Bradley University plays their men’s basketball games at Carver Arena in downtown Peoria, Illinois. The location is a few miles off campus, which puts it out of walking distance for the Bradley students who live on the campus. As a Bradley student who lives on campus, Taylor Catton would love to see the team make the move to a more familiar place.
Carver Arena downtown Peoria
“I really think that the men and women teams should both play at Renaissance Coliseum,” said Catton. “It’s way closer of a walk, and I think that would get more students to go.”
Renaissance Coliseum is located on the Bradley Campus, and is roughly a five minute walk at max from anywhere on the campus.
Renaissance Coliseum on Bradley University Campus
Catton also said “Students don’t always have the ability to make the trip down to Carver, especially when the games are during the week. A five minute walk would be huge.”
The biggest difference in the two spots outside of the location, is the difference in capacity. Carver Arena can hold a little more than 11,000, with Renaissance Coliseum only holding 4,200. In the most recent years, Bradley Men average around 5,500 fans per game, which leaves a lot of empty seats. With these type of numbers, Bradley University Baseball player Angel Acevedo thinks that the move to Renaissance would create special energy.
Carver Arena basketball court
“I really do believe they they would sell out every game of the season,” said Acevedo. “Having more students at the game would really change the energy, but it would be even crazier if the game was sold out on top of everything else.”
Renco basketball court
Acevedo also pointed out that he thinks there could be a few problems that take place outside of the stadium if the move were to happen.
“The only thing I am not sure about is the parking. It’s already hard enough to find parking around here on a normal school day, so that would be something they would probably need to put some thought into before anything big happened.”
Right outside of Renaissance Coliseum, there is just one parking deck. Although this parking deck holds a good amount of cars, this deck is available to Bradley students who use it to park their cars there throughout the school year. At Carver Arena, there are multiple parking decks, along with wide streets that offer a lot of parking.
Main Street Parking Deck outside of Renco
Local resident and longtime Bradley Men’s Basketball season ticket holder Scott Vogel has mixed emotions about the idea of the big move.
“I know Bradley would make a lot more money from concessions and tickets if they moved to Renco (Renaissance Coliseum),” said Vogel. “Carver takes a portion of the money from concessions and tickets since it’s their workers working the games.”
Although Vogel likes the thought of the university making more money, he doesn’t know if he is ready for a change of scenery.
“I love Carver, and I would hate to leave all the great memories made here behind.”
The Bradley men will once again take the floor at Carver Arena next school year, and they hope 11,000+ fans will join them.