Photo by Alicia Acevedo / Collegian File Photo
Consider two scenarios.
One is of a basketball arena with a sellout crowd night after night. The consistently competitive team it features is boosted every night by the 10,000-plus screaming fans all clad in red. Opposing teams are scared to play here: from 1968-2003 the home team won 406 games, nearly four wins out of every five.
The other is of a huge, magisterial arena which attracts an increasingly dwindling fan base. Actual attendance is always a great deal less than paid attendance, students, who get in free, can barely fill three rows of the student section and, perhaps most depressing of all, the arena gets louder for free pizza than it does for the team it cheers for.
Obviously, the former picture is of Selland Arena, home of the Bulldogs from 1966-2003. Known as “Grant’s Tomb” during the era of head coach Boyd Grant, the ‘Dogs made three NCAA Tournament appearances under Grant, along with winning the 1983 NIT Championship over DePaul. Ten years after Grant left, Jerry Tarkanian arrived, leading the ‘Dogs to six 20-win seasons and two NCAA Tournament appearances.
Sadly, the latter is of the Save Mart Center, now in its ninth year.
The Collegian compiled attendance records for Fresno State men’s basketball dating back 11 years, including the first eight seasons in the Save Mart Center and the last three in Selland Arena.
What we found was staggering.
During the Bulldogs’ final three seasons at Selland, attendance averaged more than 9,500 fans every game, while the arena was filled at or above the 10,132-seat capacity an unbelievable 34 times.
Since moving to SMC, the story has been much different. Since averaging 14,064 fans at every home game during the 2003-2004 season ”” no doubt buoyed by the grand opening of a luxurious arena ”” average attendance has declined every year, except for a slight uptick during a 22-win 2006-07 season.
During the last three seasons, attendance has declined even more rapidly, plumbing to the depths of 7,767 in 2009-10, 7,332 in 2010-11 and, in spite of the normal excitement that comes with the hiring of a new coach, 6,066 thus far this season.
Why is this the case?
Obviously, the lack of winning has not helped. Since playing in the SMC, the ‘Dogs have only posted three above-.500 seasons.
But there are more problems than Fresno State’s won-loss record. The ‘Dogs have no home-court advantage: The arena is too spacious. SMC rivals NBA arenas in its attendance capacity. It is simply too big for a mid-major college basketball team. Not once has SMC been sold out, and a huge black curtain covers the top level of the arena at all home games today.
Fresno State will never have a home-court advantage so long as it plays at SMC.
Thus, we propose a radical solution: ditch Save Mart and go back to Selland.
Moving the team back to Selland Arena could play a key role in the effort to revitalize Fresno, bringing basketball fans and Fresno State supporters into Downtown and the myriad of shops and restaurants that exist in the area.
Selland is a great basketball arena. It seats enough fans to satisfy the wants of the public, but not more than would look bad if the team experienced a swoon. And, the way it’s built, it holds the sound close to the court, making the crowd sound much louder than it normally would be.
But the major draw would be the tradition. There is so much history at Selland. It would be a return to the glory days, when it was not unheard of to see Fresno State in the Top 25, when players like Rod Higgins, Wil Hooker, Chris Herren and Melvin Ely roamed the court.
The Save Mart Center is not an arena for sports, it is a home to concerts and other special events. It should be officially treated as such. Selland Arena should once again be the home of Bulldog basketball.
Collegian editorials represent the views of the editorial staff, not necessarily those of the faculty or the university. For news updates, links to articles and more, follow The Collegian on Twitter @thecollegian.