nice video. There are many reasons why VCA was built. The main reason is at the time there were no set plans within the city of Columbus or Franklin county to build an arena. They were in the first stages of getting plans submitted for an arena, The city and county were sick and tired of losing all the big events concerts etc. to Cincinnati and Cleveland so, they went to the university promised a share of the profits of the outside events coming in. That's why it was built. Less than two years after VCA was complete Nationwide arena was built for the Bluejackets. Now they're making double the profits. It all comes down to money.
That’s not entirely accurate: OSU decided to move ahead with building VCA while plans for a downtown arena were still in the works. University leadership publicly put their support behind the idea of a downtown arena, but were working behind the scenes to kill the ballot initiative that would fund its construction. OSU wanted all of the concert and event revenue in Columbus to itself, and didn’t anticipate that the business leadership in this city wanted a NHL team so badly that they would fund Nationwide Arena on their own if the ballot initiative failed. OSU should have put their money into renovating St. John, building a new facility for their hockey program, and partnering with the city on a downtown arena for events and major basketball games. Instead, Columbus needlessly has 2 20,000 seat arenas.
This is actually very similar to at South Carolina who built the 18,000 seat Colonial Life Arena in 2002 to replace the 12,400 seat Carolina Coliseum that had been built about 35 years earlier and now sits a quarter mile away from the current arena to be only used as a practice facility.
You are correct in your take on the basketball atmospheres of the two arenas. VCA, the Schott, whatever you want to call it, has a very antiseptic atmosphere compared to SJA. I know every inch of the latter, having worked at OSU in the 1980s (my office was in it). SJA had a lot of issues, built in 1956, the walls showed cracks, and it wasn't air-conditioned (doing summer camps there was brutal). The hockey team's venue was tiny. They tried to thread a needle to help both programs. To characterize it though as "Ruined by (capital G) Greed" is unfair. EVERY college athletic department wants to maximize revenue potential. Every D1 program is conscious of the "arms race", you stay current or you get buried.
No Buckeye fan here (Illini Fan) I have been in St. Johns and lived in Columbus when VCA was built. In fact both VCA and Nationwide Arena were built simultaneously in Columbus in the 1990's. tOSU refused to share a facility with new NHL team (Bluejackets) That said there is nothing wrong with VCA. I have sat in courtside seats and suite seats. It is a nice facility. Nationwide is nice as well.
The football team still uses it for skull sessions before a big game. I wish osu basketball woulda stayed there cuz where they play now has too much of an nba feel not a college basketball feel with how it looks inside they coulda just played a few miles away in downtown Columbus in nationwide where the blue jackets play if they wanted a modern arena🤦🏼♂️
Went to an OSU hockey game with my dad for a belated Christmas present since even though I hate the buckeyes, my dad does love em. Gotta say, even with the leeway of it being a break the crowd was AWFUL. My WMU broncos have a tiny little arena but even during a break it’s packed full of students screaming their heads off whereas there was like 1 rowdy fan total at Value City. It was kinda sad to watch, I’ve seen Cincinnati’s D2 (I think) team have a more engaged crowd than OSU
The OSU Women's hockey team uses the arena. They work out there. Also that's where their lockers are and the refs lockers. In order to get into a women's game you have to present your ticket or buy your ticket at St. John's. You will either be giving a stamp on your hand when you enter the arena or when you get to the rink. I say that because even though the restroom, The main gate, and the concession stand is in The arena, the ice rink you have to walk next door. You literally have to exit the building that accepted your ticket to go watch said event in another building. At least that's how it is on Saturdays when there's a Buckeye football game because they also use St. John arena for their marching band thing. Also, to add insult injury they just announced that they are building a hockey arena.
State Farm Center, Illinois's home men's and women's basketball arena, had its atmosphere ruined by a renovation a number of years ago (although the pre-renovation arena had the issue of not having enough seating for disabled people). If I recall correctly, a bunch of mid-level seats were removed for luxury suites. It's still a unique arena, being shaped like a giant mushroom. Among Big Ten schools, Illinois has some of the worst athletic facilities. Memorial Stadium is outdated even after a renovation a number of years ago. Huff Hall is tiny, even for Big Ten women's volleyball (which is a big deal nowadays) and, unusually for indoor volleyball, there are ceiling fans over the court (presumably because Huff Hall doesn't have air conditioning). A renovation could have killed St. John Arena's atmosphere if it was badly designed. Northwestern renovated Welsh-Ryan Arena several years ago, and it has been an intimidating venue post-renovation. Nebraska and Wisconsin turned their former basketball arenas into volleyball arenas with two of the most intimidating atmospheres in all of college sports. Ohio State recently built a new arena for volleyball, the Covelli Center, which has a few thousand seats. Prior to this, the Ohio State volleyball teams (OSU is one of the few NCAA schools to have a men's volleyball program) played at St. John Arena, and volleyball games there had a high school basketball team playing in an NBA arena (for lack of a better comparison) atmosphere to it. The Covelli Center has a very ultra-modern feel to it.
Three years ago the high school championship games were moved from value city to Dayton arena. While a travel disadvantage for northern Ohio schools the move to Dayton has been well received. One weekend the girls play their finals and then ncaa play in games occur and finish the next weekend with boys championship
Another arena that had the same problem as Ohio State, the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State. Seats 15,000, but it is rarely half empty/ half full. Replaced Rec Hall (home of volleyball), and Rec Hall is an intimidating environment for the road team. The real reason the Bruce Jordan Center was built is for concerts. Major music acts go here.
Funny thing each of the other sports now have their own facilities. Also St John’s is used for a lot of things from cheerleading comps to the weekly home game skull sessions.
In the same vain but different topic, people refer to the grocery stores as Kroger's and Meijers. Up in Michigan we have some Catholic schools. One is Gaylord St. Mary, and another is Orchard Lake St. Mary's. The former does not have an s but the latter does; however, just about everyone puts the s it the end of the Gaylord one.
This is somewhat similar to Texas in that they opened up the Moody Center closer to DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium a couple of years ago while the Frank Irwin Center sits vacant after two years (despite plans to demolish it for an expanded hospital campus). Except St John Arena seems to be a more extreme case compared to the new arena situation in Austin.
I believe capacity is at 10k. I think all college arenas should be smaller close to 10-13k. I cant think of any reason why you would go bigger. Very few teams could get close to 20k to watch a college basketball game. Maybe North Carolina or Kentucky? Other than March Madness, college basketball has lost popularity especially during the regular season. The 1 and done and conference realignment have done a number on the sport.
There is foundation concerns with the building. In the lower parts of the building hidden away from view where the utilities for the building exist it has developed some small sink holes.
Part of the reason they fail to sell out value city arena is because it's a far walk from where most students live St Johns is right next to everything
Well with the size and weight of the new scoreboards there is a lot more work then just taking the old one down. In this case they should have really gone with the renovation as you pointed out. Administrators just see $$$ with a new shinny arena when a renovation would have done the job in this case.
While I agree then it's a crying shame that it's no longer used for basketball saying that it's completely empty and unused ignores two of the most treasured words in Ohio State culture, Skull Session.
You can hold the skull session multiple other places. It’s just a pregame concert, nothing too fancy about it. Even the skull session has taken a hit because of all the weights and crap they’ve put on the court cramping the band. If anything it would be better if they moved it.
First of all it's St John Arena, there is no "s" at the end. Second, leaving SJA and building the Schott was one of the worst decisions OSU has made, and they've made plenty bad decisions. The main reason why the Schott was built was because Columbus didn't have a venue for large indoor concerts. Within 2 years Nationwide Arena was built, so we went from 0 to 2 in short order. And since it was built as much for concerts as it was for basketball (which pisses me off) the wide open acoustics for concerts are terrible for basketball. Look at SJA, it's all metal and wood that place is LOUD. The Schott, even when full with 20k people isn't as loud as 13k in SJA. I wish we'd move OSUBB back to SJA and just use the Schott for concerts and whatever other minor sports they want to have there like hockey or fiddlesticks. Also SJA is not vacant. It is in constant use, just not as a formal game day home for any of the sports that used to call it home (basketball, wrestling, volleyball) but it is very much used every day.
Beyond its lack of the necessary mechanics to create ice, St. John could never be used for ice hockey because the size of the floor isn't big enough to accommodate a rink. It was built specifically for basketball, which is one of the reasons it was such a great place to watch a game. The seats are right on top of the action. Conversely, the multi-purpose capability of VCA is a major reason watching hoops there is so bad. And since the university is building a hockey only venue, they should just cut their losses, tear down VCA and build a hoops only venue in the style of St. John.
What a waste, College pro-ball is so big in the States I'm surprised the Ohio State team didn't purchase this monolith. This place could have held an OHL hockey team and lots of concerts and trade shows. A diamond in the rough.
Sam Boyd Stadium should be covered as well. Lots of history for a mid-sized college stadium that since 2020 is now sitting abandoned and collecting dust with an uncertain future.
Once the A’s move into Las Vegas with a new stadium Sam Boyd really has lost all reason to stay around. I think UNLV still uses it for football practice from time to time.
St. John’s is better than Hinkle FieldHouse. In the upper sections, you are sitting on top for the court! It was like sitting in the upper deck of Tiger’s Stadium. This is also terrible for OSU hockey.
St. John’s will be around until they build a new practice facility for hockey and indoor track. I think it provides heating and ventilation for French Field House and the Ice hockey practice facility.
Ohio State should move back into St John's arena and Penn State should move back into Rec Hall. The Bryce Jordan Center is possibly the most sterile arena in the country.
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