UC Santa Barbara Events Center

Events Center
Construction
The Thunderdome

Full name	UC Santa Barbara Events Center
Former names	Campus Events Center
Location	Santa Barbara, California
Coordinates	34°24′49.65″N 119°51′4.13″W / 34.4137917°N 119.8511472°W / 34.4137917; -119.8511472Coordinates: 34°24′49.65″N 119°51′4.13″W / 34.4137917°N 119.8511472°W / 34.4137917; -119.8511472
Owner	University of California, Santa Barbara
Executive suites	None
Capacity	5,600 (for basketball) 5,814 (maximum)
Record attendance	6,512 on December 18, 1991 for Men's Basketball vs. Ohio State
Scoreboard	Yes
Built	1979
Tenants
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's basketball UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's volleyball

UC Santa Barbara Events Center, previously known as the Campus Events Center, also known as The Thunderdome, is a 5,600-seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California.

History of The Thunderdome

The Thunderdome was built in 1979, originally under the name of Campus Events Center. Along with Harder Stadium, it has since become one of the most patronized venues at UC Santa Barbara. After a naming contest and vote among students and faculty (which included some tongue in cheek nominations such as "Yankee Stadium", the Jerry Brown Arena, the Corrugated Fortress), it was eventually given the generic name "Campus Events Center". Eventually, the name was unofficially shorted to the "ECen" (much like UCSB's University Center being called the "UCen").

For basketball, the stadium seats 5,600.^[1] Other configurations result in differing capacities, most notably 5,814 as a maximum (for boxing or wrestling)^[2] or 3,584 to 4,848 for concerts.^[3]^[4] Currently, the 5,600 seat stadium is the third largest arena in the Big West Conference, behind the 10,200-seat Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawaii and the 8,000-seat UC Davis Pavilion. The floor of the Thunderdome was named by Bleacher Report as the 11th best court design in college basketball.^[5]

Transformation into The Thunderdome

At first, crowds were small, but with the hiring of Jerry Pimm in 1983, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball program began to experience greater success. As the size of crowds began to increase (often exceeding the stated capacity), the Events Center gained a reputation as one of the loudest and most hostile venues in college basketball, creating significant problems for opposing teams.

After UCSB (led by future Laker Brian Shaw) upset Jim Valvano's North Carolina State Wolfpack team by double digits in 1987 before a sellout crowd, the Events Center acquired the unofficial nickname "The Thunderdome". Credit has been given to the athletic director at that time, Stan Morrison, for having coined the nickname. Also many believe it was further reinforced from Valvano himself when he said in a postgame interview, "It was louder than thunder in there tonight."

The Tortilla Technical

During the 1980s, students threw toilet paper onto the court after the first Gaucho basket. After the school cracked down on this practice around 1990, students started a new tradition of tossing tortillas onto the court like frisbees after the first UCSB basket.^[6] The team would then be assessed a technical foul for delay of game while the tortillas were cleaned up, a tradition that became known as "The Tortilla Technical."^[7]

During an early 1990s game, one of ESPN's professional video cameras was ruined when tortilla fragments got into the mechanism. While UCSB paid for a replacement camera, ESPN was skittish about returning to the Thunderdome. Despite continued pleading from the players and coaches to stop the practice, the tradition continued unabated. When ESPN finally returned to the Thunderdome for a 1997 game against Pacific, the game was interrupted by three "Tortilla Technicals," including one incident late in the game where a tortilla nearly hit coach Jerry Pimm in the face.^[6]^[8] Following this incident, UCSB officials began searching students for tortillas as they entered the arena. Apart from a few sporadic instances of tortilla-tossing, the novelty has worn off.

While the tortillas have stopped flying at The Thunderdome, raucous students have brought the practice to Harder Stadium, home of the 2006 NCAA champion UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team, where no such penalties are enforced.

Tenants

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletics

Thunderdome hosting students about to graduate in June 2012.

The Thunderdome is the home to teams of the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletic program. Currently, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball and UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's basketball teams, as well as the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's volleyball team all call The Thunderdome home. In 2002, 2,794 fans attended a women's volleyball match between UCSB and the USC Trojans in which the 9th ranked Gauchos upset USC 3 games to 1.

Other events

The facility also hosted and the first and second round games of the 2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament. In addition to sporting events, The Thunderdome has seen many concerts, boxing matches, and performances come through.

Dave Chappelle performed comedy on June 2, 2004, while The Killers played at The Thunderdome on April 6, 2007 and the Harlem Globetrotters played an exhibition game on February 15, 2007.

The center hosts basketball camps by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. These camps take place during the summer months. Michael Jordan's camp has happened yearly for several years and the Kobe Bryant camp has been happening since the summer of 2010.^[9]^[10]^[11]

References

↑ "Floor Plans: Basketball". UC Santa Barbara Events Center. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
↑ "Floor Plans: Wrestling and Boxing". UC Santa Barbara Events Center. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
↑ "Floor Plans: Concert (Alternate)". UC Santa Barbara Events Center. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
↑ "Floor Plans: Concert (Standard)". UC Santa Barbara Events Center. Retrieved October 10, 2009.
↑ Novak, Thad (June 30, 2013). "Ranking the 20 Best Court Designs in College Basketball". Bleacher Report. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
1 2 Reid, Jason (1997-02-15). "Santa Barbara's Pimm Is Pipping Hot Over Fresh Tortilla Controversy". Los Angeles Times.
↑ Brewer, Ray. Live blog: Rebels survive UC Santa Barbara challenge, prevail 94-88 in double overtime. Las Vegas Sun, 2011-11-30.
↑ Shi, Yier (1997-02-14). "Santa Barbara Upsets UOP 75-69 Despite Three Tortilla Technicals". The Daily Nexus.
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External links

University of California, Santa Barbara
Colleges and schools	Bren School of Environmental Science & Management College of Creative Studies College of Engineering College of Letters and Science Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
Research	AlloSphere Research Facility California NanoSystems Institute Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Library National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Life	ASUCSB Bill's Bus Bren Hall Campus Daily Nexus Extravaganza History Isla Vista KCSB-FM Storke Tower WORD Magazine
Athletics	Gauchos Men's basketball Women's basketball Men's soccer Caesar Uyesaka Stadium Events Center Harder Stadium Robertson Gymnasium
People	Henry T. Yang Chancellor Nobel laureates Faculty Alumni
Category Commons

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball
Venues	Robertson Gymnasium (1959–1979) The Thunderdome (1979–present)
Rivalries	Cal Poly
Culture & lore	Olé Fantom of the Thunderdome
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–00 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17

Basketball arenas in the Big West Conference
Mott Athletic Center (Cal Poly) Titan Gym (Cal State Fullerton) Matadome (Cal State Northridge) Stan Sheriff Center (Hawaiʻi) Walter Pyramid (Long Beach State) UC Davis Pavilion (UC Davis) Bren Events Center (UC Irvine) UC Riverside Student Recreation Center (UC Riverside) UCSB Events Center (UC Santa Barbara)

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