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Question for our engineers on CECC (The Keg)

Buffnik

Buffnik

Real name isn't Nik
Club Member
Junta Member
When I attended the Las Vegas Invitational at the Orleans Arena to watch our Buffs earlier this year, I came away tremendously impressed with that facility. It's a smaller facility with a basketball capacity of only 7.471. That's partially because the seating is a horseshoe (one end is a stage to accommodate it being a multi-use facility). So it's comparable size to the Keg if it seated in a full oval.

However, one thing that set it apart was that it had a Club Level / Luxury Box level that circled the top of the arena. If we could build that and sell it, it would be an absolute cash cow. You can sort of make it out in the crappy photo I took (below). It's that area above the ribbon boards.

IMG_0307.jpg

I was wondering if it would ever be possible to add that to the Keg. And if so, would it be more feasible to raise the roof or to lower the floor? Or, if it would be more cost effective to tear the building down and play at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield for a year during re-construction at the current site?

I know this isn't something we're likely to see in the near future, but I was curious to know how it was likely to happen if it were to happen.
 
would have to raise the roof. Dropping the floor couldn't be done without demolishing the building. With its age and with what I can see and assume from the foundation and structural support its not feasible given what we have. Cost effectively we would demo it and start over. Im sure the building could be reinforced to support the boxes but I think it would be more expensive then starting fresh.
 
you probably can't lower the floor significantly, if at all (not sure what you're asking...if you're asking if it's feasible to lower the foundation and seats, then no)...if you were going to do a retrofit, it'd be with raising the roof. Not a structural guy, but I don't see an easy way to install some luxury suites above what we currently have. You just wouldn't have enough supports for what I think you're proposing, so you'd have to demo the roof, add some supports, build the club level/luxury suites, and then build a new roof. That seems a lot to ask for in the CEC's offseason (spring and summer months; need it for volleyball and bball).

For a retrofit such as that, I'd imagine a brand new facility would be simpler and more cost effective in the long run. Even if the retrofit is cheaper in the immediate future, the question becomes why spend the capital on improving something that needs a lot more improvements? Just get a new facility. I think only minor upgrades are worth for the CEC, because it's just too old in my opinion.
 
wow I was thinking this exact same thing last night. Would I would do is take the bathroom from the corners and let the bottom level wrap all the way around. Then I would pop the roof and raise it about 50 feet, and extend the walkways another 15 feet out or so. The bathrooms and concession could all be on the exterior walls. I would install a center tv and all glass windows on the west side. The east and west side could each have a 2nd level that would cantilever over the existing seats, maybe about 30 feet or so. the east would be club/luxury seats and the west could be like the club room we have downstairs, except you could watch the game from there or stare out the floor to glass ceilings on the west and look at the mountains, while you drink a beer before the game or at halftime. I think this would really encourage season tickets purchases instead of having to walk down to the dungeon that is crowded to get a beer.

I wouldn't want to install too many seats, but this would probably add another 3k or so. I d0on't know what they did to upgrade Gallagher-Iba Arena (Oklahoma State), but they increased it from 6500 to about 13k
 
Similar to what tante said but a little more realistic option would be to remove the bathrooms/walls on the corners with the Billups pictures and the scoreboards and just put the luxary boxes there. You could probably put in 4 on each corner, keep the stairs going down between the them and enter from the coridor going around the top of the arena. The necessary infrastructure is already there. There would still be enough room to have the video boards hanging above the boxes and the bathrooms could be rebuilt around the exterior of the arena. I wish we would have taken some of the money that went into the practice facility and used it for renovations to the CES. The place is a dump. Why it wasint built with that nice "cobblestone" look that the other buildings on campus have is beyond me.
 
I think the foam dome would look great with a little luxury box ring around the top.

:smile2:
 
JRK1212 said:
Similar to what tante said but a little more realistic option would be to remove the bathrooms/walls on the corners with the Billups pictures and the scoreboards and just put the luxary boxes there. You could probably put in 4 on each corner, keep the stairs going down between the them and enter from the coridor going around the top of the arena. The necessary infrastructure is already there. There would still be enough room to have the video boards hanging above the boxes and the bathrooms could be rebuilt around the exterior of the arena. I wish we would have taken some of the money that went into the practice facility and used it for renovations to the CES. The place is a dump. Why it wasint built with that nice "cobblestone" look that the other buildings on campus have is beyond me.
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CES? Coors Event (bomb) Shelter? I think it matches the Engineering building nicely.
 
JRK1212 said:
Similar to what tante said but a little more realistic option would be to remove the bathrooms/walls on the corners with the Billups pictures and the scoreboards and just put the luxary boxes there. You could probably put in 4 on each corner, keep the stairs going down between the them and enter from the coridor going around the top of the arena. The necessary infrastructure is already there. There would still be enough room to have the video boards hanging above the boxes and the bathrooms could be rebuilt around the exterior of the arena. I wish we would have taken some of the money that went into the practice facility and used it for renovations to the CES. The place is a dump. Why it wasint built with that nice "cobblestone" look that the other buildings on campus have is beyond me.
Click to expand...

This would be the most realistic option if we were to keep the CEC in its current form. Would be tricky during construction because I have a feelng the walls that would be replaced with glass are structural but it could probably be done.
 
Shldr2Shldr said:
This would be the most realistic option if we were to keep the CEC in its current form. Would be tricky during construction because I have a feelng the walls that would be replaced with glass are structural but it could probably be done.
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The basic structure of the wall would remain. You would just turn the bathrooms into luxary boxes (doesent sound that attractive I know) and cut out part of the exterior of the wall so people could watch the game. Look at the wall with the pic of Chauncey to visulize what im talking about.

102748437_605fcee987.jpg
 
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I see what your talking about. The wall though facing the court where there would be windows would have to be taken out during renovation. Since that is probably a structural wall it would probably be tricky however im sure it could be reinforced well enough that the loads would be transferred around the glass and eventually wouldnt matter. My only concern is during the actual renovation. it would be a delicate process until the reinforcements are put in place.
 
The bathrooms would be re-built around the exterior of the arena. The walkways around CEC of plenty of room to acomodate this. And shldr2shldr there would not be any glass. It would open air. This isint like being at a football game where its 30 degrees outside. People dont want to be closed into some glass soundless box.
 
JRK1212 said:
The bathrooms would be re-built around the exterior of the arena. The walkways around CEC of plenty of room to acomodate this. And shldr2shldr there would not be any glass. It would open air. This isint like being at a football game where its 30 degrees outside. People dont want to be closed into some glass soundless box.
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ah gotcha. luxury boxes i have seen do have glass. but definitely not necessary. It could work, frame in the "window" with steel and should be good to go.
 
Shldr2Shldr said:
draw it up and send it to bohn haha.
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I know. Pipedream. But I have a feeling that Bohn will be dreaming big if we sell out the Texas and Nebraska games to close out our home schedule. That would be 5/8 sellouts for conference games. Season tickets are up. My hope is that we keep building our attendance average, student attendance and season ticket base as we have over the past 3 years. If we can get it to where a sellout is the norm for all games and a given for conference games, then we'll see the next level of facility improvements. At this point, though, I think Bohn is rightly focused on improvements for the football team.
 
:nod:

Football will always be king. But men's basketball can carry the load so that our 3 court programs pay for themselves. There's even a chance we could turn a profit from the 3. Either way, that would free up a ton of money for the AD to spend on facility improvements and the addition of other sports.

Edit: to give everyone an idea, here's a chart of the 2006 Pac-10 revenue numbers for men's basketball. Getting to UofA's level is the dream, but there's a mid-level that's much more realistic and attainable.

dsg801_500_350.jpg


I'm talking about getting our program on par with a Washington (about middle of the conference) and pulling in around $5 million a year. Very attainable. I think we're around $2 million right now.
 
revenue from increased season ticket sales and possible concerts that this kind of set up would draw would probably pay for itself. btw Black Ceiling is a must.
 
Is there enough clearance at the CEC now between the concourse level and the start of the roof trusses to fit in something like what is pictured at New Mexico above?
 
BuffAlum2007 said:
Is there enough clearance at the CEC now between the concourse level and the start of the roof trusses to fit in something like what is pictured at New Mexico above?
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no way, but we want to pop the top on the keg anyway. If we are going to do this we might as well do it right and get some flagstone on the outside.
 
while they are retrofitting the coors event center and upgrading the exterior with the sandstone... can they do the same to the engineering center. please?
 
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