Pauley rennovations reported by SI

Bumped from the diaries. M will have more on this later since he has already been doing some great posts on Pauley Restoration. Really interesting that UCLA comes out with this news just when M turned up the heat wrt Pauley on BN. GO BRUINS. - N

Sports Illustrated has a small piece on the prepping for the Pauley Rennovations.

The article lists new locker rooms (as well as upgrades), adding a video room, media room, medical treatment area and practice facilities as well as additional concession areas, restrooms and modern arena technology as planned rennovations.

My personal thoughts: It sounds nice, but let's not emulate the Galen center. Cameron Indoor, MacArther Court (I've visited both) are amazing places that still retain thier purpose: providing an adiquate home court advantage. The fans are loud, colorful, and RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU.

Pauley provides less of one, mostly due to the lack of insane fans outside The Den. The other reason is the seating. There is a massive gap between the baseline seats and the court, and half the courtside seats are given to "High Rollers". Now, I know this isn't true for ALL the UCLA boosters, but most of those fans are old alumni who simply own the tickets because they're family hierlooms. So we lose a little right there. But the whole stadium could be more compact near the court, with more seats added for more rabid students.

The seats themselves don't need to be changed at all. (to copy the plush, leather seating of say, the GC or Staples.) We just need to make the place more indimidating and harder to play in for opposition (not that 11 championship banners and Coach Wooden aren't intimidating by themselves) I'm just more worried about the Home Court Advantage than the Home Court itself.

SI reports that there still isn't a premium source for funds. Let's get the word out so we can get Pauley rocking like never before.