I always thought the bare concrete walls would have looked much better with a brick veneer over them. I think one of the SEC schools has that. What I do not think would look good is a bunch of ads like in most pro venues.
I would do something a little more tasteful and family friendly, ie: Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Sheetz ect.
In a perfect world bricks would be nice as you said, or the picture above would also be nice. But we don't live in a perfect world. Money is everything now days. Why not whore out the walls, and make a little extra money?
If it means a new practice facility, then I'm for it. Id prefer the type like we see at baseball games that have multiple ads throughout the game. Make as much money as possible if we are going down that road.