The Final 4 Court Is Officially Set Up In Glendale

[CDC84]

Of course they have to take the shot at the worst possible seat location.

[Reborn]

Beautiful!

[katman50]

Pretty impressive and I hope not intimidating! Just think, after all these years, our Zags will be playing in the FF4 on that court. Pretty neat!

[CDC84]

I find it interesting that there is so much space between the students behind the baskets and the reporters behind the baskets. How in the heck do the reporters see any of the game action when the students are jumping up and down like crazy. I mean, it's a flat surface. No incline to see over them.

[former1dog]

I find it interesting that there is so much space between the students behind the baskets and the reporters behind the baskets. How in the heck do the reporters see any of the game action when the students are jumping up and down like crazy. I mean, it's a flat surface. No incline to see over them.

The reporters area does appear to be raised up. There are flights of stairs from the floor above the set of seats up to the areas with tables/desks. You see the stairs, one set at the bottom of the photo slightly right of center and the other one on the left side.

[former1dog]

The court is also one of those raised courts. I don't like those as it seems its just begging for a player to make a hustle play and get injured.

[raise the zag]

Of course they have to take the shot at the worst possible seat location.

Pretty certain those are my seats.

[gbnyba17]

I know at the end of the day attending the final 4 is going to be an amazing experience, but this picture validates my decision not to attend. This is where my seats would have been.. Shame on the NCAA for putting the final 4 in football arenas.

[Zagger]

Wow. In that place I'm guessing the closer knit the team the better the performance - thinking that it'd be easier to intimidate an individual more than a group. The noise level could make it hard to communicate. I think it seats 70K ..... that's a lot of vocal chords, stomping feet, etc.

[CDC84]

The court is also one of those raised courts. I don't like those as it seems its just begging for a player to make a hustle play and get injured.

I know, but amazingly enough, Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota has a similar set up where the court is raised even closer to the sidelines and baselines, and I haven't heard of any any major injuries happening, and that place has been in existence for ages. If there had been any major injuries, they would've changed things. But yes, it does look like a dangerous set up, and you do wonder if Louisville's Kevin Ware broke his leg open because he was worried that his momentum might cause him to fall off the floor.

The thing that I dislike much more about the raised court is that the head coach has to sit on a stool and stand on the platform. It makes communicating with his assistants and players very difficult.

What I do like about it is that it has made the TV viewing experience much better with the students behind the baskets and the whole thing just appearing to be more enclosed. It doesn't "feel" like a dome as much as the old setup. Again, from a TV perspective.

[tinfoilzag]

I know at the end of the day attending the final 4 is going to be an amazing experience, but this picture validates my decision not to attend. This is where my seats would have been.. Shame on the NCAA for putting the final 4 in football arenas.

At least $15 mil in ticket sales. Can't get that without a football stadium.

[TexasZagFan]

Pretty certain those are my seats.

By necessity, my seat will be the sofa in my den, about 8-10 feet from our 65" TV. Watching last week's games at retail establishments put a dent in my pocketbook, though it was worth every dime. lol

I also watched the Northwestern game at home, so this isn't unprecedented. I won't have to worry about keeping my voice down, either.

[CDC84]

know at the end of the day attending the final 4 is going to be an amazing experience, but this picture validates my decision not to attend. This is where my seats would have been.. Shame on the NCAA for putting the final 4 in football arenas.

They have no choice. You and far too many people would never be able to attend the event if they didn't hold it in stadiums. Back in 1996, which was the last time that a final four was held in an arena, there was no stubhub.com. If these things were held in arenas, 70% of all people buying tickets would put them up for sale on stub to make money. Tens of millions would be made by people who are just in it for business and who don't give a damn about basketball. That's wrong. Not as many students would be able to go as well. Taking away tickets from students is also wrong.They have done every possible study on this thing. For every person who complains about their nosebleed seat, there are thousands of people willing to take that seat and will go to the final 4 every year until they are able to get a better one. There are people who go to this thing every year who sit in the nosebleads and have the time of their lives.

It's not the NCAA's fault. It's the fault of stub and people who view it as a private business opportunity.

[former1dog]

Can someone confirm this? I thought the NCAA was going to discontinue basketball tournaments in domed arenas?

[CDC84]

What they decided to do was discontinue the use of domes for subregionals and regionals. They simply do not get anough attendance at these games to justify using a building that large.

There was talk about possibly bringing the final four back to some arenas in big cities that don't have domes, but the NCAA tourney determined it to be impossible on many levels.