Can $36 million buy fans? That will be the big question hovering over NIU with the addition of the Convocation Center.

For now, everyone can only speculate what will take place, but come Nov. 22 when the women’s basketball team opens the Convocation Center against Wisconsin, we’ll see if the NIU athletic program really is on the rise.

“Playing in an on-campus arena will put us on par with some of the major college schools and help us get better recruits and competition,” NIU men’s basketball coach Rob Judson said.

With a floor space of 45,000 square feet, the arena has 10,000 seats (6,500 of the seats will be retractable). It will host not only men’s and women’s basketball, but also athletic events for gymnastics, volleyball, wrestling and women’s track and field.

The majority of student seating will be in the 18 section lower bowl. If the lower bowl is filled, the students will be able to sit in the upper bowl in assigned sections. The highest seat from the floor in the upper bowl is only 30 feet off the floor.

A lot of attention this basketball season will be on making the 424 seat Dog Pound, situated behind the west basket, a more influential part of the game.

“Our goal this year is to fill that dog pound,” said Cameron Edwards, assistant coordinator for marketing and promotions. “We want people lined up to get in there.”

Estimates are that at the majority of the basketball games the crowd will be made up of about 25 percent students and about 75 percent general public, according to Scott Lowenberg, assistant athletic director of marketing and promotions.

“If the students show up they can really get the place rockin’ and dictate the game,” Lowenberg said.

To promote NIU athletics, particularly men’s and women’s basketball, the Huskies have hired Edwards from the University of Houston.

Edwards will be looking to have more T-shirt throw-outs, halftime contests with bigger cash prizes and hopefully slam-dunk contests.

“People are just going to have a blast this year,” Edwards said. “There’s going to be action going on constantly and it will be all geared towards students.”

Besides providing the fans with a more enjoyable arena to watch games, the players are reaping the benefits as well.

The locker room facilities are up to date with the lockers costing about $20,000 apiece.

One of the biggest advantages of having a new arena is NIU basketball will be able to play on a women’s NCAA Final Four court.

“Providing the students with a state of the art arena to watch basketball shows me NIU’s desire to make Northern a big time school,” said junior sociology major Eric Criner.

To create more of a buzz, NIU is selling $25 tickets for “The Big Weekend,” which encompasses the women’s basketball game on Nov. 22, the men’s basketball game on Nov. 23, the football game on Nov. 23 and wrestling’s meet against Minnesota on Nov. 24.

“I plan to take my parents to the Convocation Center for at least one game to show them how different it is from Chick Evans and to see how interesting it really is,” sophomore sociology major Kristina Wojewski said.