Fertitta Center Tour - April 8th - New Tour May 6th

https://twitter.com/UHCougarPride/status/978730902435090433

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Has anyone been on the tour?
I saw a picture today of the progress.
Are they installing bleacher style seating?
I could not really tell what was being installed in the seating area.

I took the tour last month, really worthwhile. You still have to use your imagination a lot, but you will come away with a much better idea of seating options and the sitelines of the arena. It is still far from the finished product, but I think you’ll like what you see.

Really enjoyed my tour today – Gonna be a very nice facility – Seating steepened so folks are closer.

1st photo below shows ~6’ concrete wall that’s behind student seating for ~300. Tier 1&2 seats are above the wall so standing & cheering students won’t mess with views from Tier 1 & 2 seats.

Corner entrance by AAC will be floor-to-ceiling glass and let a lot of light in. Ticket booth at that corner will be inside.

Concourse is wider, I believe.

Nice tunnel where team makes entry. Glass wall so alums in one of the “club” areas can view as they enter.

Our tour guide (who works for the constr. co.) said they expect to finish by year-end. So non-conf games at TSU then 1st Ferttita games are early Jan’19.

Floor view of student "wall"

From corner by AAC entrance


ditto

From corner closest to football practice fields

More floor


ditto

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With the exception of the concrete seat rows in the “endzones” and the old tunnel, they have completely gutted the inside of the Hof. A lot has been done, with more to go.

Threre are going to be good seats everywhere. Seems a lot of thought has gone into the design.

Should provide a great home court advantage.

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It’s going to be a very intimate and compact; where the seats are going to be in top of the court, basketball arena. 7100, is the actual capacity. It’s going to be super loud and such a home court advantage.

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I’m sure you get a better perspective on the tour than just looking at photos, but all the photos I’ve seen just appear to be a mess. I know UH doesn’t draw the best of crowds for basketball, but barely over 7k seems small for a major college arena.

It’s a little on the small side, but I expect it to be a good fit for us right now.

I think they’re banking in packing it in for every home game in the first year

I think they will be very disappointed; they are not building what we need, in my opinion. They are pricing most of our fans into the end zones; many will simply stay home. They will learn - the hard way!

And, I do - most sincerely - hope that I am wrong!

Are you talking about the pricing from the season tickets pricing or the pricing when they wanted an arena commitment?

At @7100- Every game sold out would put UH @ 73d in average attendance.
Seems small for a big school in a huge city at 1st glance.

Leadership has made mostly great decisions so far. If they feel 7100 is realistic for a rocking home advantage…I’m good with it.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/m_basketball_RB/Reports/attend/2017.pdf

Non premium seats are cheap in the scheme of things. The premium seating seemed priced for what they see as a “hot ticket” in the near future.

The other thing is that I noticed the old ceiling was removed and a huge space up there was revealed. There is actually room to add an upper deck, should demand warrant a capacity greater than 7100. You know, when UH is a perennial Final Four program and everyone wants to go see them! :slight_smile:

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If you go look at the basketball attendance history the program has only averaged over 7000 attendance like 5 times. The capacity is fine. We are in the 4th largest city that shows no college basketball support. Even the Rockets are not selling out all their games.

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You’re absolutely correct about the arena size being adequate. The better reference would be where 7100 would rank us in cities that have NBA franchises

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AND, that have favorable press coverage !!

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http://www.uhcougars.com/facilities/fertitta-center-tour.html