Stroh Center - Design and Amenities

Design and Amenities

The Stroh Center was designed by Rossetti Architects of Southfield, Michigan and the Cleveland office of the URS Group engineering firm. A major goal of the construction was to replicate the intimacy of Anderson Arena, while providing athletes and spectators the modern comforts of a state-of-the-art convocation center. To accommodate this the Stroh Center was built in a theatre-in-the-round design, providing an open walkway allowing spectators to walk completely around the facility without missing the event on the stadium floor. The arena also includes 88 courtside seats and the furthest seat in the arena, 60 feet (18 m) from the court, is only five feet further from the furthest seat at Anderson Arena. The seat widths at the Stroh Center range from 19–22 inches, while the largest seat at Anderson was only 18 inches. The arena also has four restrooms each at the north and south ends of the arena, two for women, one for men and one for families and provides four concession areas in the open walkways.

An auxiliary gym at the Stroh Center, called the Schmidthorst Pavilion, was paid for with a $1.7 million donation from Allen and Carol Schmidthorst, while the court for the gym was paid for with a $1 million donation from Bowling Green alumnus Larry Miles. The auxiliary practice gym built with the combined $2.7 million helps the men's and women's basketball teams avoid scheduling conflicts with the arena, an amenity that was not available at the Anderson Arena. The arena also includes four visiting team locker rooms that can accommodate multiple teams that allow it to support events such as high school basketball tournaments.

The main video board at the Stroh Center is 10 feet (3.0 m) high by 20 feet (6.1 m) wide with fixed sponsor elements and decorative cladding developed by Capturion Network LLC. The scoreboard hangs above the west basket and can operate as one large screen or be divided into multiple sections which have the ability to display real-time statistics, sponsor graphics, 3D animations and high definition live or recorded video. Along with the scoreboard, Capturion manufactured the scorer’s tables and press row which also feature the company's latest technology. There also is a three-foot-by-30-foot (9.1 m) “ribbon board” on the east end of the court with a variety of other scoreboards.

The Stroh Center also holds a prominently placed Hall of Fame to commemorate the history of athletics at Bowling Green State University that includes exhibits and display cases that hold items on a rotating basis. There is also a designated area within the arena for cataloging and storing items not currently on display. Before the facilities at the Stroh Center, almost all memorabilia and artifacts related to Bowling Green athletics since the university's opening in 1910 had been stored in boxes in a small room just off the lobby of Anderson Arena in Memorial Hall and voluntarily collected and stored by former Bowling Green men's soccer and lacrosse coach Mickey Cochrane, who is namesake for Mickey Cochrane Field which serves as the home of the Bowling Green Falcons men's and women's soccer teams.

Harold Anderson, former Bowling Green men's basketball coach and athletic director and namesake for the Stroh Center's predecessor Anderson Arena, is remembered with the Anderson Club. The Anderson Club consists of an approximately 1,500-square-foot (140 m2) club area and chair back seating for roughly 400 fans. It includes hospitality areas, food and beverage service, high-definition televisions and areas to view the games. The Anderson Club area is located on the concourse level on the south side of the arena at mid-court and seating for fans extends to the floor-level row.