I 100 percent fully admit that it is not just as simple as this. It does not work this way. It likely will never or would ever happen. There are probably already too many sports playing there. There’s too much money to miss out on to make this idea work.
But just hear me out for a second on this one.
Make Penn State men’s basketball earn the Bryce Jordan Center. Force them to play full-time at Rec Hall until proven otherwise.
It’s not an insane idea by any means. (OK, I’m the one coming up with the idea and saying the idea so of course I think that). It’s just probably impractical and a logistical nightmare – thus a moot point. But on the eve of the latest edition of Return to Rec, let me at least make the case for a more permanent return to the corner of Curtin and Burrowes.
Last week, head coach Mike Rhoades spoke about developing a culture in Happy Valley. The comments came after a loss to Michigan State – where men’s basketball (in most seasons) is the sport du jour.
“We got beat today by a team with a culture. Period,” Rhoades said. “That’s a well-established culture, as we all know about it. It’s probably the best in the Big Ten. That’s where we gotta get to someday. That’s what we gotta emulate.”
He’s probably talking about the players here more than anything but there’s something to be said about making your home environment a tough place to play beyond just the players’ performance.
How do you do that? How do you – beside winning – consistently invigorate a fan base that longs for football season the second it ends and heralds its wrestling program in the winter, not its basketball program?
Well, yes, to begin, win. But moreover, make Penn State men’s basketball games the place to be. Right now, they’re not.
This season, Penn State has reported an attendance north of 10,000 twice. The second time was the THON game – traditionally well attended for a multitude of reasons but most of which aren’t necessarily the product on the court.
The first time? Penn State’s second home game of the season which came against Lehigh.
Most of the time, the attendance this year has hovered around 7,000. And that’s a reported number and in general the athletic department goes by tickets sold, not necessarily butts in seats. Tune in to any hoops games this year and no BJC curtain is hiding all of the blue seats you see behind both baselines – or corners or even sidelines.
There’s no energy most nights compared to the Big Ten, just curtains.
Those curtains too are part of the anti-charm to Jordan Center. Beside rent payments by the athletic department to the university, its biggest problem is that it’s too vast to truly create an environment people will care about or too tough for an opponent to win in unless the place is packed. It was designed more for concerts than hoops, and on most nights, there’s about as much hostility in the BJC as there are games without shot clock issues.
Down at the other end of campus though, where Penn State played until the Jordan Center opened, it’s cramped, it’s tight, it’s loud and it can make an opponent uncomfortable. At Rec Hall, there is no escaping the student section, there is no escaping the heckling fan in the top right corner. It could become the type of place you build a culture around.
Most of all, Rec Hall can create scarcity for tickets until the program were to deserve the bigger stage. Penn State wrestling matches remain the hottest ticket in town – even if the head coach isn’t pleased with the noise levels. Penn State men’s hoops could become the second or third hottest ticket town by creating the place where fans truly want to be. (That ranking depends on how the men’s hockey program is doing too.)
Over the past few months, maybe spurred by the new Baylor arena and the article about it that went viral in the college sports world, there has been this idea that Penn State needs to build a new place to play hoops. The Jordan Center is dated, yet it’s illogical to imagine Pat Kraft building a new permanent home for hoops when he can just cut a rent check while searching for funding for the main facility on campus, Beaver Stadium.
But Rec Hall can scratch that itch until it’s time to grow.
By making Penn State men’s basketball earn the Bryce Jordan Center, you will in turn build an environment – or as Rhoades put it – a culture that people will want to be a part of. To be clear, this isn’t a cry for a permanent return to Rec Hall. No, once Penn State plays well enough and the environment is there, then you can take the Blue Loop to the other end of campus.
But until then, there’s no reason (besides the logistics, wishful thinking by me and dollar signs) that Penn State can’t make a more semi-permanent Return to Rec.
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