St. John Arena

[LitlBuck]

This should not be read by ORD because there is no mention of a new smaller hockey arena:( and why wait 10 years. Let's get the job done. This is Ohio State sports we are talking about:)

What's next for St. John Arena?
Tearing down the old building is one option, but OSU officials say it's not on front burner
Thursday, May 13, 2010 2:52 AM
By Encarnacion Pyle and Tim May

Ohio State University likely will tear down St. John Arena eventually, but it probably won't happen for years, officials said yesterday.

"We're talking about something that, at the earliest, is probably 10 years or more out from now," athletics director Gene Smith said. "It's not of the highest priority. It's just part of a long-range plan for the university."
A proposed master plan to determine what Ohio State should look like in 50 years includes the possibility of demolishing the 54-year-old arena. That alternative calls for building new sports facilities near the Schottenstein Center and using land along Lane Avenue for classrooms and student housing.

St. John is "an old building. It's getting decrepit, and it would cost more to repair or renovate than it is worth," said Jeff Kaplan, Ohio State's senior vice president for administration and planning. But "I don't see anything happening to St. John in the next one, two or three years unless someone donates $50 million to build a replacement."

The athletics department has about $40 million worth of projects either under way or in the planning/fundraising stage, and replacing St. John isn't among them, spokesman Dan Wallenberg said. Plans in the pipeline include a boathouse for the rowing team, a new field-hockey field, upgraded practice fields for football, a new outdoor tennis facility and new practice facility for basketball.

Trustees are expected to get their first peek at the proposed master plan at their June board meeting.

The plan will touch on all areas of the university, including academics, the arts, athletics, housing, the Medical Center and transportation. And it will include information about how OSU's decisions could affect the surrounding community.

More

What's next for St. John Arena? | BuckeyeXtra

 

[LitlBuck]

In a way, when it does go it will be sad because of all the memories it does hold for all of us old-timers and especially the players who played there and not just basketball.

Commentary
St. John deserves to be preserved
Sunday, May 16, 2010 3:00 AM
By Bob Hunter

A year ago, I pored over four books of Columbus Vignettes by the late Bill Arter, a local artist/historian whose sketches of historic buildings ran in the Dispatch Sunday Magazine during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The journey was pleasurable and painful. While looking over the profiles, I found myself checking the street view of Google Maps to see which buildings were still around.

It has been 40 years, but it amazed me how many times Google would answer with an image of a gas station, an office building or an empty lot. When you see a sketch of the Worthington house where Rev. Philander Chase founded Kenyon College in the 1820s, when you go looking for that structure where Salmon P. Chase (future Ohio governor, secretary of treasury under Abraham Lincoln and Supreme Court justice) lived and up pops a photo of a church parking lot, it feels like a punch in the gut.
I felt the same way while reading a story Thursday in The Dispatch about Ohio State's long-range plans for St. John Arena. The good news is that it won't face the wrecking ball soon. The bad news: Tearing it down might be part of what athletic director Gene Smith described as "a long-range plan for the university."

Smith was properly respectful and careful to say that demolition is "probably 10 years or more out now," and might not even happen. But Jeff Kaplan, the school's senior vice president for administration and planning, made it clear that's only because it is unlikely anyone will step forward in the near future with "$50million to build a replacement."

I don't know Kaplan. Frankly, I'm not sure I want to. After he said St. John was "getting decrepit," after he said "it would cost more to repair or renovate than it's worth," it was clear we don't share the same value system. He spoke of a place some regard as a basketball temple as if it were a chicken coop, tool shed or broken-down garage.

"When we think of St. John Arena, we think of it as a lot more than a building," former Ohio State player Bill Hosket said. "It's the memories. If you played there or you're a fan of Ohio State basketball, you have a true appreciation of it. Yes, it needs repair. Hinkle (Fieldhouse in Indianapolis) is even older, though, and look what that means to those people. But time marches on, I guess."

No matter who makes the decision on St. John and when, it's important for campus planners to understand how many of us revere the building and how some would move the men's and women's basketball games back there from Value City Arena if we could. It's a storehouse of beautiful memories, not only of Ohio State athletics but of high school state tournaments, concerts and graduations.

More

Bob Hunter commentary: St. John deserves to be preserved | BuckeyeXtra

 

[LitlBuck]

Kellogg loves St. John. . . and says 'change inevitable'
Clark Kellogg has plenty of reasons to want to see St. John Arena stay the way it is; he played in the state tournament there as a high school star at Cleveland St. Joseph and played there for three years at Ohio State. But when I asked him about a story in Thursday?s Dispatch about the university?s long-range plan to tear it down, the CBS-TV basketball analyst sounded like more of a realist than a preservationist.

He said he has a ?special feeling for the building? and believes ?it?s the ideal size for most on-campus facilities? ? a comment I judged to a subtle shot at the 19,000-seat building that replaced it -- but also knows ?that change is inevitable and sometimes it is not pleasant, ideal, or most comfortable.?

I?ll admit that I?m more preservationist than pragmatist. I don?t like to see old buildings torn down, particularly those of a historic nature. Whether that describes St. John Arena depends upon your point of view, but there?s no denying that a lot of emotion has been spent there in the 54 years that it has been standing between Lane Ave. and Woody Hayes Dr.

However you view it, it should be clear that this isn?t just another building, that for most Ohio State basketball players and many of their fans the building holds a lot of memories. That?s why I objected in today?s column to OSU senior vice president for administration and planning Jeff Kaplan saying that St. John is ?getting decrepit? and that ?it would cost more to repair or renovate than it is worth.? It doesn?t give the building the respect that I think it deserves.

?When I saw that story,? former OSU star Bill Hosket said, ?my mind immediately brought up the image of Fred Taylor and how when he first got the job he thought there should be an O in the middle of floor and went down there one night and painted the block O there. . . For those of us who played basketball, it?s kind of synonymous with OSU basketball and Fred. It?s very special place to all of us. To me, it?s also special because they played state (high school) championships there.

?The thing about it is, we never duplicated it and we never replaced it. The new place is a nice building, but it?s a hockey arena with a basketball floor in the middle of it. As far as the sight lines for basketball, (St. John) was as good a basketball facility as existed. It is remarkable building that was built solely for basketball. That?s what made it so special.?

In a perfect world, St. John Arena would never face the wrecking ball. But alas, we know that the world isn?t perfect. Lots of historic structures have been bulldozed over the years, sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not. So it shouldn?t come as a shock that those who think a building is just bricks and mortar would look at the cost of bringing a fifty-something building ?up to snuff? and believe that the best solution is to tear the place down.

When I called Tim May, who co-wrote the Thursday story with Encarnacion Pyle, he told me that OSU athletic director Gene Smith said that it wasn?t a sure thing that St. John would eventually torn down, even if he did say it was ?part of the long-range plan for the university.? The quote Tim referred to was edited out of that story, probably for space reasons, but it is worth reprinting here. It shows that Smith, at least, has some feel for the building?s value.

?Obviously people would be passionate about that facility,? Smith said. ?But I don?t think people should think it?s going to happen, say, tomorrow, or if it?s going to happen at all. At the end of the day, who knows what?s going to happen 10, 15, 20 years from now. The university has a master plan looking at all facilities and weighing the value of ? let?s take St. John, needing an estimated $29 million or $30 million in deferred maintenance (such as replacing the roof, upgrading the heating and air conditioning systems, stopping the drafts, etc.) to keep it around and bring it to modern standards. There are other buildings and facilities on campus being evaluated the same way.?

And then again, if I were in Smith?s shoes, I wouldn?t want to utter one negative word about the old arena until the bulldozers were in the parking lots outside the building, ready to bring it down. A simple conversation about what might happen 10 years from now invites all kinds of negative snail mail, angry e-mails and yes, even, negative columns and blogs.

Posted by Bob Hunter on May 16, 2010 8:15 AM

Kellogg loves St. John. . . and says 'change inevitable' (The Daily Hunter)

 

[LitlBuck]

Great idea of all moving basketball back to St. John and moving all of the other indoor sports to this Schot even though it will never happen.

Could neglect be OSU's 'strategy' on St. John Arena?

As is often the case when St. John Arena is the topic of a column or a blog, my mail box received a small flood of e-mails from fans of the Buckeyes? former basketball home. Some skewered former Ohio State athletic director Andy Geiger for not refurbishing St. John with the money he poured into the Schottenstein Center and other suggested that basketball be moved back to St. John and all the sports now housed there be moved to the new place.

As John W. wrote: ?St John is a great venue that is also a museum. I always check it out when I?m up there. They should make it like Cameron Indoor and have the students get the twenty rows closest to the floor ? make it a real home court advantage.?

Suggestions such as that one aren?t new, though; St. John has a devoted cadre of diehard OSU fans, who have been lamenting the move almost from the day that the Schott was built.

In the midst of all of those SJA fan letters, one e-mail stood out. Christopher Duckworth charged that the Ohio State officials are using a strategy that they have used with success in the past, quietly condemning the building by refusing to make repairs on it:

?You are correct about OSU and St. John Arena. What seems to be unrecognized generally, however, is OSU's strategy of demolition through neglect?an insidious strategy that has worked all too well. When OSU wants to demolish a historic building and fears public outcry, the administration never directly confronts the issue. Instead, they simply neglect the building and allow it to deteriorate until it is in such deplorable condition that it cannot be saved. Then, they decry that they have no choice but to destroy it. This has been a strategy since at least the demolition of University Hall, the original campus building. For a recent example, look at Lord Hall. This solid building had served generations of OSU students until it was allowed simply to fall apart with leaking roof and myriad other basic maintenance problems. Ignore such routine maintenance, forget timely repairs, and, before you know it, you have a building that is in such a state of disrepair that it simply must go?oh, dear, it's just too expensive to save it. The process may take a few years, but that is a small price to pay when OSU manages to avoid criticism and public outcry.

More

Posted by Bob Hunter on May 18, 2010 9:11 AM

Could neglect be OSU's 'strategy' on St. John Arena? (The Daily Hunter)