When we were told that Roberts Stadium must be demolished, we were told that it must be done in the name of "progress," and that this progress entailed putting "heads in beds."
Without any input from anyone in the community outside of our government officials and their close buddies, the Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau quietly assembled a committee that would quickly study ideas they wanted to pursue before settling on demolishing Roberts Stadium and building 8 dull, generic, lifeless, and boring ball fields on the site.
Aside from the fact that it is nothing short of pathetic for this group to take multiple years to put together a plan that does nothing to put Evansville above any other city with basic ball fields, it is even more ridiculous that this group was given the power of the government and didn't even consider what we already have- Roberts Stadium.
That's right, no committee, panel, hearing, or government task force was ever gathered to think about what we can do with Roberts Stadium to increase visitors who would spend the night at our local hotels.
You see, if our government leaders would have taken just a few moments to consider Roberts Stadium's potential, they would have realized one glaring fact- This facility is located in basketball country and was designed by the father of the fieldhouses.
Earlier, I talked about Ralph Legeman, the local architect who designed Roberts Stadium also designed 27 bowl gymnasiums for both high school and college and licensed 10 others.
http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2011/05/legend-of-ralph-legeman.html
Most importantly, Legeman holds the patent for the fieldhouse design and constructed the largest high school gymnasium in the world in New Castle, Indiana which happens to be the site of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Here is the diagram of Legeman's fieldhouse design on his patent...
If you aren't familiar with "Hoosier Hysteria," it is important to understand the basic components of it and what we can do with it here in Evansville.
1. Almost all gymnasiums are fieldhouses (started by Legeman), not arenas or stadiums. For this reason, our new arena should have been called Ford Fieldhouse instead of the Ford Center...
http://saverobertsstadium.blogspot.com/2011/08/ford-center-again-why-not-ford.html
I guarantee you the only reason why this correction hasn't already been made is because of the personal egos of those making the decisions. Hopefully this changes next year.
2. It is common practice, and tradition as well, for high school and college basketball teams to participate in pre-season and mid-season tournaments. This gives these teams and their fans a chance to play teams outside of their region and travel to venues and cities they ordinarily wouldn't. This is where Roberts Stadium and our goal of putting "heads in beds" comes into play.
Currently, Conseco Fieldhouse has the Crossroads Classic (formerly the Hoosier Classic) featuring Butler, Indiana, Purdue, and Notre Dame. These teams were chosen as they are all Indiana teams that have enjoyed success during the great years of basketball in the state of Indiana.
Given that Ralph Legeman designed or holds a license for bowls/gymnasiums for 30 high schools in the following locations...
Norris City
Herrin
Owensville
Herrin JHS
Murphysboro
Huntingburg
Pinckneyville
Bushnell-Prairie City
Lynnville
Central (Clifton)
Hamilton
Ridgway
Trico
Jacksonville
Center Grove
Evansville North
Carmel
Edinburg
Boonville
Connersville
New Castle
Switz City
Clay City
Orleans
West Vigo
Springs Valley
Brownstown Central
West Washington
Eastern (Pekin)
Indian Creek
Loogootee
If we want to increase our hotel occupancy rate, why don't we invite all of these high schools to Evansville to participate in a high school basketball tournament? Wouldn't it make more sense to construct the ball fields at Kleymeyer Park next to Bosse Field so that baseball players utilize our downtown hotel while using Roberts Stadium for high school basketball games to keep the east side businesses busy?
To make this tournament work, we would have to add at least 2 wildcard teams to make it an even 32 for the basketball tournament plus replacement teams for whichever high schools cannot make the trip. It would consist of five rounds: 1 round of 32, 1 round of 16, 1 round of 8, 1 round of 4, and a championship game.
Why does this tournament make sense?
1. It promotes Evansville as the home to Ralph Legeman who invented the fieldhouse, thus Evansville is the true "Home of the Fieldhouse." Many tourists and visitors don't know that. We need to change that.
2. Just about all of these high school teams are within the Tri-State boundaries. Although Legeman has designed a few Michigan fieldhouses that have yet to be identified, most of these gymnasiums are located either in Central Indiana, Southern Indiana, Southern Illinois, or Western Kentucky. Therefore, these teams will not have to spend much money to travel, and their fans will be able to make the trip too (more heads in beds).
3. This tournament would fill 5 days up on the Roberts Stadium schedule.
4. This tournament pulls in visitors to our city instead of just using the local teams who wouldn't use hotels and already spend money in Evansville.
5. The overheard for this tournament is minimal. We already have Roberts Stadium, its court, and basketball goals. Our only overheard would be labor, electric (which we are already using right now), and concession stand supplies. We would not need any funds from the ECVB or city hall although a sponsorship may not be a bad idea.
6. Since most of these teams are on the edge of the Tri-State map, our local companies can use this opportunity to expand their market to costumers who will be within driving range of a return visit to Evansville.
7. A lot of these towns are small, thus this tournament will be talked about by everyone in these small towns and it will be the premier game of the season for most of these teams.
8. This tournament will improve the ability of the Aces and Eagles to recruit by cutting down on transportation costs and by exposing these players to the USI & UE images all week.
9. This tournament creates jobs, specifically those lost at SMG this year.
10. This tournament promotes Evansville as a "Regional Destination."
11. This tournament can be co-branded and/or marketed with other local events.
12. This tournament DOES NOT compete with the Ford Center.
Of course, this past week, we've heard from some of those who oppose Roberts Stadium that we do not need Roberts Stadium because we can simply put the curtains up at the Ford Center to lower the capacity down to 6,000. I will be talking about this in an upcoming post but here are a few reasons why this tournament would not work at the Ford Center.
1. You can put up as many curtains as you want but that still won't make the rent affordable for this tournament.
2. There aren't enough dates for this tournament. The Icemen, the Aces basketball teams, and Concerts such as Bob Seger have already taken all of the dates.
3. Ralph Legeman did not build the Ford Center. Roberts Stadium is a better venue to promote this event.
For these reasons and many more, all or most of the other tenants such as indoor football, indoor soccer, NBDL basketball, trade shows, and mid-size concerts will not compete with the Ford Center. We need this tournament and we need it at Roberts Stadium.
If we really wanted to promote the Ralph Legeman Classic idea, we could also host a college basketball game.
Indianapolis University, which use to be Indiana Central College, has a facility built by Legeman on its campus. An exhibition game between Indianapolis and the Aces would make for a nice throwback game where the Aces could bring the sleeves back out for one game a year.
If you look at the poll on the right of this blog, you will see that high school and college basketball games are the most desired option amongst those who come to this site. Why don't we fill this need with the Ralph Legeman Classic?
If you want to put heads in beds, don't demolish history, SAVE ROBERTS STADIUM!
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