Marriott Center Upgrades Highlight BYU Luncheon with AD Tom Holmoe

In a Q&A session with media during a luncheon, BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe announced renovations to the Marriott Center that will be in affect next season. In addition to detailing those changes, he addressed conference realignment, football scheduling, and the leaked black football uniforms, among other things. Here's a recap if you weren't on Twitter to catch the slew of media tweets:

MARRIOTT CENTER CHANGES

The highlights include all chair seating in the lower bowl, a new sound system, and renovations to locker rooms.

• The lower bowl will now be filled with all chair seating, as pictured at the top of this article. All chair seats in place will remain as is -- full-scale makeover would be too expensive -- but all new seats installed will be blue. BYU basketball tweeted this close up of the nice, cushion-y seats, as tweeted out by several from BYUtv's staff:
  
  
• The replacement of bleachers with chair seats means that the total capacity of the Marriott Center will go from 22,700 down to 20,900.
• The student section is also being moved from the north sideline to the west baseline. This moves them closer to the opposing bench and behind their basket in the second half. Holmoe said he didn't poll students about the move, but did meet with student leaders on the matter.
• Team benches, press row, and the camera area are all being flipped to the north side of the floor (so the court will flip, too, so the oval-stretch-Y looks correct on TV.)
• New pricing and seat selection info can be found on this site.
• A practice facility is "on the white board," and feasibility studies are under way, but nothing is imminent.

FOOTBALL SCHEDULES & UNIFORMS

• Holmoe said nothing is currently in place with Utah for 2013, but that both sides are still talking. "As long as we're talking, I'm confident," he said, saying that if it wasn't going to work, the two sides would stop talking. Any contracts with Utah will by necessity be short deals.
• About the oft-discussed November schedule issue, Holmoe said, "Our 2013 schedule is really good in November...when you have time to make deals, it's great." He also said the 2014 November schedule looks good.
• BYU is getting "good offers, interesting offers" in scheduling, and the 2013 and 2014 opponents are "better than we've ever played."
• Regarding the leaked black uniforms, Holmoe said that was something meant for internal eyes only. It is an option among others BYU has discussed with Nike, but nothing is imminent.
• An alternate jersey is "possible" for the coming season. "Would I like to do that? Yeah, it would be fun."
  

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT

• "It will be ongoing, but has kind of died down. Went from daily basis, to weekly or monthly."
• (Since the Big 12 is waiting to name a new commissioner, is this to be expected?)
• Running the gamut of doomsday scenarios to superconferences, Holmoe said BYU has a contingency plan for all of them.
• On the Big East, as quoted by Jay Drew: "Holmoe acknowledges that BYU and Big East were in heated discussions, but things were moving too fast."
• On the Big East, as quoted by Greg Wrubell: "Holmoe on last year's Big East overtures: "That was a quick little exercise...good discussion that didn't come to fruition."
• Holmoe said ESPN does not get involved with realignment "as far as he knows."
• On leaving the West Coast Conference if the chance presents itself: "We had these discussions [with the WCC] before we joined the conference." Dick Harmon tweeted: "BYU-WCC went into marriage knowing beforehand might be deals would take Y elsewhere. 1 part moving forward, 1 part looking at radar."
• Holmoe also briefly mentioned BYUtv. From Dick Harmon: "Holmoe very positive about BYUtv resource he has and others recognize that it is a big asset. It isn't a millstone around BYU in expansion."
• He also said that Sunday play was the only absolute no-go for BYU in realignment talks.