CLEARY: Smaller venues are a better fit for Ivy teams

This Saturday, I get to cross something off my bucket list. I finally (finally!) get to cover a men’s basketball game at The Palestra. For some reason, I’ve had an unbreakable commitment the night of the Penn game for the past two years. But this year, at last, I get to sit on press row at the Cathedral of College Basketball.

For those of you who don’t understand why I’m so excited, here are some facts pulled from Wikipedia. Built in 1927, The Palestra has hosted more men’s NCAA basketball games and more NCAA tournaments than any other venue. In 2007, ESPN Classic ran a documentary titled “The Palestra: Cathedral of Basketball.” When it was originally constructed, it seated 10,000 people, but now it seats 8,722 for basketball.

Having never been there, I can’t speak to the atmosphere, but I imagine it’s pretty intense. While Penn hasn’t filled all of the seats for any of its three Ivy home games so far, they’ve gotten pretty close. On a Tuesday night, the Quakers’ Ivy home opener against Princeton drew a crowd of 6,835. On a Tuesday! When Penn played nationally-ranked Harvard, 7,462 fans poured into The Palestra to watch. The Palestra is known for letting fans get right up to the edge of the court—the environment must be pretty intimidating for visiting teams.

The Lions should be used to playing in a hostile atmosphere, though. They opened their season at UConn in front of a crowd of over 10,000 people. But it isn’t just the reigning national champions that have a powerful fan base—the atmosphere at several Ivy gyms can be very intense. When the Light Blue traveled to Ithaca, N.Y. to play Cornell, the student section was completely packed. (To be fair, it was free jersey night—apparently getting free crap motivates students at state schools to attend games, too. BOOM.)

Harvard’s Lavietes Pavillion seats only 2,195, but that just means that the gym is packed for every game. In fact, besides The Palestra and Princeton’s Jadwin Gymnasium, no Ivy gym seats more than 5,000 people and most of them have a capacity that’s closer to 2,000-3,000. Having been to every other Ivy gym, I can say that having smaller venues works pretty well for the Ivy League.

Sure, with such small gyms, Ivy basketball matchups can sometimes feel like middle school pick-up games. The two worst gyms by far are Dartmouth’s and Brown’s. And I don’t necessarily mean the facilities themselves. Both times I’ve been to the Big Green’s Leede Arena, the atmosphere reminded me more of a hospital waiting room than a sporting event. And when I went to Brown’s senior night two years ago, I was blown away by how few people were in attendance. According to the box score from that game, there were 1,393 fans at the game, but I’m going to call bullshit. My younger brother’s freshman basketball team regularly draws a bigger crowd than the one I saw in Providence, R.I. that night.

Admittedly, it’s pretty easy to understand why the Bears and the Big Green struggle to draw a crowd—they’re currently seventh and eighth in the league, respectively, and don’t seem like they’re going to be that good anytime soon. For the four other Ivy teams with small gyms, though, size works to their advantage.

Take our very own Levien Gymnasium for example. On Saturday night against Yale, it was nearly filled to capacity and the atmosphere was electric. While the crowd wasn’t tiny by any means, it would have seemed much smaller if Columbia played in a gym like The Palestra. (Unfortunately for the 2,442 people in attendance, the game didn’t go so well. )

I won’t say anything about the actually facilities in Dodge, but the size of Levien is a perfect fit for Columbia. Sure, it’s not the prettiest gym, and you have to walk past a bunch of dumpsters to get inside, but once you’re there, it’s not a terrible place to watch a basketball game. So while I’m beyond excited to see The Palestra this Saturday, I don’t wish that the Lions played there.

Levien may not be a cathedral, but it works for Columbia.

Michele Cleary is a Columbia College senior majoring in history. She is a former Spectator managing editor.
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