Long Beach State Athletics!: Gold Mine

They used the Gold Mine during Joe Harrington's reign. I don't know how he recruited all of those good players knowing where they were going to be playing but it was actually ok. A lot of games were sold out and some of those games (think LMU with Gathers and Kimble) were classic.

As sufficient as the Gold Mine was back in 1989-1991, I just don't think we can have it as a backup facility when the rain starts falling in SoCal. Our high profile sports, MVB, MBB and WVB, hate playing there. Someone on X said their junior high gym looked better than that. The Big West and the NCAA can never schedule a conference championship or regional there because they can't risk having a last minute postponement and end up playing a highly visible game at a Mickey Mouse gym. That puts our MVB and WVB team at a major disadvantage.

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to be practical

I think the Gold Mine should have a major floor resurfacing. At least make it presentable, and take out the curtins (?) I know they are there to segregate for rec stuff, I mean just put in a mobile barrier for rec. The chairbacks have tons of cracks. it's hideous.

and here is Pepperdine's new 3600 seat arena: https://pepperdine-graphic.com/setting-the-standard-the-mountains-athletic-arena-to-improve-athletics-pepperdine-as-a-whole/

But hey I think MBB should play all their games there, it's an advantage and feels like a bigger HCA when there are 1000 in the Gold Man vs a 1000 in a Pyramid where it looks empty.

I actually enjoy the Matadome, not a bad seat to watch a game lol, even though it's a gym, but it's a nice gym.

all the other stuff. I give up on that.

The roof is going to be a 5-7 year odyessy, and the Gold Mine will continue to be used for practices and other stuff.

And then maybe upgade one side of bleachers lol.

I think they'll likely live with the roof issues (assuming it won't cave in) for awhile and typically only 4-5 events a year might coincide with a rain issue. So it's a bad 'look' but practically it hasn't been a lot of games in there.

I still find it hard to believe that $55 mil number. And I guess hard to believe they can't say allocate $150k yearly just to maintain at some level, just jeez it's been radio silence for so long which says they will just continue as is because a new arena of $250 Mil or whatever is not going to be in the cards. but what do I know lol.

you are right, it's hard to know what the real price tag is.

I still like my idea of putting up a roof over the roof lol. I mean they are constantly painting the Golden Gate Bridge, so figured there was some constant mainenance started early on to prevent this fiasco, but what do I know. That they signed a 12 year deal with FInancial Credit Union tells me they think they can squeeze another 10 or so years out of it. And why the Walter's probably were ok in part, as they know it was not gonna last anyway.

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1) Fix the Pyramid or find an alternative - This is at least the second year that we’ve known about the leaky Pyramid but engineers are still trying to figure out if its salvageable? I know engineers are methodical and detailed but 18 months later and still no results made public? Given the delay, I suspect its probably the worst case scenario, but sitting on bad news and hoping it doesn’t rain when there is a scheduled event is not addressing the problem. I know this predates Smitheran but he needs to find a viable solution, even if it means tearing down the Pyramid.

2) Hire a president for crying out loud – Jane announced her retirement at the end of November 2024, which means the search for her successor has been going on for 12 months. It takes that long to find someone to fill a job paying $500,000 a year! I’m starting to wonder if they are waiting for a certain person to become available or what. If their search efforts are really not producing quality candidates, then I suggest the following. Open up the search to ALL candidates. Quit considering only females, liberals, and those aligned with California politics. I swear this next hire (whenever that may be) better be a homerun hire. I mean someone who will transform and elevate LBSU back to a top 2 CSU school. That is the least they can do if you’re going to take this long. It we end up with another Janey, god help us…

3) When you construct a new building, make it last – Why do some of the buildings seem to age quickly and need extensive renovations or have to be demolished? I’m not speaking of just the Pyramid, but also the student union and dining facilities, which will be out of commission for another 3 years! I also read in the LBSU master plan that the original dorms in Parkside will need to be demolished and rebuilt. Those buildings aren’t even that old! Is this what you get with choosing the lowest bid?

4) For our major sports (MBB, MB, WBB, WSB, and WVB), hire people with extensive head coaching experience at either the D2, D3, or even JUCO levels. In all of these sports, NIL and unlimited transferring has resulted in yearly roster turnover. Developing players and team chemistry is no longer a 2 or 3 year process, you have 6 months maximum now. Coaches with extensive experience at lower levels know how to do that. Rosters at the lower levels change substantially from year to year. We need coaches with that type of mindset. Recruit players who have proven their ability to be successful at the lower levels, even if their upside is not as a great as someone like Gavin Sykes. I was so excited when Acker recruited Diaz this past cycle. I said to myself, get another 2 or 3 from D2 but they stopped there.

5) Hire general managers for our main sports – I kind of scoffed at other schools when they started doing this but I think our primary sports need this. I know various staff members of each sport kind of do a little of this but it would be better if there was a dedicated person. The coaching staff need to concentrate on practice prep, game prep, recruiting and whatever else, but bogging them down with the business aspects of roster management is too much.