Imagine
the starting lineup introductions at an NBA game – spotlights, shadows, neon
glows. Now picture that with a whole lot of red.
New
theatrical lighting is one of the many planned upgrades and renovations to the
Stony Brook Arena which will undergo a $21.1M facelift starting in June. School
officials announced the commencement of the project this morning.
Among
the renovations will be a new bowl seating configuration, luxury boxes, a VIP
lounge, digital scoreboards and video boards at each end of the court. Most
importantly, the Stony Brook basketball team will move from 1,800-seat
Pritchard Gym to the spacious new 4,000-seat arena which Director of Athletics
Jim Fiore plans on selling out every game.
“We
think the stars are aligning, and we have two years to upsell and make this
Pritchard on steroids, Pritchard squared,” Fiore told Newsday’s Greg Logan.
“We're going to invest in the infrastructure to sell it out regularly, not just
one game.”
The
arena, as it currently stands, has only hosted three games over the last three seasons
– an NIT game back in 2010, an ESPNU game in 2011 and the men’s basketball
championship this past March.
Check
out the rest of Logan’s
piece in Newsday and an artist
rendering of the new facility.
It
will continue to be a busy week on Long Island as the 2012 baseball
championship will be hosted by Stony Brook starting on Wednesday. The Seawolves
wrapped up their season with a four-game sweep of Maine over the weekend. The Bangor
Daily News has a recap from Saturday’s action. Those two teams will meet in
a first-round matchup on Wednesday. Albany took two of three from Hartford and
locked up the No. 2 seed and will play No. 3 Binghamton, which won its series
with UMBC. For more on the baseball championship, check out Championship
Central.
The
Press and Sun Bulletin’s Lynn Worthy wrote a story about Binghamton catcher
Mike Danaher, who in addition to having a solid season on the diamond, has an all-encompassing
view of his future outside of baseball. Check out the feature on Danaher, here.
 |
| Boston U.'s Erica Casacci |
After
a defeating Iona in 13 innings, the Boston University softball team was
eliminated from NCAA Regional competition by No. 1 overall seed Cal. The
Terriers closed out the season with 41 wins and won their ninth conference
title.
"That's
three consecutive trips to the regional with wins, so I think the program is
going in the right direction. It's been a great year,” head coach Shawn Rychcik
said after the loss to Cal. “We've beaten a lot of good teams and played well
against a lot of good competition. We were able to come out here and represent
our conference and school really well."
For
the latest from around the conference, check out AmericaEast.com.
