St. John's Negotiating With MSG

[sju88grad]

What a huge piece of news, and great news at that for SJ. The relationship that SJ/BE has with MSG is clearly strong and growing more over time. With all of the momentum that SJ has now, they are clearly raising the profile of their program (and school) by playing in a larger arena to satisfy the demands. SJ is really looking to become NY's team (which is ironic, since another NE-based program actually markets itself as NY's 6th borough).

Congrats, Johnnies!

Thanks GW! It does put a lot of pressure on SJU to remain relevant and field competitive teams every year. There is nothing more depressing than a half-filled MSG and many of those fans rooting for the visiting team!

[Storm Fan]

Great news. I live 5 minutes away from campus and I’d rather go to MSG to see a game. Carnessecca Arena is a terrible venue. (Wanted to call it crap but, out of respect for its namesake, I refrained)

[NJRedman]

It’s about time that St. John’s is leaving that inaccessible bandbox in Queens. History aside there is no reason for a Big East program to be playing there.

They are still playing games there and it's no smaller than Nova's home court.

[stever20]

I guess for St John's question in this....

What's their winning percentage at MSG vs at Carnessecca? Will St John's give up some home court advantage playing at MSG? I get looks are important, but more important is to just win baby to quote Al Davis.

[MUPanther]

It’s about time that St. John’s is leaving that inaccessible bandbox in Queens. History aside there is no reason for a Big East program to be playing there.

They are still playing games there and it's no smaller than Nova's home court.

Villanova just re-did their arena with all the bells and whistles. I'm excited to hear the news for St. John's playing more at MSG.

[ChestRockwell85]

Villanova did just redo the Pavilion and by all accounts it is great but it is still too small to play the big-time games, will need to continue to go to Philly to play those.

To be honest I love Carnesecca, I know it is old school, but that is what I like about it. I understand what SJU is doing here, but I don't think they need to play ALL BE teams at MSG. I would still keep 2 or 3 at Carnesecca every year, and obviously keep the early season cupcakes at home as well. Carnesecca was rocking against Marquette.

[SJU1987]

They got a new floor on the St. John's court and I like the big SJ logo better. I like a court that's bright. That old court was too dark looking.

[adoraz]

I guess for St John's question in this....

What's their winning percentage at MSG vs at Carnessecca? Will St John's give up some home court advantage playing at MSG? I get looks are important, but more important is to just win baby to quote Al Davis.

CA is obviously more of a home court advantage, but need to think outside the box a bit. What game propelled SJU into the national spotlight, and completely turned the team around? The Duke game. What was Mullin's first big W? Home vs Syracuse. Those games are the type of big OOC games we need more of. 0% chance those teams play us in CA.

Cragg is thinking big. We want to say MSG is our primary home court, especially with teams like Hall and UConn playing more games at MSG. We want recruits excited to come and play more games at MSG. We want MSG as our backdrop on TV (has to lead to higher ratings). We want two big MSG OOC games. All this comes with more revenue, more exposure, better recruits, etc.

To be honest, I think the best case scenario would be playing 7 BE games at MSG and then 2-3 OOC games, but most Johnnies fans would take either scenario over what we have now. This year we only have 5 MSG games, which shouldn't happen going forward.

Cragg is smart. He'll make the right move.

[sju88grad]

Villanova did just redo the Pavilion and by all accounts it is great but it is still too small to play the big-time games, will need to continue to go to Philly to play those.

To be honest I love Carnesecca, I know it is old school, but that is what I like about it. I understand what SJU is doing here, but I don't think they need to play ALL BE teams at MSG. I would still keep 2 or 3 at Carnesecca every year, and obviously keep the early season cupcakes at home as well. Carnesecca was rocking against Marquette.

I still love Carnesecca as well. I was at the Marquette game and it was SO much fun and very loud. There were a handful of Marquette fans scattered around but it was a true home court advantage. You don't get quite the same ratio at MSG!

I like the idea of at least 6 Big East games at MSG and the other 3 on campus but the real key (to me) is scheduling at least 2 high-profile out of conference games each year at MSG. If we continue the Duke series, then we need at least one more for the Duke home years and two additional for the years we play at Cameron. Since we're playing Arizona in SF next year, maybe a return date at MSG the following year?