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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
April 8, 2007 Women's basketball: A new home rises for Phoenix By Scott Venci
Not that there was anything wrong with it, but when you cram a sold-out crowd of 1,850 into a crackerbox gym, it wasn't a fun place to play if you didn't have on a UWGB jersey.
After going 303-64 at the PSC in 30 seasons, the Phoenix will have a new home next season when it moves into the Kress Events Center.
"It's a magnificent piece of work," UWGB coach Kevin Borseth said. "It's just going to be a great addition to not only the basketball (program), but the student life and the community."
Along with the court in the main part of the building, there will be a 12,000-square-foot turf gym — with the same kind of artificial turf the Green Bay Packers have at the Don Hutson Center — that will be used for softball, ultimate Frisbee and wiffle ball.
There will be a fitness area, which will feature an aerobics room, a weight room and an indoor running track, and an auxiliary gym that will have a practice floor for the men's basketball team.
"They have approached it like they are building several different buildings and kind of joining them together," said Dean Rodeheaver, assistant chancellor of planning and budget for the school.
With the new facility comes perks the basketball players haven't had.
"It's a dramatic difference," said sophomore point guard Kati Harty, who took a tour of the Kress Events Center with the rest of her teammates a few weeks ago.
"Right now, the locker room we have used to be an old maintenance closet."
For the $32.8 million it cost to build the Kress Events Center — the cost also included a water main project — nobody will have to worry about changing in an old closet again.
Although the coaching staffs for both basketball teams are expected to move into their new offices sometime this summer, the arena officially will open for business on Nov. 10.
It will seat approximately 4,000 people for women's games and perhaps a few hundred more for concerts.
With the new surroundings come big challenges. While UWGB often plays in front of packed crowds at the PSC, it could be difficult to attract 3,000 to 4,000 fans on a nightly basis.
The Phoenix has played in front of 2,000 or more fans nine times in its history. All nine games were played at either Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena or the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon, and three of the games were doubleheaders with the men's team.
Of the nine contests, three have had more than 4,000 fans. A game against Butler in 2005 set a single-game record of 5,580, while 4,520 were at a game against Wright State the same year — although both were part of doubleheaders.
The team had its largest women's-only crowd this past December, when 5,197 fans flocked to the Resch Center to watch it play Wisconsin.
The number of fans at the game against the Badgers was an encouraging sign to Borseth, who knows it's that type of crowd his team must draw to its new facility.
"The biggest challenge will be getting fans in there and make it feel the way it did in the old Phoenix Sports Center gym," Borseth said. "The atmosphere we created in the Phoenix Sports Center, there was so many people and so much noise, it was a treat for us to play. To go into the new facility and not have that would really be missing.
"So many people have told me that they haven't been able to get into games because they are sold out. Well, you know what? We are going to call your bluff. This is your chance right now."
The players have mixed emotions about moving from the PSC, although the building will not be torn down.
"We knew pretty much every game that we could sell out," Harty said. "You knew coming into every game that the bleachers were going to be full. You knew you were going to be playing in front of a sellout crowd every night.
"At the same time, you go to school every day and look at the new place, and it gets you excited."
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