Well, people of the athletic department, now it is your turn. I have played soccer and broadcast basketball games for SIUE from each school in our conference. I have to tell you the Vadalabene Center has the best facilities, but it is near the bottom in atmosphere. I understand that the gym is great for packing in high school fans for the playoffs but we're not a high school. We love to show off our pretty building to visiting schools.
Teams look forward to coming here and partaking of our lavish accommodations.
At Quincy visiting soccer teams dress in a damp lawn mower garage, with one toilet. Basketball fans at Lewis University and the University of Southern Indiana sit two feet from the sidelines and baselines. These are a few examples of things that can make an out of town team feel uncomfortable before the game even starts. It's free to sit at home too, so free is not good enough. Other schools do fun things to attract spectators to the games.