Mick Cronin Deserves a House to Call His Own
By Chris Bains
With the University of Cincinnati keeping the future home of Bearcats basketball a mystery, the Fifth Third Arena vs. US Bank Arena debate continues to rage. A couple of months ago when UC announced they were toying with the idea of moving the program downtown I wrote those posts to highlight the advantages of each venue. In essence, assuming both are renovated to serve Bearcats basketball equally, one could make a compelling argument for both.
On the one hand, you have Fifth Third Arena. Bringing this into the 21st Century would create a marquee venue right on UC’s campus, allow for the athletic department to keep 100% of the money made during games, and create a better experience for nostalgic donors and alumni. About two out of every three of you seem to be in favor of this plan. But then there’s US Bank Arena and after months of weighing both options, I’ve decided to finally back one venue over the other. For the good of the basketball program, the athletic department, and the university in general the right move for the Bearcats is moving downtown.
Let me explain.
If that poll is any indication, this post isn’t going to win me a lot of fans. But making tough decisions in life isn’t always about appeasing the masses, it’s about doing what’s right. And US Bank Arena is the best option for Bearcats basketball at the current time.
Fifth Third Arena has been an excellent home for the Bearcats and proponents of the venue will point to a number of reasons to keeping UC basketball on campus. But for Mick Cronin, with all of the time and effort he’s put into restoring Cincinnati to its rightful place among the nation’s best, don’t you think he deserves a chance to put his personal stamp on this program? I think so. Construction on Fifth Third Arena was completed in 1989 and was marveled as an engineering masterpiece. To build on the excitement, UC went out and hired a young, energetic coach from the University of Akron, Huggins. Under that same roof for a decade and a half, the Bearcats head coach would go on to win multiple conference championships, 14-straight NCAA Tournament births, three conference coach of the year awards, a conference coach of the decade award, and thousands of adoring fans.
But Fifth Third Arena is the house that Huggins built, Cronin is simply its current resident. A renovated US Bank Arena would allow for Mick to put his stamp on this program (which he intends to lead into retirement) and the city of Cincinnati. More on that last point in a bit.
Additionally, US Bank Arena just makes better financial sense right now. If UC opts to go with Fifth Third Arena, they would be footing 100% of the bill that could wind up being $100 million or more. With the already cash-strapped university pouring $86 million into renovating Nippert Stadium how easy do you think it would be to go to the donor-well once more but for even more money? While UC would be the primary tenant at US Bank Arena, they would only pay for a portion of the construction costs.
Plus a renovated US Bank Arena would be ready and available for Bearcats basketball far sooner than a renovated Fifth Third.
If UC were to write a check for $100 million to renovate another on-campus facility, after having already agreed to spend $86 million on renovating Nippert Stadium, it could take a decade or more to finally raise the money and complete construction. That would put Mick Cronin somewhere in his early-to-mid 50’s. I can’t emphasize this enough that UC must must must have a “strike while the iron’s hot” attitude. They have a loyal, young coach who’s leading a strong program and downtown Cincinnati has never been a hotter destination for fans of all ages around the area to congregate. In 10-15 years, who knows how any of that will change and going along for “The Banks ride” now (and I’m not talking about the streetcar) will maximize UC’s return on its investment.
An added effect of the additional revenue from saving money on a new arena is that Cincinnati will be able to afford to pay for more marquee (read: less high schoolesq) teams with better RPI numbers. We all know how much the out of conference and strength of schedule has sucked in the past. Well this is one way to quell those issues. Whit Babcock has done a nice job hooking UC up with some strong opponents for the upcoming season but adding more money to his coffers only makes his job easier. Even if he couldn’t sign a deal with the Michigan’s or New Mexico’s of the basketball world, the extra cash at his disposal would allow him to sign teams in the 100-200 RPI range instead of the 200-300 range like we’ve seen before. Those small changes can help the Bearcats’ resume immensely come tournament time.
From a less financial but equally important perspective, the move to US Bank Arena will establish the University of Cincinnati as “Cincinnati’s team”. Overall, there is a massive disconnect between UC and the citizens of Cincinnati. For years this city has split college basketball loyalties with UC, Xavier, Kentucky, NKU, and even Dayton and Butler have a strong presence here. Well screw those guys. This is Cincinnati and the only team with “Cincinnati” written across their chests are the Bearcats. Quite frankly I’m tired of it being a multi-team city. You don’t hear about that in Louisville where the Cardinals are king despite Kentucky and the crazed Big Blue Nation right down the road. One of the key reasons is because UL has established itself as “Louisville’s team” by parking their program in the heart of the city. If UC were to do the same it would assimilate more with Cincinnati than ever before.
Proponents of Fifth Third Arena make a compelling argument about keeping UC basketball on-campus. In general, yes, I’m highly in favor of keeping college athletics as close to the actual college as possible. But basketball is a different animal than football, where fans tend to tailgate for most of the day before the game, spend three hours or more actually attending the game, then hours afterwards celebrating (or drinking their sorrows away). Basketball isn’t the same way. Fans get to the arena, they watch the game, they go home. All of that consumes just a few hours of their day. In essence, a college football is an all-day event where the environment surrounding the game is as important as the game itself. But for basketball, everything outside of the venue itself is far less important.
Those in favor of Fifth Third also mention that student attendance would be affected by the move downtown. That is an excellent point and I fully believe that appeasing students can be as important to an athletic department as current alumni, as they are the donors of the future. Additionally, I agree that attendance from this key segment of the fanbase will drop off by moving the program to US Bank Arena. While they could easily make games at noon or in the afternoon on Saturdays, UC students would be hard pressed to make a 9:00 PM game on a Wednesday night no matter the opponent. However when it’s netted out, I don’t think overall attendance will decline at all. Even though students might have to make adjustments to their schedule to attend games, and attendance losses would reflect that at first, that drop off should be offset by the casual fans who would go downtown for a game. Like I mentioned, a fully renovated basketball arena with a marquee program in the middle of Cincinnati would be extremely attractive to citizens around the area looking for a good way to spend their evening. This would be especially so between January and March when neither the Bengals nor Reds are in-season.
So when evaluating the options at UC’s disposal, US Bank Arena is far more advantageous to the continuing development of the Bearcats basketball program than Fifth Third Arena. Keeping collegiate sports on-campus is almost always a good idea but not in this case. A renovated US Bank Arena would cost the cash-strapped University of Cincinnati athletics department far less and would be completed much sooner than The Shoe. It would also establish UC as “Cincinnati’s team”, further assimilating the school with the surrounding area and attracting a new (and large) group of prospective fans. That extra money could go to scheduling better opponents at home and paying for other aspects of the program like coaching salaries and increasing the recruiting budget.
Overall, US Bank Arena is the future of UC basketball.
Photos courtesy Cleveland Plain Dealer and Riverfront Ball.