The thing is that Mac may be old and decrepit, but it is a landmark in stadium architecture not only for its engineering, but also for the fact that it was arguably the first structure on the west coast to be entirely dedicated to functioning as a basketball arena. It is a piece of history, but hell, Eugene has a great track record of tearing down its history, and doesn’t it have some lovely architecture to prove it?

No one was saying the stadium will happen immediately. But to think that Kilkenny, Knight and co will be content playing at Civic Stadium for years to come is erroneous. It could be the next project after the arena.

Student housing money paid for the research park land. Maybe putting something on it that students could get more use out of would be a good thing.

Whatever. I don’t really have an opinion way or the other about most of this stuff, I just like throwing ideas out there for people to chew on.

One thing I will say, though, is that baseball is, hands down, the greatest sport ever. No question. I grew up watching my brothers play and will always, always love the game. Long live UO baseball….

Anyways, I’m going to go get off by feeding the rumor mill some more.

If you think about it logically, why would Kilkenny take up a second huge project like that? He already has his hands full with the new arena. But you all can go ahead and keep feeding the rumor mill about a new stadium because I know how people like to get off on that.

As for the new arena: it is going to happen, so it really is not worth debating about. Sure, Mac Court is awesome, but its just like that old dirty pair of jeans that you don’t want to throw away.

Meghann: as you hinted at, and as Kilkenny said in an ODE article (something along the lines of “it’s a good piece of real estate”), I think Mac Court will be coming down within the next 5 to 10 years. Of course there will be an uproar about it, and yes Ted, the students did build it, but that was a almost a century ago and these are different times. If the University decided to renovate Mac Court, it would just be in the same situation in a few decades when it starts falling apart again; eventually a new arena has to be built and this is the time to do it.

Everyone needs to stop whining about what has already been set in motion and start focusing on what is happening. Phil Knight and many others are going to come through with huge donations to build the new arena because Kilkenny, who is a down to earth “good ol’ boy” type of businessman, was hired as the AD. What we need to focus on is that the University builds the best damn college basketball arena in the nation. If only Howard Roark were around these days to design it for us.

And everyone who is saying that the University brought back baseball just because of the success of Oregon State is as wrong as sexy blond girls who date athletes just because they are athletes. This is something that many, many University of Oregon supporters have wanted for a long time; bringing back the national pastime to Eugene collegiate athletics is a time for some big fucking celebration.

Frankly, I’m tired of the all the criticism towards the athletic department. I would go further into my opinions on the issue, but I need another beer so maybe some other time.

Vincent: I’m pretty sure that Bono did have his greedy little hands in the creation of Live Earth. I hate Bono.

Anyways, Niedermeyer is dead-on about Mac Court. It is a historic landmark, and beloved by Oregon fans. A new arena might be fancy, but I don’t think it’s going to be the same for people — call it the “Roboduck effect”. Refurbishing Mac Court makes all the sense in the world.

I’m not so sure he’s right about Civic Stadium, though. The University might not want Civic Stadium per se, but that land could be re-developed. On the other hand, I’ve been hearing talk of building the new baseball stadium down at the Riverfront Research Park area.

Is “booking cultural events” the newest and best euphemism for turning tricks?

Yes.