Do we have room for a Bears Stadium. :d
They wouldn't go as far as Valparaiso for a stadium. That is farther away than the 49ers are from San Fran. However, something of note is that the NWI Sports commission has passed a bill stating that they will appropriate funds to build professional sports complexes, and any effort to build one is tax free. If you can reasonably make a case that college athletics is professional sports, you could potentially tap into that money for certain improvements or completely ground up construction projects. It is also interesting to think about how the old McGill plant is going to be turned into a community hall by the city and the land has a perfect spot for a decent sized multipurpose 5-6k seat venue.
A college basketball team should never have their primary home stadium be outside of easy walking distance for students. There are a few exceptions where teams get away with this for some games (e.g., Villanova, St. John's), but far more cases where it has been a complete disaster (e.g., DePaul, UW-Milwaukee, Georgetown).
A college basketball team should never have their primary home stadium be outside of easy walking distance for students. There are a few exceptions where teams get away with this for some games (e.g., Villanova, St. John's), but far more cases where it has been a complete disaster (e.g., DePaul, UW-Milwaukee, Georgetown).
St. Johns isn't a great example either since it is a commuter school to a great degree and may be easier to get to MSG than it is to the campus from their home.
But absolutely for a school such as Valpo where, right now, getting the students to walk the 600 yards from the dorms to the ARC is a problem never mind having to go off campus.
You would be surprised as to just how many teams dont play within walking distance of their campuses. Heck, the majority of the big east splits time at larger venues that are more centralized to their cities. Marquette, St Johns, Seton Hall, Georgetown, UCONN, DePaul, Providence. There are really only 2 teams in the big east that play their games on campus. Butler and Xavier. Creighton is iffy as theirs is closer than most of the others, but is still a good hike on foot.
This was Moreso to highlight that if someone ever convinces a legal body that college athletics is professional sports. A potential $ stream opens up in the future
They wouldn't go as far as Valparaiso for a stadium. That is farther away than the 49ers are from San Fran. However, something of note is that the NWI Sports commission has passed a bill stating that they will appropriate funds to build professional sports complexes, and any effort to build one is tax free. If you can reasonably make a case that college athletics is professional sports, you could potentially tap into that money for certain improvements or completely ground up construction projects. It is also interesting to think about how the old McGill plant is going to be turned into a community hall by the city and the land has a perfect spot for a decent sized multipurpose 5-6k seat venue.
It’s a stretch, but why not explore the possibility. Gotta get the community behind it and push the commission, so it’s gotta be a multi-use facility that would support more than just our professional Beacon franchise 🙄.
I don’t know the answer to this, but: Is there any venue within a 20-25 mile radius of VU that could provide seating for 5,000 concert goers or a Cirque du Soleil road show or other performances?
Kind of a case in point. I live 35 miles south of Green Bay in the Manitowoc/Two Rivers “megalopolis” of 46,000 people (and a like number of cows). Yet, we have a Symphony, a Wind Ensemble, a local Theater Company, as well as acts that come down from Green Bay to perform at our Capitol Civic Center (2,400 capacity). Most events are well attended if not sold out. A multi-use facility on the Valpo campus and easily accessible to the surrounding Porter county communities that represent a helluva lot more people than Manitowoc (Porter Hospital site or East Gate?), would, just from a cultural/athletic perspective, elevate the county-wide quality of life. And that doesn’t even include the tractor pulls and motocross races that could be booked 😂.
It’s a stretch, but why not explore the possibility. Gotta get the community behind it and push the commission, so it’s gotta be a multi-use facility that would support more than just our professional Beacon franchise 🙄.
I don’t know the answer to this, but: Is there any venue within a 20-25 mile radius of VU that could provide seating for 5,000 concert goers or a Cirque du Soleil road show or other performances?
Kind of a case in point. I live 35 miles south of Green Bay in the Manitowoc/Two Rivers “megalopolis” of 46,000 people (and a like number of cows). Yet, we have a Symphony, a Wind Ensemble, a local Theater Company, as well as acts that come down from Green Bay to perform at our Capitol Civic Center (2,400 capacity). Most events are well attended if not sold out. A multi-use facility on the Valpo campus and easily accessible to the surrounding Porter county communities that represent a helluva lot more people than Manitowoc (Porter Hospital site or East Gate?), would, just from a cultural/athletic perspective, elevate the county-wide quality of life. And that doesn’t even include the tractor pulls and motocross races that could be booked 😂.
in a 20-25 mile radius...kinda?. The Abandoned Genesis center is really the only thing you are going to find that fits that bill of 5k seats within 26 miles (nothing within 25). They used to host circuses at the Hammond Civic center when I was a child, but I haven't been out that way in Quite some time. As for stage shows and concerts, most just end up being either
1. Outdoors at the Fairgrounds or Downtown at the pavilion.
2. Held inside of the chapel.
3. Held inside of Memorial Opera House
All of which dont seat much. There was a plan to build a 2k seat theater proposed by Costas, but it was shot down immediately as it would involve the demolition of historic downtown businesses. Not even the casinos offer much in the realm of high capacity theme entertainment in the area with most of their offerings being expo halls that happen to have a stage inside of them. You could realistically get away with a 2 deck horseshoe seating structure of a venue with the empty side being a retractable affair for concerts. I have actually used AI to make mock ups of such things in free time and the results have been interesting. Obviously nothing a real planning team and design process could come up with (and would be better than the AI slop). Again. All of this banks on if someone decided to convince a legal body that College sports is pro sports. Then you could make a case to the commission.
As for the indiana government. Braun signed HB 1292 into law in 2025. It created the NWIPSDC or Northwest Indiana Profesionall Sports Devel0pment Commission. It also gave them a fund that is eligable for grants, philanthropy, and whatnot that. The committee members have affirmed that any "Professional Sports Complex" would remain tax free to construct.
You would be surprised as to just how many teams dont play within walking distance of their campuses. Heck, the majority of the big east splits time at larger venues that are more centralized to their cities. Marquette, St Johns, Seton Hall, Georgetown, UCONN, DePaul, Providence. There are really only 2 teams in the big east that play their games on campus. Butler and Xavier. Creighton is iffy as theirs is closer than most of the others, but is still a good hike on foot.
This was Moreso to highlight that if someone ever convinces a legal body that college athletics is professional sports. A potential $ stream opens up in the future
FiServ Forum is six blocks from the edge of Marquette's campus. An easy walk for students and many do so. Creighton's stadium is roughly the same distance from their campus. Both teams play all their games in those stadiums.
The walk is listed as about 20 minutes on maps. 15 for Creighton. So I would amend my statement to put Marquette in the iffy category.
Another interesting thing I found is our newfound regional rival Western Michigan is actually foregoing their on-campus basketball arena to move downtown to the newly built for 2027 Kalamazoo event Center
I absolutely do not want any part of removing home games from campus. This lessens the campus environment, increases costs (e.g., renting), brings fewer visitors to campus, decreases student attendance, and more. While it would be cool to play at a shiny new facility, I would much rather stay on campus. A large majority of the most historic, most attended, and well-known CBB arenas are school-owned facilities. This feels more like a band-aid “fix” rather than a long-term solution. I am not interested in participating in a similar arena situation as Bradley.
It would be stupid for Valpo to consider playing games other than on campus at this point.
I'm not saying they should. All that I suggested was that if someone ever convinces a legal body that college athletics is professional. The school should petition the new Sports Commission to allow them to reap the potential benefits. And that, simultaneously, the city is working on improvements to the community in repurposing the McGill building into a community hall and "sports center". Is the McGill plot ideal, Hell no, but it is a project the city is working on in the realm of recreation and athletics. Renovations is the route that is going to happen, if anything, from my conversations with people in the department anyway. To make a long story short, it is a good idea to have conversations with that commission
Is the Hammond Civic Center still around? An incredible venue for wrestling and legendary heroes Bob Luce, Dick the Bruiser and the Crusher.
We have a new president, let’s prioritize and get the nursing/health sciences building underway.
@usc4valpo hCC is still around, but it doesn't host many events anymore. When Hammond HS was rebuilt and renamed Hammond Central, they built with it a smaller gym and now only uses HCC sporadically. I agree that the nursing building is the priority but this is the athletics side of the board
The walk is listed as about 20 minutes on maps. 15 for Creighton. So I would amend my statement to put Marquette in the iffy category.
It depends on which side of campus you are talking about with Marquette, but you are generally correct. I would agree with your "iffy" assessment if I did not see throngs of students walking from campus to games at FiServ Forum when school is in session. This size of the throng does differ, not surprisingly, on the quality of the team and perceived quality of the opponent.
