usc arena size

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SoCalHoops College News

Planned USC Arena Big,
But Not The Biggest--(Oct. 22, 1999)

We've received a lot of e-mail about the newly announced USC on-campus activity center. Some have said that it will be, at 12,000 seats "too large," while others have wondered whether it will be the largest such arena in the Pac-10. Well, to give you an idea, we went looking for the capacity of the rest of the Pac-10 basketball homecourt venues, and the results surprised us a bit.

First, USC currently has the largest homecourt arena of any school in the Pac-10 with the LA Sports Arena at 15,509, which is about 20 seats bigger than Arizona's McKale Center, which probably explains why all those crowds at 'SC games usually seem small in comparison to, say the much more intimate Pauley Pavilion, which seats about 3,000 fewer people.

How big will the new arena really be in comparison to the rest of the Pac-10? Here is the current listing, from largest to smallest:

1. USC LA Sports Arena 15,509
2. Arizona McKale Center 14,489
3. Arizona St. Wells Fargo Arena 14,198
4. UCLA Pauley Pavilion 12,819
5. California Haas Pavillion 12,100
6. Washington. St. Friel Court 12,058
7. Oregon St. Gill Coliseum 10,400
8. Oregon McArthur Court 9,087
9. Washington Hec Edmundson Pavilion 7,800
10. Stanford Maples Pavilion 7,500

The new arena, with 12,000 seats would move USC from 1st to 6th overall in terms of size, just behind Washington State's Friel Court, which has 58 more seats. As things presently stand, the Sports Arena is only No. 31 among the top 50 largest college basketball home courts. The largest is the Syracuse Carrier Dome with a capacity of 33,000. Among the other Pac-10's only the two Arizona schools are in the top 50, with Arizona at No. 42, and Arizona State at No 46.

Just thought you'd be interested to know.