Corey Krajewski
Staff Writer
For decades, the Reilly Center has been widely touted as tough to play in, but this season, it’s tougher to watch in. For those who have not noticed, the arena has been redecorated with numerous advertisements from sponsors, most of which look garish and out of place. The RC is a home for students to gather in. It’s representative of all of the sports, and instead of putting up tacky advertisements, why not put up more to represent all of the other teams?
The hallways through the building are now covered in decals promoting various businesses, most of which are nothing more than an eyesore. There is nothing eye-catching or special about them. They just create an eyesore.
One of the most noticeable changes is that all of the flags from sponsors previously on the north wall of the gym have been removed. The flags replacement seems like an upgrade, with massive banners featuring historic Bonnies’ basketball players, but the bottoms of the banners still feature logos of the various sponsors. On top of that, to those of us who are not Bonnies’ basketball historians, the players are unrecognizable, and the banners make no reference to their names.
It’s important for the school to recognize the various sponsors, but there must be a way to support them that is not so garish.
Conspicuously gone are the banners that last year could be found throughout the Reilly Center featuring quotes from various basketball personalities about the arena. It’s awfully strange time, effort and money was put into making those banners if they were only going to be used for one season.
The Reilly Center is meant to be a terror for opponents to play in, but it should still be a place where spectators can enjoy themselves and truly appreciate St. Bonaventure. The pictures of student-athletes and the display cases in the center are a nice touch, but more needs to be done with them.
It’s great to have a picture of one of our athletes competing, but there needs to be recognition for them beyond just a picture. It wouldn’t be a major hassle to put a placard with every portrait recognizing the team or athlete for their accomplishments, considering the countless things Bona’s athletes have done to be proud of.
While the Reilly Center is the basketball team’s home for competition, it is just as much a home for all the other teams, and they deserve more recognition in it. Every team has its offices in the Reilly Center as well as their locker rooms.
It does not take a lot to give the other athletic teams on campus more recognition throughout the Reilly Center, and if done tastefully, it would be a lot more aesthetically pleasing than the current overdose of advertisements. There is a lot of importance to the assistance offered by the sponsor’s, but there are plenty of ways that the school could show its appreciation for both sponsor and student-athlete fairly.
krajewcj11@bonaventure.edu
