Additional Games at Halton Arena?

There’s a story on ESPN’s Women’s Basketball website that says the NCAA has approved South Carolina hosting first and second round NCAA games at Halton Arena if USC is selected one of the top seeds in the Women’s Tournament.

Colonial Life Arena is hosting Men’s NCAA games and is unavailable to the Women’s team.

South Carolina wishes to play as close to Columbia as possible. There’s no reason given in the article why Winthrop would not be acceptable. Their loss could be Charlotte’s gain.

Winthrop capacity too small at 6,100. Per USC WBB release:

With Halton capacity at 9,105, wonder if it will be filled, with some folks wanting tix? Probably not, due to distance from usc’s campus.

I think I read that the Lamecocks lead the nation in attendance for women’s basketball. Whether that means a sellout 90 miles away is speculative. I’m sure at least one person will be there from our own area. Hint: initials are J.R.

Gamecocks did lead in attendance in 2017-18 at 13,000+ per game, followed by UConn at 10,000.

Anyway, this Post and Courier piece highly complimentary of Halton Arena.

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UConn draws 3,000 fewer fans a game than South Carolina. That explains some of UConn’s athletic financial woes.

The school might remind fans to ride the light rail to the games. Showing off the campus in March is a good way to encourage sports fans to come back in the fall for a football game.

Their arena may also not be as large. Not sure how many UCONN holds

I’d love to see Halton sold out for a basketball game again.

Gampel Arena holds 10,167. With 4 men’s championships and many more women’s, I thought they’d have a bigger arena.

UConn also plays selected home games at the XL Center in Hartford (about 30 miles west of Storrs), which seats 15,500+ for basketball.