I remember being taken into Pauley Pavilion on my campus tour when I was considering enrolling at UCLA and standing in awe of the 11 championship banners hanging from the rafters.
Tour takers are now treated to jackhammers and portable toilets.
As I pass students and their parents, I always get a kick out of the part that includes the tour guide trying to explain away the endless construction on campus.
“Some people say that UCLA should stand for Under Construction Like Always.”
The joke is usually met by a host of laughter and the tour continues to the less-under-construction and more spectacular parts of campus.
But what happens when the current tour gets to Pauley, where crews are currently working on the exterior? Work will move to the interior in March and simultaneously shut down Pauley for at least a year.
I imagine that part of the tour going something like this.
High school student: “But, if they’re going to be renovating the interior of Pauley Pavilion, where will the Bruins play basketball during the 2011-2012 season, Mr. Tour Guide Sir?”
UCLA tour guide: “Well, um, how best could I put this? I’m afraid I don’t have a punny acronym to use here. UCLA will play next season’s home games in either the Los Angeles Forum or the L.A. Sports Arena.”
This part of the tour is no laughing matter.
The Pauley Pavilion construction is leaving UCLA’s men’s basketball team homeless next season and any solution the team finds will entail a huge drop in attendance.
While no plan has been finalized as to where the Bruins will play next season, UCLA sports information director Marc Dellins expects a decision to be reached within a month. He said that it’s also unclear whether or not the Bruins will play all of their games in one venue.
Dellins didn’t rule out the possibility of some games being played at the Staples Center or the Honda Center in Anaheim.
Three professional teams occupy Staples during the dates that UCLA would be interested in and the Honda Center is more than 40 miles from campus. UCLA didn’t garner much of a home court advantage there when it faced BYU in the John R. Wooden Classic last month.
This leaves the Forum and the Sports Arena. Both venues are at least a 20 minute drive from campus, without traffic. Getting to either of those facilities in the hours preceding a game that starts at 7 p.m. would be a chore, even with a Rooter Bus system in place like there is for the Rose Bowl.
Plus, students are more likely to take a bus to a football game because there are only six home contests a year while the basketball team would be playing anywhere from 15 to 20 games at “home.”
As it is, home attendance isn’t one of UCLA basketball’s strong suits. Pauley Pavilion averages 6,723 fans a game, good enough for seventh place in the Pac-10. It’s safe to say that number will be halved next season, losing any semblance of home court advantage that UCLA currently has.
Men’s basketball coach Ben Howland talked about the potential loss of the Forum for next season at his annual fireside chat in Eugene, Ore.
He said Madison Square Garden Inc., which recently purchased the Forum, is planning to turn the arena “into more of a concert venue.”
Dellins said UCLA athletic director Dan Guerrero met with representatives from MSG Inc. last week to discuss a plan and expects a decision to be made within the next few weeks. Dellins added that the renovation might not start until spring of 2012, allowing the Bruins to play in the Forum.
“If they’re going to move faster than that and renovate the inside during our season, then that would become an issue,” he said.
That would leave the Bruins with only the Los Angeles Sports Arena, which is a stone’s throw from the USC campus and served as the Trojans’ home arena until 2006. Traveling into enemy territory each week would undoubtedly leave a crater-sized dent in attendance numbers.
Attendance and revenue will decline next season because of the move, wherever it may be to, but there’s not much they can do about it. The renovation is on pace, but the interior renovations, Dellins explained, cannot be done between seasons.
When other teams around the Pac-10 have moved homes temporarily, their situations were much more favorable. Oregon and USC both built arenas while playing in their former venues. Stanford renovated Maples Pavilion in 2004 without missing a home game, though it took some careful scheduling.
California and Washington both had to relocate while they built new facilities, but they both played in nearby professional arenas, Cal in Oakland’s Oracle Arena and Washington in Seattle’s Key Arena. This renovation may be the one time that playing in such a big-market city will hurt the Bruins as it’s impossible to secure Staples Center for a season.
The renovation is certainly necessary to keep up with other elite programs and I have no doubts that the finished product will be incredible and do nothing but help the athletic department. But taking one step forward won’t come without taking two steps back and some growing pains next season for UCLA officials, fans and players.
Strong co-hosts Overtime with Daily Bruin Sports, which airs every Monday at 6:30 p.m. on uclaradio.com. E-mail him at sstrong@media.ucla.edu.