DePaul might build an on campus arena. (Chicago, Lincoln: hotel, buying)

[ChikidII]

Originally Posted by edsg25

Wouldn't parking be a major problem in Lincoln Park. Not everyone would be taking CTA. What about suburban Blue Demon fans? Dense, urban neighborhood....seems to me that location could be a nightmare.

The congestion would be terrible. It already is. I dunno. Let's not forget that Children's memorial, depauls neighbor, is moving, and they have a big parking lot.

[edsg25]

Originally Posted by ChikidII

The congestion would be terrible. It already is. I dunno. Let's not forget that Children's memorial, depauls neighbor, is moving, and they have a big parking lot.

children's is a pretty prominent location; it would be a prime site for redevelopment so I can't imagine that it would be available.

[ChikidII]

Originally Posted by edsg25

children's is a pretty prominent location; it would be a prime site for redevelopment so I can't imagine that it would be available.

Yeah but their large parking lot is detached from all the buildings and across the street from the hospital. I am sure DePaul could buy that parking lot, and leave the rest for someone to redevelop. It wouldn't surprise me if DePaul bought the hospital either. Let's be honest, DePaul itself is in a very prominent location so I don't see your point in that.

DePaul is expanding like crazy. They just build the new softaball stadium and the new art museum on Fullerton. On Fullerton they are building that new theater school, they just built a new academic building, and now an arena is a possiblity. They are also tearing down some of the buildings near lincoln/halsted/fullerton and rebuilding new ones. In the loop they just bought one of the highrises on state street and it's now a DePaul academic building and they might build another high rise on wabash for housing/acadmeics. So it wouldn't be surprising if they took a good chunk of Children's Memorial. Why wouldn't they?

IMO the hospital could be turned into student housing which would not require the parking lot across the street that could be used for the arena.

[cubssoxfan]

they used to have a pretty decent, but small on campus gym/arena. I believe the conference has minimum seating capacity requirements that made the old facility too small. But still makes me wonder if they couldn't have expanded that facilty

[Vlajos]

The children's memorial site is going to be apartments, at least most of it is. Unless the idiotic LPer NIMBYs have their way. It's a freakin City folks.

[ChikidII]

Originally Posted by cubssoxfan

they used to have a pretty decent, but small on campus gym/arena. I believe the conference has minimum seating capacity requirements that made the old facility too small. But still makes me wonder if they couldn't have expanded that facilty

I don't think so. The student sits there now, and the plot of land probably would have not met the needs of the Big East Conference.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by reppin_the_847

On the other hand, the Bradley Center in Milwaukee doesn't host NHL hockey, so they are able to host both the Bucks (NBA) & Marquette (NCAA - Big East).

No, but they do host the AHL Milwaukee Admirals.

[Tappan Zee]

Originally Posted by ChikidII

Supposedly they are looking to build a basketball arena on the parking lot at Fullerton and Sheffield. Although they suck, it would be nice to have College BB of a major conference play within the city. DePaul is certainly making a lot changes to the Lincoln Park neighborhood (imo in a good way).

Thoughts?

Awesome, hopefully this helps their recruiting. I'm still a big fan of their BB team even though they are horrible right now. Who knows, maybe it was a bad idea to go in the Big East and remain as an independent, but probably had no choice.
They need a big time coach so they can keep the Chicago kids in Chicago. The great Ray Meyer would not have let great players like Anthony Davis of kentucky, DWade to Marquette or Iman Shumpert to GTech.....lol, but then again Isaih Thomas chose Indiana.
But, this is good news for Basketball fans of Depaul.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by Tappan Zee

Awesome, hopefully this helps their recruiting. I'm still a big fan of their BB team even though they are horrible right now. Who knows, maybe it was a bad idea to go in the Big East and remain as an independent, but probably had no choice.
They need a big time coach so they can keep the Chicago kids in Chicago. The great Ray Meyer would not have let great players like Anthony Davis of kentucky, DWade to Marquette or Iman Shumpert to GTech.....lol, but then again Isaih Thomas chose Indiana.
But, this is good news for Basketball fans of Depaul.

Two things.

The Midwestern Catholic universities could have one heck of a conference if they could ever all get together. However, each university is trying to cut their own best deals. That is why you have DePaul as a doormat in the Big East and Xavier, Dayton, and St. Louis playing most of their games on the east coast.

With the "one and done", DePaul would not get the top players even if they had a reasonably good team.

[marothisu]

Didn't see this posted anywhere, but it looks like the site will be around McCormick Place...

DePaul Building $300 Million McCormick Place Arena | NBC Chicago

Chicago has $300 million plan for new DePaul Blue Demons arena, report says - ESPN Chicago