re: Any pictures of other arenas of how you'd like to see the new PMAC?

PMAC is a pretty neat building architecturally. It looks cool as hell on the outside. No one else has anything like it. Inside is pretty well laid out as well. It was built during an era when LSU basketball was just beginning to find its legs, and it was built with plenty of room to accommodate fans when the program began to know success.

There's no need to build something like a Rupp Arena at LSU. Hell, Rupp Arena isn't even on UK's campus. It's a private venue adjacent to the Hyatt Regency in Lexington. UK doesn't even actually have a university venue for basketball.

Take a year to rework the seats and the interior finishes and let the team have a special "retro" year playing at the old Cow Palace where Pettit and Maravich wowed Baton Rouge. A retro season would be spectacular, even if the seating was limited and facilities significantly less modern. It'd only be for a year.

In the mean time, replace the seats, spend some time determining whether a better layout of sections could be made. Re-work concession areas and restrooms and call it a day. On the exterior, consider a new paint scheme that better incorporates the school colors and maybe upgrade the roof coating. If you want to go a little crazy, add some monuments along the ramps to such players as Pettit, Maravich, Macklin, Scales, Carter, Jackson, O'Neal, Davis, and others that provided great memories from their time as Tigers. Change up the exterior landscape a bit, maybe. But there's no need for a major overhaul of the venue. A little cosmetic change and a few minor adjustments are all that are required. (Well, maybe a little work on the practice courts beneath wouldn't be a bad idea.)

Suites, while they seem appealing at first, would take away from the general seating and turn the place into a pub for old men to talk business rather than allowing for more fans in the seats who would make more noise in what was once known as "The Deaf Dome." Definitely no suites! We want fans at the games, not business meetings!

quote:

---

lowhound

Whatever they do, they have to get the student section back down near the court. The energy died in the PMAC after they moved the students to get more high-dollar seats at midcourt.

---

Agreed! Back in the early 80's during the days of Rudy Macklin, High C Carter, DeWayne Scales, Willie Simms, Ethan Martin, Greg Cook, Jordy Hultberg, John Tudor, Johnny Jones, etc., there was a group of students known as "The Front Row Lunatics" who were the face of the LSU student body when LSU games were broadcast on CBS, ESPN, or Jefferson-Pilot back in the day. They absolutely raised the roof on that place and made it miserable as hell for opposing teams! UK Coach Joe B. Hall used to get ill at his stomach during warm-ups when he saw them sitting in the row right behind his bench when the Wildcats came to Baton Rouge.