When you drive into Boone, whether it be from 421, 321, 105 (via 221) or some combo of back roads you want to keep secret from Florida drivers, the most recognizable Appalachian State Athletics facility is the Holmes Center. On the corner of Rivers Street and Blowing Rock Road, the building towers over those adjacent streets. On the southern tip of the main campus, it’s a relatively easy spot to access for all on-campus students and several thousand more off-campus students.

It’s also in need of a makeover.

Opened in 2000, the Seby Jones Arena in the George M. Holmes Convocation Center (I did that from memory) has not seen a wide-scale renovation in the 25-year period.

In that same 25 years, most of campus has turned over in some form, including all on-campus or near-campus athletic facilities. Kidd Brewer Stadium has endured multiple multi-million dollar additions, the Quinn Center has been repurposed as the basketball practice facility, the current Student Rec Center opened, wrestling has revamped Varsity Gym/Barker Arena, there’s been two softball stadiums, two soccer stadiums, a field hockey facility, new outdoor tennis courts, new outdoor track and field facility, revamping of the Don Kennedy Trails for cross country, a new baseball stadium with massive changes seemingly every year, a second and bigger indoor practice facility, not to mention the complete revamp of about every 25-year-old-plus on-campus residence hall that hasn’t been demolished, construction of new residence halls, relocating the library, new student union additions and numerous other changes.

The Holmes Center? It got a $1 million center-hanging scoreboard in 2017/18 that’s treated like a scoreboard you see donated by Pepsi or Coke in a high school gym.

At the recent App State Board of Trustees meeting, Athletics Director Doug Gillin complimented JMU’s facilities, calling them the “gold standard.” Except for football stadium. He made that clear.

Gillin, ever the schemer, likely brought this up to plant the mustard seeds for what’s coming next. At this time next year, App 105 (track, softball, tennis) will be done and dusted, and hopefully the new Sofield Indoor Practice Facility will as well. The East Tower is the apple of Gillin’s eye and who knows when that’ll be done. Baseball will chug on with its continual updates (indoor hitting facility, future clubhouse renovations), but what else is there sports-wise to concentrate on?

Considering Gillin brought up JMU’s $80 million basketball arena that opened in recent years in that same trustee meeting, that’s gotta be a goal.

The Holmes Center was a long-time coming when it finally opened in November 2000. It’s a product of its time. No luxury boxes, uncomfortable seats, a weird catwalk system that is eye level with the top rows, a roof that always leaks, outdates concession stands, it was needing a revamp in 2015, much less 2025.

Unless there’s a radical idea to move to a new arena, there’s going to be a Holmes Center renovation. It seems the likeliest option.

These decisions don’t exist in a vacuum and need to be approved by the App State Board of Trustees, UNC State Board of Governors and by donors, likely in the form of writing checks.

A serious, full-fledged renovation of the Holmes Center would cost in excess of $50 million. And that might be conservative.

The Holmes Center has three tenants: men’s basketball, women’s basketball and volleyball. Only one of those sports has a chance at filling up the building in the next year, and you might fill it up once or twice in a special season, plus at graduation.

Photo from theholmescenter.com

For over 20 years after the first-ever Holmes Center game versus he Tar Heels in 2000, the only sold-old crowd was in 2009 versus Steph Curry’s Davidson a year after their Elite Eight run. For many years, there was or there could be a tarp covering the upper deck seats. There were rarely crowds above 3,000, even on days where the football team was celebrated for its success.

Since me or many of the people reading this cant do anything about it, let’s fantasy renovate!

Reduce capacity from 8,350 to no less than 6,000

The current seating capacity is too much. Evidence from the last 25 years is overwhelming. Even for graduation, when the lower seats are retracted, it doesn’t fill up. Convocation is not what it used to be.

I don’t know what the right number is. 6,000 is the floor. I’d say no more than 7,350, so at least a drop of 1,000 seats. The back row seats are too far back and eye-level with the catwalk.

Add at least 10 luxury boxes

Five on each side should be sufficient, right? This is being practical and realizing that some people want to watch a sporting event in luxury and will pay to do. I mean, people pay to be on yachts in a Miami parking lot for the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix. Surely someone will want to watch App State play South Alabama on a blustery Thursday in January while dropping shrimps the size of a 4-wheeler’s battery down their throat?

Remember the Sheri Box? Where staff put up curtains in the lower park of the upper seats and made it like a Holmes version of the owner’s box from Major League? At least, that was the visual.

Add a purpose-built hospitality room and full kitchen

There’s been experimentations with having a “club” on each end of the court, taking out the end seating, and currently, platforms are used to create a VIP-type experience for a few people. Now, there’s an actual hospitality room under the stands in a big, connected classroom. It’s an upgrade from before, but having an actual dedicated hospitality space with an in-house kitchen is another potential revenue stream.

New black cushioned seats with Block A on them

There’s no need to have fans sitting on uncomfortable plastic indoors. Georgia State has comfy cushioned seats, as does Troy. Plus, the gray seats look out of place.

Photo from troytrojans.com

Add a basketball trophy case/small museum

We’re not taking about Chapel Hill here. Just a small ground-floor museum for fans to visit, maybe in the manicured areas between the stairs in the northwest or northeast corner.

Paint the back walls black

If you reduce capacity, the walls might be closer in, so you might as well paint them a school color.

Add newer murals to the concourse level

I’ve seen some of those murals for over 20 years. Car shows, concerts, expos and oh yeah, basketball and volleyball. Let’s update them.

Renovate and expand the concession stands so they’re connected to kitchens

This can ensure more offerings than popcorn and premade chicken sandwiches, plus dedicated alcohol-serving areas and less pop-up cards that crowd the concourse. Also, there need to be snake-like lines at all concession stands, otherwise people will line up in a straight line to the back wall, creating bottlenecks like Kidd Brewer. These are avoidable.

I took this below photo after barely moving for five minutes at a February game.

Heck, give away free concessions

Many people made a hearty chuckle when Coastal Carolina recently announced this promotion for its football team, but there’s a logic to it. Give away easily-made concessions in hopes of attracting more people in the door.

I paid over $9 for a soda and a crummy plan hot dog the Holmes Center this past season. Surely, you can give away a few hot dogs, popcorns and sodas for long-term goodwill.

Ticke sales booth inside

You’re going to a game. It was a last-minute decision and you can’t remember your Pacquilan password or whatever ticketing-point system App State uses. You park in Rivers Street Deck rather than pay $10 to park in the new parking deck so you can buy a drink and a hot dog and stay on budget. And when you get to the Holmes Center, trudge up the steps, ice, salt and brine cracking underfoot, you’re now standing still, waiting in the freezing cold and/or blowing wind for the family in front of them who brought 2 or 3 neighbor kids along, giving those parents a date night, to figure out how many kids they brought and for the mom to dig through her purse for a credit card as one kid tugs at her arm asking where their stuffed animal is. A 9-year-old boy in a baseball uniform is swinging his arms widely and smacks you in the leg. It’s cold, it hurt, but you don’t make a fuss because they have kids and you don’t, so you automatically lose any argument or point of contention. All while the ticket operator uses an antiquated system. It takes 5 minutes to get inside and you gotta get to your seat before tipoff. The hot dog and drink will have to wait until halftime. At least let the aspiring future Tommy John surgery patient accidentally smack your leg in relative warmth.

TK Note: The above scenario is completely made up, but I’ve waited in some cold Boone days for some tickets longer than I thought would be reasonable.

Add practice facility to Holmes on the Blowing Rock Road side

I know the Harrill Practice Facility is a recent reimagining at the Quinn Center, but there’s room at the arena itself. Add a weight room and voila!

Move some of the classrooms to the north side (Rivers Street side) and there you do. One facility for three sports.

Pitched roof so it doesn’t leak

I hate it when I see that underutilized million-dollar scoreboard and a Lowe’s Hardware tarp next to it because they built a flat-top roof with vents in a subtropical highland climate.

Uniform banners for men’s basketball, women’s basketball and volleyball

You can keep the historical banners for the museum idea, even the SoCon North Division ones that Gillin refuses to hang. At least have the 1979 NCAA banner and the 2021 NCAA banner look the same. And get the WBB WNIT banner off that back wall.

Take out seats on the south side (Welcome to Boone sign side) and add a standing area with elbow bars for drinks, make it a special area

Georgia State does this for their student section, and it would work if they had fans. It kinda worked last season when App State played there and Kai Cenat showed up (very popular Twitch streamer who’s crossing over into more traditional media in recent months).

Regardless, having big open windows looks kinda cool.

And finally, for the love of everything, put more stats on the $1 million scoreboard

Georgia State does it. UNCW does it. Why not App State? Put how many points each player has, what their FG numbers are, team shooting percentage, free throw rates, etc. Stop letting the back-wall scoreboards have more stats than the center-hanging scoreboard.

I refuse to believe this is difficult. Or maybe it’s as hard as getting a proper sound system in Kidd Brewer Stadium despite years of complaints?

One more pet peeve. The center-hanging scoreboard has the home team on the right. The back-wall scoreboard has the home team on the left.