Renovating Crisler?

According to Terry Foster, the U will finally renovate Crisler Arena. If you've been to Crisler, you would know what a dump it is. It's concrete and cold. Most importantly, it's not student friendly.

Now that football is set the school will ask the Board of Regents for $20 million during a meeting set for Thursday to upgrade lower bowl seating, indoor practice facility and badly needed infrastructure. The arena is a dump and does not sell the basketball program.

My main problem is that as a student, if you're no in the bleachers, it's hard to get involved in the game and make noise. The concrete is not easy to jump on. There's only limited seating there too so the environment isn't as good as it should be. I hope that this is taken into consideration when the renovations take place.

***UPDATE***

The University has announced renovations. Here's a quote from outgoing AD Billy Martin:

Renovating Crisler Arena is an integral part of our basketball program's future success, on and off the court," said Martin, the Donald R. Shepherd Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. "We really haven't done any infrastructure work in the arena since its construction 40-plus years ago, and this will be a major step forward in improving our basketball facilities

Here are the plans:

The first phase would address the highest priority infrastructure needs such as repair of the roof, electrical, plumbing and air handling systems. Lower bowl seats also would be replaced, with the expansion of seating for people with disabilities, addition of hand rails and other code related issues.

As proposed, the design work for the renovation by TMP Architecture, assisted by Sink Combs Dethlefs would begin in 2011. Those firms designed the new $23.2 million Basketball Player Development Center, which is scheduled to be completed in 2011. The design of the Player Development Center has been coordinated with the future Crisler Arena improvements in mind.

Funding for the renovations would be provided through Athletic Department resources.

Looking forward to coming back and seeing this.