12,000 Seat Arena for Iona, Manhattan & Fordham...

[Cjb]

...8 years past due.

www.allbusiness.com/construction/nonresidential-building-construction/10611904-1.html

Sorry, couldn't resist with the arena talk surfacing again in the other thread.

As I said back then... this will never happen in Westchester. There's just no way anyone would be able to make the economics work.

Westchester county dropped the ball back in the 80's when they opted to renovate rather than replace the Westchester County Center. Pretty much putting lipstick on a pig, the cc is a dump. I remember Pat Kennedy being very vocal with his displeasure about that decision. It may have even been one of the factors he left because PK had aspirations of moving Iona to a higher conference.

One more thought... having a nice 6,000-9,000 venue at your disposal no longer guarantees you'll automatically be able to attract the marquee names, as BCS schools play very few ooc road games these days. Monmouth getting 'nova this year is an exception, but if you look at Siena and FF in the MAAC the last 5 or so years, I bet you could count on one hand the number of BCS opponents they've played at TUC & AHY.

[ic59]

Cjb, you said you couldn't resist posting about the arena. Next time, please try harder. Much harder.

[St. Louis Gael]

If you have the team, the big names will come - to MSG or the like.

They like the "neutral" games to fill their OOC allotment. Plus, in their minds, it puts them in front of NYC kids.

[IONA86]

Great article. They should have replaced the county center IMHO. If not they would have had a better chance developing an arena in Yonkers near the race track, the thruway and McLean avenue. Or in the Bronx over in the Industrial area in Northern Co-op city just off of 95.

Funny to see Geri Posts name mentioned. She opposed a cell tower project I was running back around 1993. She went door to door in Mount Vernon to bring people out against our application. I ended up giving her a 150' monopole enema through the courts. Boy was she pissed off..... good times... good times. ;D

[gaelmbagrad]

Just joined this site and needed to jump right in with my opinion on this topic. I was all for the talked about projected arena in Mt Vernon way back when...it seems like a lifetime ago but I knew it was certainly a longshot. As a huge Iona fan, frankly I'm quite disappointed with the Hynes Center. There are times when it's literally embarassing seeing less fan support versus a CHSAA high school game. We need a significant upgrade. 4,000-5,000 would be just enough in my mind. It's one thing to try to get higher profile teams to visit in a venue this size but imagine local traditional rivalries, Manhattan, Fordham just to name a couple.