So, after following this thread for the last year, I finally got to attend the tame today. Here are my unsolicited thoughts.
1) The environment inside the seating bowl is excellent. The color scheme, sight angles, seating sections, etc. are all very well done. Walking into the arena for the first time, I felt like I was in a professional arena, or at least an arena dedicated to my Illini. I was overwhelmed by the ambiance.
2) it isn't without faults inside. First, the band section needs to be re-thought and restructured. About 25 band members awkwardly take up a section that could seat 100 students. There are risers, pushed in retractable seats, completely unused rows, etc. all in a prime area. My guess is that after this season, or once the demand is there, DIA will figure out a way to make this area more efficient and look better. Second, the tunnels to the right and left of the new Krush section just look bland. They are gaping holes in the seating bowl. They need to be filled in somehow - I would propose graphic tarps or something to make it not look like too much of a hole. Finally, the orange wall right behind the Krush needs some more graphics on it. When the arena is empty, it looks very odd. "Fighting Illini" "Orange Krush"... something. When recruits tour and before and after games, that big orange wall looks silly.
3) I don't mid a lot of the things that other people seem to despise. I think that the suites look excellent, and I don't mind the loge seating. I think that after awhile, they DIA might start looking at re-purposing that area if they can make more with regular seats. It wasn't much of an eyesore, except that the seats weren't really full.
4) I went with my 1 year old son, so I ended up making my way to the last row in C (200 level). I don't care what anyone says - go to the last row at almost any other big ten arena and tell me that we have it bad. I have sat at the top of Crisler, Breslin, NW, Iowa, Purdue, Ohio State, and Indiana. Our last row has great sight lines and you still feel part of the action. The only arena's above that come close is Purdue and Iowa.
5) Ok, now let's talk about the common areas... holy crap have they created a mess. I am in construction (electrical in Atlanta working on the major stadiums down there) so I notice all of the exposed conduits, pipes, low voltage wires, etc. I know it isn't finished yet, but the contractors have really botched a lot of that work thus far. Timing is so critical with the construction to get conduits in the concrete and hidden. It appears that not much was attempted to be hidden thus far.
With the glass wall meeting the original concrete facade, you really want to be able to highlight those beautiful components of the building when walking through the corridor and with the new lighting that they have installed. As of now, It appears that a lot of the systems are being run overhead, suspended in the open air (i.e. plumbing to the new bathrooms, low voltage control wiring, etc.) In my opinion, it looks awful. it's not something that painting the pipes is going to fix, and at this stage, there isn't a whole lot they can do. I hope I am wrong.
I won't complain too much else except that the last push to finish the interior better have an incredible attention to detail. The roughness of the concrete (everywhere), the cheap look of the tile work, the obvious rush that was done to get the building game day ready... they better take their time to completely finish the project, or the concourse areas, clubs, etc. are going to be an overall failure in my opinion. It just feels very cheap all around.
I'll be back later this year to see if I am being too critical. I'll be back next year to hopefully see a polished product.
I'll end by saying that from C section, and down at the floor level after the game, I really love the vibe inside the seating bowl. Now we just need to win some freaking games.
