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This may be obvious but…
by Jake Sherman on January 13, 2006 at 1:18pm.
GW has the smallest arena, in terms of capacity, in the top 25 of men’s college basketball. Pretty interesting. Comment away.
Marco Esquandolis says:
January 13, 2006 at 2:50 pm
I was talking about this with my co-worker the other day. He went to Michigan State, a Big 10 school, and they play in a huge arena. One of the ideas that came out of this discussion was one way, in my opinion, for the A-10 (and GW) to raise their profile is to emphasize our small gyms and turn a liability into an asset. Small gyms make for great college basketball and the A-10 has plenty of them (I grew up about five blocks from the St. Joe Fieldhouse, another great small gym, and saw numerous games at the Palestra in Philly). We should be billing ourselves as the small gym league, a league that keeps it real in the cities. We should be proud that not all of our teams play in the MCI Center or the Comcast Center. I think that would be an attractive recruiting tool, especially for inner-city kids, who grew up watching basketball in these types of environments. It would also be a way for us to differentiate ourselves from leagues like the ACC and Big East, by talking about intimate surroundings and providing an urban feel.
Granted, our small gym puts us at a disadvantage financially, but I have faith that Coach Karl Hobbs’ strength as a recruiter can overcome these obstacles and make GW a powerhouse school for years to come.
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