I forget?
 
Mo, I agree. It was an awesome year. Cannot wait for next season to start. Hopefully will be living close by.
 
Ticket office gets an A+ for designing a way to lock out non UR fans for one game in particular. Also for no issues in turning the NIT games around on short notice, I bet that has to be a pain in the rear.
 
What you forgot Mo is the men's restroom situation. In the desire to fix the women's restrooms which no longer have lines the men's restrooms have huge lines at halftime. That should be addressed. Most Spider fans know the situation but male visitors are very surprised by the lengthy lines. Is it still under consideration to add more concessions toward Robins Stadium which may provide space for a much larger men's restroom to "relieve" the problem?
 
Mo, don't agree about radio show venue. Have always loved Joe's and its family atmosphere. Much better than a chain on Broad. And why can't folks trek across the James once a week to visit a long-standing Richmond business just 5-7 min from campus? Many of us over here trek enough to cross the river to get to West End.
 
Mo nice list.

I give our announcer an A. Still does a good job.

I also give an A for player introduction. I went to 6 different arenas this year and ours is by far the best. Including UVA and RPI.

Sticky Situauon could work on their National Anthem a little but other than that I agree with Mo.

Joes Inn did have the size that we need, food was ok.

We have a parking pass for B6 and B5. B5 is definitely faster to get out of this year than in the past. B6 was slower than years past. I like that they have given us more options on exit routes than they used to.

Lastly, did anyone find out why we lost so many cheerleaders after about half of the season? We went from around 16 to about 9. Also we had 4 spinners and they disappeared too. Just wondering.
 
Spider fan, agree on bathrooms. I started to go up at the Under 4 of the first half. I rarely miss any action and see the half time show.

Good points about Joe's Inn. the traffic sucks at that hour and that's not Joe's fault. I wish Mooney's show was at lunch like the football show. And I don't have any great ideas on alternative venue.
 
Joe's Inn is a nice venue, but the time and location make it near impossible for many working fans north of the river to attend
 
No matter where it's held, unless it's just around the corner, it won't be convenient for someone. Other coach/fan radio shows in evenings start at 6pm. It there an option to change the time? Would probably help with rush hour traffic issues and make it easier for different fans to attend. Since FB one is at lunch, it's nice to have an evening option. Many of us can never make a lunch venue.

This post was edited on 3/29 10:16 PM by MidloTrader
 
Midlo, clearly you will never satisfy all. As a small school with a small, but loyal, but loyal fan base, I hope we make efforts to include as many as possible on most opportunities. Not just the same people every time.
 
I like our game day experience I think it is top notch. My only suggestion/question is regarding the use of the suites.

I continue to be befuddled why people who are in the suites, also must have a ticket in the lower bowl. Just makes no sense at all. If you are in suite, first of all, you want to stay there because that is why you are paying for. Secondly, it creates empty spaces somewhere in the arena because people can't be two places at once.

Other than that, the intros and atmosphere in the arena are fantastic and have improved tremendously since the remake of the RC. Food service has also improved significantly. Waiting in line for a hot dog and a soda used to be a rite of passage and extremely frustrating. Not sure what they have done but the waiting time has gone down dramatically. Perhaps they just transferred it over to waiting at the men's restroom.
 
I also park in B6 and found that traffic flow depends who the officer is directing traffic just outside the RC. When there's one that knows the traffic pattern and only allows a right turn past the football stadium, things go much faster.

Agree that our game day experience has vastly improved. Been to a lot of arenas and think we have one of the best announcers in the country. Player intros are better with the video boards and love the spider video just before tip off. Really looking forward to next season.
 
My second year in B5 and it's terrible. Like sand in an hourglass. Cars fighting to converge in one lane leading out. Used to be in B7 (new fraternity row) and never had a problem getting out.
 
I'd like to see the floor officially named "The Dick Tarrant Floor" while The Great One is still alive and around to appreciate the gesture. He was a good sport about the mascot naming, but I'd really like to see Dick Tarrant properly recognized by naming the floor after him. The man put Spider hoops on the national map.

Other than that, no issues with anything related to the game day experience. I wanted to give extra kudos to the access and parking situation, it is easier and better than it has ever been IMHO, and is much better than any venue I have ever been to for a sporting event.

The other big plus was limiting the ticket availability for the Lambs game in the RC. The game was so close that having mostly Spiders fans there may have been the difference. I was so sick of going to my regular seats in years past and being surrounded by black and gold and obnoxious Lambs fans giving me the stink eye and telling me to shut up in my own home venue.
 
Pretty much agree with most of the grades and points here. I will add a couple others, as someone who did not have a parking pass this year.

• There needs to be some indication at the entrance to X-lot during a game as to whether general parking still remains or if only permit parking is available. The sign at the entrance only ever shows that it is a permit lot, but in fact there is a large general admission section, too. But a lot of people don't know that. When the general admission parking is gone, the people who want it often end up waiting to get in, holding up traffic, only to find that it's already filled.

• There should be more shuttle buses to transport people to and from the other side of campus. I've taken them a few times this year from the Alumni Center, and usually there only seem to be 3 or 4 larger ones and a few vans. For our big games, the wait could be as long as 20 minutes. I'm not complaining, just pointing out where we can improve because I heard a lot of moaning among the casual fans who were not regulars. I want them to come back, but I worry that the parking and shuttle situation might turn them off a bit.

• I hope they don't change a thing about the intros next year (except obviously updating the video highlights). It's definitely the best I have seen anywhere.
 
I tend to agree with your grades MO and I really do like the improved atmosphere, but a B for Sticky Situation? I can hardly given them a passing grade. At best, they are mediocre and at worst, they are cringe-worthy (I know yall have hard the horn/trumpet). The house band is by far our biggest weakness for gameday atmosphere IMO.
 
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