I must admit that I am a HUGE fan of ESPN. Just ask my wife and she can tell you it’s Kentucky sports, ESPN, Food Network and Discovery channel, in that order, for my viewing pleasure.
Fan or not, I was highly disappointed when I read ESPN’s article called “These go to 11”, a ranking of the loudest college basketball arenas in the nation. They provided their Top 10 and yes Rupp Arena is among the Elite in arenas around the country, but their ranking is, in my humble bias opinion, wrong.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
I’ve seen the rafters and the second floor, literally shake, when Tim ThomaS brought his #18 ranked Villanova team to town after his statement about Ron Mercer. Mercer had a double-double, 23 points and 11 boards, while Thomas was held to 9 points as the Cats blew out Villanova, 93-56. The top floor was about to become unhinged and you couldn’t hear a word the announcers said.
I watched as 24,000 crammed Rupp Arena and raised the roof for ESPN GameDay. An event where traditionally ESPN has to pay fans to show up just to fill the TV Screen. (That statement is completely false, but you get the picture). And that’s just a couple of roof raising examples of the power of the Big Blue Nation in Rupp.
Out of fairness to ESPN, I’ve never been to any of the arenas listed, outside of Rupp, and doubt I ever will unless UK is playing their and I somehow miraculously get a ticket.
Even though, it’s hard for me to imagine that the noise created within those arenas listed above Rupp, would actually be louder then Rupp, but since I have never attended a game at those arenas, I will keep my “They are wrong” opinion to myself for now.
Without further delay, here are, according to ESPN, the Ten LOUDEST College Basketball arenas:
[LIST]
[*]#10 – Matthew Knight Arena – University of Oregon.
[*]#9 – Gallagher-Iba Arena – Oklahoma State
[*]#8 – Assembly Hall – University of Illinois.
[*]#7 – Bramlage Coliseum – Kansas State University.
[*]#6 – Peterson Event Center – University of Pittsburgh
[*]#5 – O’Connel Center – Florida.
[*]#4 – UNM Arena – New Mexico University
[*][B]#3 – Rupp Arena – University of Kentucky.[/B]
[*]#2 – Cameron indoor Stadium – Duke University
[*]#1 – Allen Fieldhouse – Kansas University.
[/LIST]
When you see the list, you feel my pain. Cameron with 8,000 fans and the Phog at Kansas… A game at each location just made my bucket list. I want to be at Cameron Indoor when Duke plays UNC and I want to be at Kansas when they play K State.
Then to see the O’Connell Center at Florida on the list at all… heck, they can’t even sell the place out, much less raise the roof.
I know the rankings aren’t about the Greatest fan base, truly, there is no comparison to The Nation. It is about decibels and how loud an arena is during a game. Cameron is small, the students are on the floor, so maybe the decibel could be a little louder. But Allen Fieldhouse, a typical arena, with only 16,000.
Crank up Rupp and then crank up Cameron and Allen. I’ll take Rupp any day. One thing for sure, the 2010-11 season is a challenge to Cat fans to raise Rupp’s roof…
Go Cats!!
[URL=”http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/preview2010/insider/news/story?id=5761254″]
Click here for the complete article for your reading pleasure..[/URL]
Contact Chip Miller with your Kentucky questions or comments at [EMAIL=”[email protected]”][email protected][/EMAIL], via twitter at [URL=”http://twitter.com/ukbigbluenation”]@ukbigbluenation[/URL] or here at N of B, at his NofB Profile, by [URL=”http://www.nationofblue.com/members/chip-miller/”]clicking here[/URL].
