Wells Fargo Arena...

**BringBackJohnny** · 12-17-2012, 09:26 AM

The WFA is a nice place and does a fine job serving the needs of Iowa and the Des Moines community.

Those of you who say the bars are too far away its like 3 or 4 blocks. It takes no time to get down there. You can also take the skywalk all the way to court ave if its cold.

The Des Moines river walk is almost finalized and they will connect the arena to the whole east and west side of the river.

The river walk will a new hotel in place before the end of 2013.

WFA is a piece of the city center of Des Moines. Its job is to make money and sever the community. (Done and Done)

Those of you who have not gone to NCAA tourney games before. The Atmosphere always sucks at those events you get fans that care about one game and not the rest. Bingo same thing that happens at the big 4 classic.

**capitalcityguy** · 12-17-2012, 09:28 AM

Originally Posted by kingcy

The problem with the Well is they built it in the wrong place. It needed to be downtown more, right off Court Ave. The bars are too far away, the hotels are too far away. They expected Hotels and Bars to go up after the Arena was built but demand and economics have not made that happen. When you are in a town, where do you go to drink or stay? Where the bars and resturants are close together and you want your hotel close to where you are drinking. Putting bars and hotels around the Well is like putting them on an island.

No one disagrees it would have been ideal to have WF located closer to Court Avenue, but the reality was that polls showed that Polk County voters most likely wouldn't have approved the necessary bond to build there, so instead planners were forced to locate it next to Vets so it could be considered an addition to the current structure and thus, a public vote wasn't required to issue the bond.

Bemoaning the location is really wasted energy IMO since it was either build it where it sits now, or potentially not have a new arena at all in downtown Des Moines.

**capitalcityguy** · 12-17-2012, 09:34 AM

Also, it was mentioned/suggested the arena was built for the Iowa Stars. That is false. No tenants were lined up before the building was designed and construction has begun.

Also as someone suggested, Court Ave is only 4 blocks away so it is not like it was built in a corn field with nothing nearby (or like Hilton where there is absoluting nothing within walking distance).

**wonkadog** · 12-17-2012, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by ISU1294

While it isn't the greatest, it could be a lot worse.

Its a great place for state wrestling with all the floor room.

Hahaha...nice, well we've got a suitable location for state wrestling!! Let's be happy with that because it's not like you couldn't hold that at any arena in the state that holds over 12k. My Christmas present came way early!

**WalkingCY** · 12-17-2012, 10:01 AM

I hope KC gets the Kings back when they bail from Sacramento. No doubt the NBA would rather be in KC than "The Moines."

**chuckd4735** · 12-17-2012, 10:12 AM

Originally Posted by BringBackJohnny

The WFA is a nice place and does a fine job serving the needs of Iowa and the Des Moines community.

Those of you who say the bars are too far away its like 3 or 4 blocks. It takes no time to get down there. You can also take the skywalk all the way to court ave if its cold.

The Des Moines river walk is almost finalized and they will connect the arena to the whole east and west side of the river.

The river walk will a new hotel in place before the end of 2013.

WFA is a piece of the city center of Des Moines. Its job is to make money and sever the community. (Done and Done)

Those of you who have not gone to NCAA tourney games before. The Atmosphere always sucks at those events you get fans that care about one game and not the rest. Bingo same thing that happens at the big 4 classic.

This. Everyone is so fast to forget how incredibly successful the NCAA Women's regional was this past spring, as well as the NCAA wrestling tourney. Sure there are better things that the Well could do when it comes to basketball seating, especially behind the hoops, but the venue most definitely serves the purposes it was built for.

As far as the NCAA Men's tournament, I always figured it was very common knowledge that the biggest, and really only issue is downtown hotels. Downtown hotels are SLOWLY become more and more of an issue for Des Moines in general, and as the demand grows for more hotels, the demand will be met. However, you cant expect a bunch of money to be dumped into new hotels just to attract a 4-day event once every 3 or 4 years. Give it some time, the hotels will be built, and the NCAA will give Des Moines a Men's tourney. The Iowa Events Center has done everything they can do to this point to land the event. Once the hotels are in place, it will come.

**ISUBrew** · 12-17-2012, 10:29 AM

Originally Posted by HiltonMagic

Wait, a building that wasn't designed for basketball doesn't have as good of an atmosphere as ones that were? Shocking!

Yes, WFA was not designed for basketball. No one is arguing that point. Spend 30 seconds in the arena and you will realize it wasn't built for basketball. The question is: why wasn't it built to host both?

I understand hindsight is 20/20 and if they knew we wouldn't even have a hockey tenant 3-4 years after the arena was built, they would've done things differently, but why couldn't it have been better built to accommodate BOTH?

It is not rocket-science to make an arena convert between hockey and basketball better than WFA does. There are tons of NBA / NHL dual-use facilities that host both sports without acres of empty space behind each basket.

It's a good hockey arena and a crappy basketball arena, and yet it hosts zero hockey teams, a NBA D-League team, boys and girls state basketball tournaments, and now the Big Four Classic.

I am sure it was not better built to convert between sports because of money, but perhaps its time to accept the new reality and at least renovate the lower bowl of the arena to be better for basketball.

**BringBackJohnny** · 12-17-2012, 10:54 AM

If you watch NCAA tourney games you will see they put the band behind the baskets sitting on the floor level. WFA is not the only space in America with this problem. Bigger open floor plans allow for things like rodeo, the circus, moto cross, concerts, and all other things to use the space. Good luck trying to tell the project designer and financial backers that we want this thing to be basketball focused driving out countless other events that could use the space.

Side note taked to numerous hawk fans at work today who were in attendence for the event and said they really enjoyed the whole thing. This site is full of people saying it sucked while the EIU crowd loved it. Sounds like they will bring butts to the seats again in 2013 for the event.

**chuckd4735** · 12-17-2012, 10:58 AM

Originally Posted by ISUBrew

Yes, WFA was not designed for basketball. No one is arguing that point. Spend 30 seconds in the arena and you will realize it wasn't built for basketball. The question is: why wasn't it built to host both?

I understand hindsight is 20/20 and if they knew we wouldn't even have a hockey tenant 3-4 years after the arena was built, they would've done things differently, but why couldn't it have been better built to accommodate BOTH?

It is not rocket-science to make an arena convert between hockey and basketball better than WFA does. There are tons of NBA / NHL dual-use facilities that host both sports without acres of empty space behind each basket.

It's a good hockey arena and a crappy basketball arena, and yet it hosts zero hockey teams, a NBA D-League team, boys and girls state basketball tournaments, and now the Big Four Classic.

I am sure it was not better built to convert between sports because of money, but perhaps its time to accept the new reality and at least renovate the lower bowl of the arena to be better for basketball.

Because it was built to host/hold a variety of events. That thing would go bankrupt if all it held was basketball and hockey games. Some of you people need to broaden your prospective on this issue.

EDIT: See above for a more thorough explanation of what I'm saying.

**capitalcityguy** · 12-17-2012, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by ISUBrew

Yes, WFA was not designed for basketball. No one is arguing that point. Spend 30 seconds in the arena and you will realize it wasn't built for basketball. The question is: why wasn't it built to host both?

I understand hindsight is 20/20 and if they knew we wouldn't even have a hockey tenant 3-4 years after the arena was built, they would've done things differently, but why couldn't it have been better built to accommodate BOTH?

It is not rocket-science to make an arena convert between hockey and basketball better than WFA does. There are tons of NBA / NHL dual-use facilities that host both sports without acres of empty space behind each basket.

It's a good hockey arena and a crappy basketball arena, and yet it hosts zero hockey teams, a NBA D-League team, boys and girls state basketball tournaments, and now the Big Four Classic.

I am sure it was not better built to convert between sports because of money, but perhaps its time to accept the new reality and at least renovate the lower bowl of the arena to be better for basketball.

It was designed to hold multiple types of arena events just like any other arena in America that isn't buillt for a single purpose/franchise. It would have been foolish to build this as a basketball only facility in a city the size of Des Moines.

**cybsball20** · 12-17-2012, 11:54 AM

Only in Des Moines would people consider a four block walk too far. FOUR BLOCKS to Cour Ave, 5 blocks to the bars and restaurants in the East Village, and 11 Blcoks from the bars and restaurants in the Western Gateway.

The city did make a HUGE mistake by allowing HAMPTON INN that prime spot just south of Court Ave. While yes, it is another hotel added to downtown, it is not considered a "Full Service" hotel or even a botique hotel which tournament officials often look for. It's basically a cheap motel with a facelift.

**Cycsk** · 12-17-2012, 11:56 AM

Our $25 seats had just about the same sight-line as our season tickets in Hilton. No complaint about that.

**alarson** · 12-17-2012, 12:02 PM

fwiw, looking at satellite, its 6 blocks down to court ave from WFA, assuming youre going down 3rd street. Not that far distance-wise still, but the fact is it feels like a completely different area. Look at how it is in KC, the entertainment area and the arena really feed off of each other.

**BringBackJohnny** · 12-17-2012, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by alarson

fwiw, looking at satellite, its 6 blocks down to court ave from WFA, assuming youre going down 3rd street. Not that far distance-wise still, but the fact is it feels like a completely different area. Look at how it is in KC, the entertainment area and the arena really feed off of each other.

It is 6 blocks but downtown blocks are tiny haha

Not that I have been to a ton of arenas in my day but I think the KC experience is more rare than it is common. It is also way more expensive than the court ave experience haha (if you can call it an experience)

**MartyFine** · 12-17-2012, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by alarson

fwiw, looking at satellite, its 6 blocks down to court ave from WFA, assuming youre going down 3rd street. Not that far distance-wise still, but the fact is it feels like a completely different area. Look at how it is in KC, the entertainment area and the arena really feed off of each other.

It's a 5 minute walk in the skywalk. To say it is far or difficult to get to is just being intellectually dishonest.