• From street to seat

    Street to Seat

    Panthers look to improve fan experience

    When the Milwaukee Panthers announced their decision to move from the downtown U.S. Cellular Arena to the on-campus Klotsche Center, they created angst among a sizable portion of their fan base. Questions arose immediately. How will seats be distributed? Will we get to pick our seats? What am I going to do before and after the game? Where am I going to park? Is this D-III gym our home forever? What about our precious beer?!

    I'd be lying if I said I wasn't part of the crowd. I'm not angry like many, but the questions are still there. A move like this, to a place like that, is a major gamble.

    If fans' needs aren't met by Milwaukee Athletics in this move to the Klotsche Center, things could go downhill quickly. Fans are tired of the time it's been since our last trip to the NCAA tournament, which reaches seven years this season. Fans are tired of being close but not close enough. They're tired of hearing about a new arena and never seeing a shovel in the ground. They've been told for years that good things are coming, and they're getting restless now that years have passed.

    Simply put, sports fans are fickle, and at this point many are looking for any excuse to sell their stock and move on. This is the charge laid for Milwaukee Athletics under Andy Geiger, their fifth athletic director in as many years. It's the occupancy of the top seat as much as play on the court that has fans weary. We've seen Bud Haidet retire, George Koonce "resign," David Gilbert operate in the interim and Rick Costello make some seriously bad decisions. Hopefully Andy Geiger can accomplish those tasks we need accomplished. He certainly has the experience.

    Milwaukee fans have two heavy hitters watching over their program.

    I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Charlie Gross, Associate Athletic Director of Finance and one of Geiger's top men. He understands the concerns of fans and he confirmed that the university is doing everything it can to alleviate them.

    "As we're coming back home and making it easier to engage students, we still want to enhance the fan experience," Gross said. Their plans are incomplete - nothing is set in stone - but he confirmed that Milwaukee basketball at the Klotsche Center is going to be very different from what it has been in recent years against Western Michigan, Nebraska-Omaha and UIC.

    After listening to Gross discuss their directive, the sports marketing phrase hit me: from street to seat. Yes, this is a move that will greatly benefit the students. Yes, this is a game facility that has not been fan-friendly for the new millenium. But make no mistake, the season-ticket holders and general public will be catered to - they aren't interested in losing fans, not when they're making a move that will ensure an easier path to their destination, a brand new playing facility.

    Before we get in to what's coming, readers need to be clear on one thing. This is very early in the process, and like I said, nothing is set in stone. We can't guarantee everything on this list will happen, because they haven't worked out exactly what they're going to be able to pull off with the money they're saving from the move.

    First off, the program is going to have to take care of things that the Wisconsin Center District had done as part of their lease. Video production will now be done in-house, with the university springing for new cameras and adding labor costs to run them.

    They're also going to need to take care of some behind-the-scenes things that the fans will not be able to see. Updating the visitor and officials locker rooms are on the list, as well as the hospitality room and media areas. Other things that fans may not notice, such as LED floor tables to increase the amount of ads they can display, will be added to the Klotsche Center.

    One thing fans will notice hasn't changed is the amount of parking spots in the facility. Street parking and surface parking that were around in 2003 will still be there, but the added 660-car parking garage in the building and 900-car parking garage on the hospital land (now owned by UWM) will house a lot of fans.

    Inside the facility, there are several plans to upgrade the fan experience during the game. While bathrooms will remain the same except for a fresh coat of paint - the facility is up to code and doesn't need that expensive addition - the concessions will be very different.

    In years' past, a lot of congestion has arisen in the northeast hallway.
    This is due to the fact that it is the main entrance to the arena, the home of the concession stand as well as the bathrooms. Gross said that the main concession stand will no longer operate as a sales point, that it will likely be reused as a place of preparation and that the point of sale will move inside the arena, likely at both the north and south end behind student bleachers.

    For many fans of the program, the possibility of their season-tickets occupying bleacher seats is too much to bear. Gross was quick to assure me that they are working on fixing that problem as best they can in the very short time frame. The east stands already feature chairback seats, but the west end bleachers will have additions to make them more comfortable. If they're able to pull it off, season-ticket holders on the west side will find their bleacher space to be cushioned as well as given a back of some kind that latches on the bench.

    In this day and age of technology and sabermetrics, fans are very concerned about the scoreboard situation. While Gross can't say with certainty that there is a change coming, he did mention that the school was likely going to either add new scoreboards that include stats like player points and fouls, or they're going to add two video boards in opposite corners that will be able to not only show highlights but also statistics during play to keep fans in the know. If there is room in the budget, they could do both.

    A lot of fans have real worries that they'll not be able to drink beer in the facility. I found in research that the NCAA rules regarding alcohol sales are up to the university's chief executive officer. At UWM, the CEO is chancellor Michael Lovell. Whether or not you are able to buy beer at games will be up to the Chancellor. Because Milwaukee is such a beer town and because most underage student drinking happens outside game facilities, you can be pretty sure that some kind of alcohol sales will be available at the Klotsche Center.

    But what about before and after games? Many fans enjoyed heading to their favorite downtown eateries before games at the Cell, and post-game parties at Major Goolsby's were one of the best parts of playing downtown. Gross says that the athletic department is well-aware of concerns regarding the amenities around the Klotsche Center. He acknowledges that Harry's pub and the Gasthaus are probably too far to walk for many fans, who may choose to stay home with no closer option.

    Starting this week, the program is going to be taking meetings with the university transit office to come up with a solution for this enormous problem. The most likely result of these meetings will be current shuttles extending hours and possibly their route.

    For those who don't know, when the university built Riverview Hall on the west bank of the Milwaukee River at North Avenue, they began shuttling students to and from the main campus by using generic school buses. As they finished the much larger Cambridge Commons on the east bank of the river, the university ditched the big generic school buses for shorter, Panther-themed buses in higher frequency. The buses run from the library to Downer, south and eventually to Farwell Avenue, hanging a left at Kenilworth in front of the Kenilworth apartment complex (which houses 700 or so UWM students and the Peck School of the Arts). After picking up at the Kenilworth building, the shuttle returns to North Avenue and heads west to the dorms, finally heading back to campus by way of Oakland Avenue. It's possible for the university to just extend those shuttles for fans who are attending the games. That way, people can enjoy a drink and a meal at any number of places along North Avenue.

    Shuttle buses run from campus to dorms and bars along North Avenue.

    Gross said that they are also looking into adding their own shuttle, or perhaps using the same shuttle buses, to head north to the bars and restaurants on Oakland by Capitol Avenue. They don't know which bars would be stops for either the north or south shuttle - they will use the opportunity to facilitate corporate sales - but they do know that the stops will be centrally located so fans will be able to ride them to and from the game without worrying which bar they need to be at. During the day, the shuttle buses run every four minutes, so whoever is going to the game knows that they won't have much of a wait on their hands at all.

    The university shuttle route.

    Readers may be thinking about the drop-off for the university shuttle, that it drops off at the library, quite a distance from the arena's northeast entrance. Well, Gross confirmed that the university is likely to create a new entrance to the Klotsche Center for fans on the southwest end, which would minimize the distance from the shuttle drop-off at the Golda Meir library as well as act like a "welcome mat" of sorts for the university.

    It seems like a great symbolic gesture. The Klotsche Center's main facade has always faced away from the main campus; a brand new entrance for students, alumni, faculty and fans on the southwest end just feels like an invitation for athletics and academics to become more intertwined and helpful of each other.

    Probably the biggest complaint about the Cell all along was the sterile atmosphere. While it was a great place to sit and watch a basketball game, The facility lacked personality; its blue and red seats did nothing for the Panthers, the atrium was generic, it didn't acknowledge any of its deep history, and its cavernous arena didn't have a UWM feel to it besides the banners. Those banners would look nice and big in the Klotsche Center, but they're difficult to see in the huge Cell.

    The Cell has often housed a very sterile atmosphere.

    Milwaukee Athletics plans to change that with the Klotsche Center. While fans haven't see much in the way of black and gold in there yet, Gross confirmed that plans include branding the facility to give it a real collegiate atmosphere, all the way through the building. The arena, the concourse, the entrance atrium and even the parking structure will get the "Black and Gold treatment" so fans really feel at home. They'll be able to purchase more athletics apparel at a larger bookstore booth than the one the university operated at the Cell.

    When it's all said and done, the 2012-13 season of Milwaukee Panthers basketball will definitely have a different feel from 2011-12. While shovels for the new basketball arena aren't going to sink into the earth for an indefinite period, fans can be sure that Milwaukee Athletics will do everything in its power to make the fan experience at the Klotsche Center well worth the price of admission.