What is a Fieldhouse, Anyway?

Sports Illustrated writers are going down the ranks, giving fans columns about their most cherished sports venues. There are several pretty famous sports writers at SI, so it’s interesting to see what they think defines a great sports venue. As it pertains to college basketball, there are two articles- one about Pauley Pavilion (by Damon Hack) and the other about Allen Fieldhouse (by Jack McCallum).

College basketball venues are a hard lot to rank- as the quality of the team you’re seeing is going to make a big difference. Suppose you were rating baseball stadiums. Things like hot dog price, the comfort level of the seats, the parking- these might be more important. At college basketball games, you’re standing, screaming, chanting- and if you get a hot dog you’re going to miss something big. Whereas with baseball you want a place you can relax for up to six hours, with basketball, you want to get the most out of your ticket through getting pumped and participating. Hard to define a feeling, an atmosphere, but we’ll say that both UCLA and Kansas are about as good as they come.

To get NCAA basketball tickets, go to StubHub.com.

Posted in General on July 24, 2008

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