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Username Post: Loyola signs UA for all athletics        (Topic#13046)
LoCo2011 
Senior
Posts: 399

Age: 35
Reg: 01-05-08
02-09-12 03:14 PM - Post#119880    

http://www.loyolagreyhounds.com/

This opens up a discussion that has happened a couple years ago and I'm sure on more than one occasional here.

Not saying this is all due to the men's basketball team being great this year.. b/c the men's team was sponsored by UA for awhile. But I have noticed more and more "this event, the dance team, the cheerleaders... sponsored by so and so" than I ever have. For example, from what I understand they are giving out shirts sponsored by M&T Bank at the Iona game.


Not to detract attention from the big game tomorrow... but my big point.. and one I've had for awhile is that I never understood why it would always seem (especially in year's past.. and with the building of Ridley) that Loyola continued to shove lacrosse, lacrosse, lacrosse down our throats because we were kind of good for awhile, correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think we've won a national title, still better on a national stage than basketball.. but that's all relative, but yes we are better at lacrosse.. but that seems to be on the decline as well as of late.

Now this year, we go 11-2 in a mid-major conference and sponsors and donations are coming from everywhere... AD Paquette tweeted something about having to personally send out thank you notes to people from all over... and you could sense from the tone that it's something he doesn't do on a regular basis.

Ridley is a great facility.. it's beautiful, but the point I made when it was rumored to be built and during construction and that I still believe to be true is that it's crazy so much money was pumped in to sports (lax & soccer) that quite frankly just are never going to approach the kind of national attention that a basketball team does and will continue to. If football was a motive (and this opens up an entirely different discussion, I don't really want to get in to) then the stadium makes a little more sense. But why all of that money was not put in to a new arena.. or just simply improving Reitz is and still to this day remains questionable at best.



After re-reading all of that, I know it sounds super-negative.. but wasn't really my intention.. just throwing some food for thought out there. Nonetheless, awesome to have a brand like Under Armour sponsor all of our sports, it will definitely help in terms of national attention.. Just hope our lax helmets don't start having Greyhound ears on them like the turtle shell design for MD.

 
loco09 
Masters Student
Posts: 526
loco09
Reg: 02-08-07
02-09-12 06:26 PM - Post#119906    
    In response to LoCo2011

This is a great move by Loyola's athletic dept. UA is a great company based in Baltimore and can only help us with recruiting, marketing, etc.

Part of the reason Jim Paquette was brought in as the new AD was to help get more money into the school through donations, sponsorships, etc. Of course a winning team always helps.

For years lacrosse was the biggest draw for Loyola getting to a couple final fours and a national title game in the 90s. Now more teams are playing lacrosse so there are more good teams to compete with. Ridley is a great facility for a school our size and i dont have a problem with them building it as it freed up space on campus to develop DGA field when the time comes. However, I wish they would upgrade Reitz or build a new facility. It would be great if we had seating all the way around instead of a glorified high school gym. That being said it looks way better than it used to with the old yellow seats and white walls. I also understand new scoreboards are possibly on the way. The original plans for the athletic complex called for a new arena to be built out by Ridley but that part got scrapped. If we could put together a few good years and draw good crowds consistently the AD may be more receptive to more drastic improvements to Reitz or a new facility, Patsos has mentioned York Rd as a possible location for a new arena. That is all for the future though. We need to take care of business this weekend first.
It's Not Worth Winning if You Can't Win Big


 
LoCo2011 
Senior
Posts: 399

Age: 35
Reg: 01-05-08
02-09-12 06:39 PM - Post#119909    
    In response to loco09

Yeah the new seats.. and even the floor looks a lot better than it did my freshman year.. so there was an improvement. I heard rumors they were thinking of re-orientating the court (basically turning it 180.. and then having seats all around.. but I think when that happened the capacity would've decreased even below 2100 (which it is at now, I think it was 3000 before the latest remodel.. but not positive)

Judging by how attendance has been recently, that would've probably been a poor choice. New scoreboards will definitely help too.. any word if they will have video screens on them?

 
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