The McKenzie quandary

Chattanooga players, including Dontay Hampton (2), have played in front of swathes of empty seats at McKenzie Arena this season. Boasting an attendance close to 11,000, the sprawling arena presents logistical problems for the UTC program. (Photo: Billy Weeks)

Imagine 5,102 lively Moc fans streaming into McKenzie Arena for Thursday night’s game between Chattanooga and Davidson.

Coach John Shulman would take that in a second. So would athletic director Rick Hart.

UTC ranks fourth in the Southern Conference with an average home attendance of 2,551 fannies per game. A draw of 5,102 would double that. It would be a major accomplishment, no?

Well, actually, no ... no it wouldn’t. A crowd of 5,102, despite being enough to nearly fill eight SoCon arenas, would leave McKenzie Arena 53.3 percent empty.

And therein lies the rub.

“We have a different set of logistics,” Hart said recently in an interview with Nooga.com.

McKenzie, and its oft-empty 10,928 seats, has outgrown UTC. The logistics don’t match the circumstances. A sellout won’t come unless big brother visits from Knoxville or Elon is replaced by the Rolling Stones. The days of the Roundhouse rocking with eight, nine, 10 thousand people are over. Only two of the arena’s 25 largest all-time crowds have come since 1997. Of the 11 times McKenzie has drawn over 10,000, five occasions were in the 1980s, five were in the 90s and one was this century. 

Simply look at Chattanooga’s SoCon peers. The league’s average home attendance is 2,102 (19.2 percent of 10,928). The average gym size, excluding McKenzie, is 5,409 — 110 seats shy of half a sellout at McKenzie. Moreover, behind UTC’s per game average attendance of 7,485 in 1983, the second-highest average ever by a league foe was 4,830 by Davidson (and some guy named Curry) in 2009. The 4,830 would leave 6,098 empty seats at McKenzie.

Something needs to change when Hart begrudgingly says, “Even when we have very good crowds, the venue is noticeably empty in some areas and that hurts.” No program should be in a position where it’s hurting itself. Therefore, according to Hart, two major adjustments are in the works. 

No. 1, last year’s plans to replace the arena’s lower level (all retractable seats under the gold-level seats) should be completed this offseason. This is the building’s first priority. The newly installed seats will likely allow for different ticketing and donor rates by offering wider, more comfortable seats from free-throw line to free-throw line, and standard seating on the baselines. Hart also said the court’s four entry tunnels are being looked at and some maybe eliminated, replaced by more seating. “No matter what,” Hart said. “We don’t want to lose any seats on the lower level.”

No. 2, an adjustable curtaining system is being strongly considered to block the arena’s upper level. McKenzie’s 300-level seats are collecting dust. The cavernous upper level eliminates an intimate environment, consumes crowd noise and drastically cuts down on the Mocs’ home-court advantage.

“There are events where you don’t need the upper level or at least the majority of the upper level,” Hart said. “You can create the look and feel that you’re going for (with a curtain). In an ideal situation, we’d have a curtaining system that would allow us to curtain-off the entire upper level. Then it would go in phases as to where you could open up the sides or open up the ends or open up the whole thing.”

Regarding the four video boards on the upper level, Hart said the curtaining system would be designed not to block them or they would be moved. The cost of moving the screens, though, would be enormous, so it’s a safe bet the curtain will open for the screens.  

Wheels are spinning on both endeavors.

“Hopefully the bids will go out soon and we’ll find out what the costs will be,” Hart said. “Both projects are part of the immediate conversation of upgrading the venue, differentiating seat-types, increasing ticket sales and improving the environment.”

UTC’s strategy surrounding ticket sales will be adjusted dramatically, even if curtains are not installed.

Currently, McKenzie’s entire lower level requires a donation to purchase a ticket. According to Hart, the seating structure and donor structure (you donate this much, you’re allowed to buy tickets here) haven’t changed since the building opened in 1982. To understand how much entertainment in college basketball has changed since 1982, consider that the NCAA tournament began being televised nationally in its entirety only two years beforehand.

“We think it will be an opportunity for us to redefine those donor areas, to maybe restrict them more to side-court premium areas and open the rest of non-student seating to the general public at a much more affordable, accessible rate,” Hart said.

Basically, reasonable ticket policies will be enacted. As of now, if a family of four wants to buy lower-level season tickets, a donation needs to be made ... for all four seats. Those archaic systems will be gone. 

“We won’t sell an upper-level ticket until the lower-level is full,” Hart said. “We need to create a structure that allows us to do that and be fair to our current donors and ticket-holders and protect their investment.”

UTC is in the introductory chapters of a longterm, campus-wide master plan geared toward facilities and aesthetic upgrades to the university. You will start hearing more and more about it in the fall, according to Hart. A multi-million dollar capital campaign will be generated to transform what Hart calls, “the physical outlay of the campus.” The big picture will be looked at, then reshot. Could there be a fully renovated version to shrink McKenzie or even a sparkling new arena in UTC’s veiled master plan? Sure, but it won’t be for another 10 to 20 years.

Until then, the logistics need adjusting.