Two days prior to the ribbon cutting ceremony on April 19, I did my own self-guided tour today, Easter Sunday. It is certainly an incredible venue. The Erwin Center looks dowdy and plain in comparison.
One thing I'm concerned about. The "pit", the concrete, ground-floor area depicted in Blair's lower right image above, is absolutely huge. The pit is about 20 feet below the seating area above the hand rail. Instead of row numbers, this seating area is labelled rows A, B, C, etc. from the bottom to top.
I could not imagine a basketball court situated in the center of the pit that would be close enough to these seats to create an intimate and loud atmosphere. There would be too much dead space on the perimeter of the court. Then I noticed the 9 rows of moveable seats that telescope away from the sides of the pit. These pit seat rows are labelled AA, BB, CC, etc. from bottom to top, ending in row JJ. (Row II is not used, probably to avoid confusion because letter I's look like number 1's).
If you enlarge Blair's image, you will notice the stairways that seem to run parallel to the seat rows leading down to the floor of the pit. This is an illusion. These stairways will rotate 90° out to create a continuation of the isles above. If you look closely, you will notice a vertical wall which comprises the moveable seats in their stowed position. These seats will telescope out to create the lower 9 rows.
If you purchased season tickets in this section, you'll definitely want to choose seats in rows AA to JJ, closest to the court. Even so, I still think there will be a considerable amount of dead space from the lowest row, AA, and the sideline of the court.
There will be one or two rows of "Courtside Club" seating in front of Row AA, so these seats will take up some of this dead space. Courtside Club seats are similar to the "floor seats" at the Erwin Center. We'll see how this all works out.
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Last edited: Apr 17, 2022