A Sea Of Red

Watching a little of the Mercer game. Their venue is 3200 seats and that looks way too small. Looks and sounds like a glorified high school gym with chairbacks. Georgia State was a 3800 seat arena and equally bad. I think we will really regret it if we go that small. We have 15,000 on campus students and going bigger. We should be able to turn out a quarter of those on a regular basis for a consistently good team which would leave no seats for alums or families.

I understand the importance of traffic, but you’ve got to be able to get students there.
The best of both worlds is to go ahead & put a new garage & arena on East Campus behind Docs.
This gives you enough 460 access (especially as they complete the new ramps), & keeps it in a prime location for students.
Plus, you could build a facility that would be a great landmark for passing traffic on 460 (which East Campus doesn’t currently have).
Hopefully some folks from the AD’s office & campus planning will be reading this forum & taking fan/alumni concerns into account.

Since we are building our football stadium to be the EXACT size of JMU's, I thought I'd look to see how big their basketball arena is. Theirs seats 6,426.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Mad ... ion_Center

In comparision, the current Vines Center seats 9,547 for basketball.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vines_Center

Old Red wrote:I understand the importance of traffic, but you’ve got to be able to get students there.
The best of both worlds is to go ahead & put a new garage & arena on East Campus behind Docs.
This gives you enough 460 access (especially as they complete the new ramps), & keeps it in a prime location for students.
Plus, you could build a facility that would be a great landmark for passing traffic on 460 (which East Campus doesn’t currently have).
Hopefully some folks from the AD’s office & campus planning will be reading this forum & taking fan/alumni concerns into account.

Right now the Indoor Practice Facility is arguably the biggest athletic landmark on campus. I would have put the new Arena in that spot. But no one asked me

Old Red wrote:I understand the importance of traffic, but you’ve got to be able to get students there.
The best of both worlds is to go ahead & put a new garage & arena on East Campus behind Docs.
This gives you enough 460 access (especially as they complete the new ramps), & keeps it in a prime location for students.
Plus, you could build a facility that would be a great landmark for passing traffic on 460 (which East Campus doesn’t currently have).
Hopefully some folks from the AD’s office & campus planning will be reading this forum & taking fan/alumni concerns into account.

This idea have already been discussed and putting the arena near the indoor track will not really help with traffic to be honest. If the plan is still on for east campus(where Doc’s and the parking lots are located) that will be the perfect solution for traffic at the moment. There are several ways to get to the game and exit the game. Students nowadays will less likely to attend a game that is a distance away from their dorms, even if they have transportation to get there. Having the arena closer and in the center of main campus is very sufficient for students, residents/alumni’s, and prospects who will see what they have every single day. Imagine driving on the highway and seeing this beautiful arena as you’re heading towards your destination. On a better note, imagine if you didn’t know much about Liberty at all. There is a better chance a person passing by would make a quick stop to check this arena out by East campus. Easy to come in and easier to leave.

Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

rogers3 wrote:Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

Yeah, even when it connects to Odd Fellows it's still too bottle necked for thousands. If they put it by docs, they(vsp) could kill the right hand lane on 460 half a mile before the campus and dump traffic nonstop like they do to wards after football. Egress from football has been fantastic.

I see that it did not take long for new South Parking Lot to be filled up.

rogers3 wrote:Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

Liberty Mountain Drive from the Track/Pool all the way to just past the pedestrian tunnel at David’s Place is already a state road. Any changes to that road has to be made/approved by Lynchburg and VDOT. Keep in mind that this road will extend north from the track and pool area and will connect at the new entrance/exit to 460 at Odd Fellows Road. Not sure how soon that connection will be made but I’m sure it would be done if an arena were being built.

LUAlum1215 wrote:

rogers3 wrote:Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

Liberty Mountain Drive from the Track/Pool all the way to just past the pedestrian tunnel at David’s Place is already a state road. Any changes to that road has to be made/approved by Lynchburg and VDOT. Keep in mind that this road will extend north from the track and pool area and will connect at the new entrance/exit to 460 at Odd Fellows Road. Not sure how soon that connection will be made but I’m sure it would be done if an arena were being built.

Won't be enough...needs to be four lanes. Currently, there are multiple ways to get off the main campus. The track/matatorium site will only have two, and both are one lane each way. Maybe new road dev't is planned.

http://www.liberty.edu/aboutliberty/ind ... rth%20View

Ask and you shall receive

Thanks, but it's dark outside again!

After the basketball game yesterday I drove over to east campus to take a look at the new track/natatorium complex. Great facility, & I was glad to see that we were hosting some kind of regional, high school meet there yesterday.
Seeing all the cars & buses there yesterday made me really question how they could put a new basketball arena over there & still hope to park anyone nearby.
There isn’t a ton of room for parking lots (between 460 & the mountain), & I really can’t see them justifying a parking garage on the edge of campus. I don’t think the hassle of parking a mile away & riding a campus bus are gonna be worth it for every home game. I’m also willing to bet a lot of other season ticket holders will feel the same way.

rogers3 wrote:Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

Not with major roads being built off of Mayflower drive, including new off ramps on 460 and a major bridge. There will eventually be retail and other items out there. A road will run parallel with 460 E to get you over by the new pool and indoor track facilities.

Kolzilla41 wrote:

rogers3 wrote:Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

Not with major roads being built off of Mayflower drive, including new off ramps on 460 and a major bridge. There will eventually be retail and other items out there. A road will run parallel with 460 E to get you over by the new pool and indoor track facilities.

Except there aren't any major roads planned there...Odd Fellows will be three lane, at the most. The current road being developed is two lane and the existing entrance is, as well. None of those are "major" roads. At least the planned traffic circle will keep cars moving. Also, I don't think we'll see too much retail out there. Liberty can't even follow through with their plans for the mall.

rogers3 wrote:

Kolzilla41 wrote:

rogers3 wrote:Ingress and egress will be a problem by the pool and track. There will be one inbound and one outbound on either side of the complex. The main campus has much more potential for clearing traffic. Any plans for such a facility will have to get approval from the city and my guess is that the roads around the swim/track complex will have to be expanded for approval.

Not with major roads being built off of Mayflower drive, including new off ramps on 460 and a major bridge. There will eventually be retail and other items out there. A road will run parallel with 460 E to get you over by the new pool and indoor track facilities.

Except there aren't any major roads planned there...Odd Fellows will be three lane, at the most. The current road being developed is two lane and the existing entrance is, as well. None of those are "major" roads. At least the planned traffic circle will keep cars moving. Also, I don't think we'll see too much retail out there. Liberty can't even follow through with their plans for the malls.

FIFY

School of Engineering construction camera is up:

http://www.liberty.edu/aboutliberty/ind ... ngineering

Where is the School of Engineering located ?

Ballcoach, it's off campus in Bedford County on 460 West near New London.

http://www.liberty.edu/news/index.cfm?P ... MID=220637

Ok, thanks Cider. Now I remember the location. (Engineering isn't my strong point)

Now that the Freedom Tower is completed, I wonder if the Honor School is still in order to be built in the near future? I see that construction is flattening the dirt, so I'm assuming that the project is possible.

I noticed something today. When Lahaye Ice opened it had the cat walk over the one goal, and they kept that in the redesign of the arena. They have extended that portion of bringing the crowd closer to the action in both the Indoor Track and the Natatorium. It is clearly on their radar as a fan favorite. Perhaps, if a smaller basketball arena is in the future it would behove them to look at that style for one end of the court. Look at the McKeon Pavilion if you want to see a similar idea.

They have added the metal framing for the cupola on top of the new School of Business building, which makes it TALLER than DeMoss. I can see the cupola from the third floor conference room in the library (and DeMoss Hall is in between).

Sly Fox wrote: