Awesome news! I hope we just keep taking care of business and are sitting atop the Big West when they come to town. It would great to have a packed house with the kind of excitement we had during 2014-15 season.

I don't think we'll ever break the all time record of which was set on January, 23rd, 1999 against Chico State. I'm not positive but I believe the seating capacity for basketball has been reduced since then.

I believe this is true, but don't have solid evidence. Even since I started going to Davis in 2012 the threshold for "sellout" seems to have gotten lower, from 6k+ to 5.5k or so. (Obviously they can tremendously tweak those numbers.)

5000, 6000, whatever. Just pack the Pavilion! Let's show everybody that we deserve this, as we always do on ESPN nights.

where is the announcement for this? i didn't see it on the website.

Agree with you, Zander. Hard to break the record when seating has been reduced. Either way, it will be a good atmosphere and won't be the first time Long Beach has played in Davis on ESPN.

Link

For the fifth year in a row, ESPN will visit the Pavilion when the network and Big West officials announced on Wednesday that ESPNU will televise UC Davis' Feb. 25 home game against Long Beach State. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.

BTW, the attendance record is 7926 and was set on January 23, 1999, against Chico State on the annual Break the Record Night. The Aggies won the game 102-71 and the place was rocking. The rivalry with Chico State was a good one in all sports during the D2 era and there was no love loss between the two schools.

I don't doubt it. Gyms that are packed to the rafters are always a fun atmosphere. Now that the bookstore has moved back to its own spot it would be nice to add bleachers in that section. That would add a couple hundred more butts in seats. Concessions could get moved to the concession areas in the middle level in both the southeast and northwest corners.

No sure that will happen as I have heard the Fire Marshall is a stickler.

The area where the concessions are also has a large area set aside now for Team Aggie members with tall tables, snacks, wine and beer. There is a concerted effort going on to cater more to the donors and it looks to be paying off. That area was full during halftime and between games of the double header. Sudwerks also has it's small operation in that area too selling pizza and beer.

Winning is the key. If the men and women's teams continue to win and compete at the top of the Big West there will be more fans in the seats and more Team Aggie members opening their wallets. That, in turn, will drive improvements in the Pavilion that enhance the fan experience.

I agree. Let's see if Blue can wrestle control of the Pavilion away from Campus Monster...er Campus Rec.

The donor "room" they used to use was more like a cave!

Any way to build some sort of permanent seating structure on the north end, with a gap underneath for concessions? The roll-away bleachers waste a lot of space by eliminating all the space beneath them, but apparently Campus Rec doesn't need that end of the Pavilion because they got along fine with the bookstore there. So less of a need for new seats to be temporary I would think.

Might be a hard sell to higher-ups to put in new seats at the Pavilion that in previous years would have remained empty for most of the season. Of course, if you want to be big-time then you have to start thinking big-time.

Would be nice to fill in the bottom bowl like they did at the Alaska Airlines Center at University of Alaska Anchorage

I agree, PA, that's a nice looking arena.

Don't rattle Aggie6thman's cage!

Haha! I remember walking into the Pavilion when they were doing their upgrades and almost fainted when I saw two rows at mid court were removed on both sidelines. Made me scratch my head.

One of the many reasons why ICA needs to be in control of the Pavilion.

The Pavilion can be the Maples (pre-enclosed perimeter concourse) of the Big West if renovations are/were done correctly.

FAAAAR too much space between the basket and the stands behind them at the Pavilion. It takes those fans completely out of the game.

and......who used to love having their toes right on the paint in the student section?! Talk about home-court advantage. I've never had more fun watching basketball, and probably never will.

Why isn't ICA in control of the pavilion? Seems strange. Who else plays there?

Probably students, I.e. the body that runs Rec Hall. Campus Rec?

Campus Rec, because it's part of the ARC. The upper concourse is set up for badminton and ping pong during the day if I remember right from the one time I rented equipment. Also it's used for career fairs, student design showcases, high school cheerleading competitions, and pretty much any event that needs a huge floor space.

The huge gaps in the upper bleachers are terrible. It would be great if they could have a phased improvement of the facility. Maybe they could address the excess space behind the hoops by reconstructing one end, making it more compact and closer to the action. And then address the other side. It would also be nice to have a center scoreboard. It would be great to have the best arena/atmosphere in the Big West. In terms of hosting donors, if they did a fixed deck on one sideline they could add some nice donor suites or a large donor room. Santa Clara did this when they renovated their arena

Wish I could be there, but I'll be one of the millions watching it on TV in Hawaii!

Rec Hall is also a Rec facility, so that is a big consideration.

I preferred the original upper tier bleachers that pulled towards the court when closed. It created a wall that made the crowds of 2000 or 2500 seem bigger.

The large gaps in the upper tiers now are a disaster. I can't recall one other facility with such a poor use of space. Someone didn't fight hard enough.

All of these things cost money. Bringing the lower seats closer to the court, and filling in the lower unused corners might yield the best bang for the buck Give the donors a winning team. With racquetball disappearing, that is a lot of unused space.

I completely understand that there are emergency exit requirements for the doors out from the upper concourse level to the surrounding berm; however, asking more questions would have led to answers in regards to neccessary clear width and height. Ideally, a series of X' high by Y' wide "breezeways" connecting the concourse with the exit doors would have been built into the moveable upper seating sections and create a continuous seating bowl (between the corner entrances) in the upper deck.

Another idea is in use down at The Pyramid in Long Beach where the seats along the sidelines can raise upward to provide sufficient vertical clearance for auxiliary practice areas beneath the seats.

I have ideas!

Just bought tickets!

I'll be making the trek up from the South Bay and getting to town early to pick up some Aggie swag for the little tyke.

Just learned that they'll be distributing student tickets ahead of time at the MU. First time I've ever heard of them doing this.

I guess that would lessen the long lines for the students at the door.

Totally bummed I'll be missing this one. Go Ags