The building isn't that old. We aren't a pro-franchise team that "needs" to build a new arena every 10 years.
I think the biggest problem we have is not the age, but how damn busy our arena is. vcu can easily expand their arena or build luxury suites in the offseason because it sits pretty much empty most of the time. But we have over 60 dates between our last home game and our first. That makes ripping up the bowl and redoing it (which is probably what is needed the most right now) a losing proposition.
We don't necessarily have a ton of creature comforts, but the Patriot Center is certainly one of the best mid-major arenas in the country and would hold it's own at a lot of So-called power conference schools.
Next October the PC will be 30 years old -- hardly ancient compared to some arenas, but not exactly young either.
Where it shows its age, IMHO, is that it was built at a time when our program was pretty much low-major and only the truly powerful programs played in buildings with all the bells and whistles.
Both of those have changed. We're now playing in a high-major league, we have a Final Four banner, but our arena is seriously lacking in the types of amenities one can find at many of our competitors' on-campus facilities (Dayton, Richmond, vcu, ODU, URI all have suites, among others).
Even Towson found a way to build a new arena for its historically lousy basketball program. It's about 3,000 seats smaller than what we'd need, but it's a gorgeous building and one we certainly could be proud of.
The PC is fine for what it is, a basic arena with plenty of capacity for concerts and Disney on Ice. But it's not unrealistic after three decades to suggest that a new arena in the mold of URI's Ryan Center would be a good fit for a program that aspires to play with the big boys.
