Throwback night at the Gardens?

[tacitus]

forget about the Gardens... the Fieldhouse!!

[xuhuh!]

...i have memories of early sunday afternoon games, warm, gentle breezes wisping a combination aroma of Hilton-Davis and a neglected section of the Cincinnasti Sewer Dept. Once inside the the concession windows bright yellow with last weeks popcorn and hot dogs. Decades of the cross-pollinating of Shine Circus and Longhorn Rodeo had to have the opponents shuddering with fear before tip off. Mop the whole place with beer, add ice and it was a perfect recipe for many winning seasons fo Xavier Basketball. The Gardens. Better left a memory...

[muskienick]

Actually, the capacity of the Cincinnati Gardens for basketball is from 10,100 to 10,400 (depending on which old Muskie Press Guide you read), not over 11,000.

[Wisexuowl]

During it's hey-day, it was the greatest arena in the state, and for that matter excepting Hinkle Fieldhouse, there wasn't anything in the tri-state to maatch it (UK was still playing in Memorial Fieldhouse then).

Great college basketball ... XU vs UC, Dayton, Seattle, Kentucky, Louisville, etc; Elvis; championship title matches; the NBA; concerts; HS district and regional games; hockey; the national AAU boxing championships ... like said earlier ... memories.

When we started discussions about building Alter Hall and moving the night school from downtown to the campus, I pitched Father Paul at lunch one day at Macatewah CC to buy the Gardens (it was available real cheap) and have the night school there. Few know that there was maybe 100,000 plus square feet of space and rooms under the stands and in the building's office area that could have been classrooms, and it's center of the city location and ample parking were attractive.

He listened, nodded, and then called over the waiter and said, "Jack and I will have another Royroy," and then said "how's the family."

His way of saying "nope."

[muskienick]

Is a "royroy" the same thing as a Rob Roy i.e. the scotch equivalent of a Manhattan? Or is it a completely different type of drink?

[Wisexuowl]

You're right ... it's Rob Roy.

[Bomber]

You gotta admit that US Bank Arena is also a pit with sky high ticket prices, lousy seating, and poor amenities (sound system, scoreboard). If Xavier could pick between two lousy arenas for a neutral game, wouldn't it be nice to revive some nostalgia??

[muskieman]

I think memories of the garden have been dimmed by the years. It was not great enough for X to play a neutral game there. Why go back to inadequacy, the place was built for Hockey not basketball. It was okay as best while we needed it but so was my Ford Pinto way back when.

[McX]

Come down off your high horses all of you spoiled snobs. A game at the Gardens would be great, I said a , as in one, every now and then.

The seating was more like 12,500 for basketball.

[muskieman]

Hey, why not Schmidt...may we never see the garden again, not even for one game.