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UCLA Struggling With Men's Basketball Attendance Despite Renovated Pauley Pavilion

The UCLA men's basketball team beat Oregon on Saturday afternoon before a home crowd of 10,006, and in its third season, like a "highly touted young slugger who can't hit the curveball, renovated Pauley Pavilion is scuffling," according to Bill Plaschke of the L.A. TIMES. The crowds "have been indeed small, with an average of barely 7,000 fans in an arena nearly twice that size," and the noise level "is generally low." Plaschke: "Pauley Pavilion is missing students. It's missing buzz. It's missing everything that could be found in old Pauley." But Pauley is a "wonderful venue," as the $136M renovation turned the "cramped and aging gym into a sparkling arena with open concourses and great sight lines and vastly improved concessions." On the "surface, everything is in place" for "college basketball craziness." Plaschke noted most "seem to agree the biggest problem is the starting times, which were sold out to television by Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott." UCLA games "have been scheduled at all sorts of odd times and odd days, often requiring fans to either drive through the teeth of Los Angeles' toughest traffic or hang out until midnight on a work night." Meanwhile, the students who show up "are loud, there just aren't many of them." UCLA AD Dan Guerrero: "We moved the students down, we gave them several sections, yet there is as such a swing in terms of their presence." Plaschke noted students "make the sort of noise that upsets opponents," but Pauley Pavilion "just doesn't have those sorts of students, and while the effect can't be seen in UCLA's home record, it certainly could contribute to the slow erosion of the brand" (L.A. TIMES, 2/15).

PACKING IT IN? In Arizona, Greg Hansen wrote under the header, "Sellouts Rare In Pac-12." Not counting the Univ. of Arizona's McKale Center, Pac-12 basketball teams "sold out two of 65 conference games through Friday: Arizona at Cal on Jan. 24, and last week’s Stanford at Utah game." By comparison, four Mountain West Conference teams "have a combined 24 sellouts this season." The lack of home-team interest in Pac-12 hoops "can’t be the TV programming, or the simple breakup of the traditional Thursday-Saturday 7 p.m. tipoffs in the old Pac-10." Outside of a "few year-to-year hot spots, the Pac-12 has rarely embraced college basketball" (ARIZONA DAILY STAR, 2/15).

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