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. — ' .—.A—r ' / ' _ ' : New arena adds excitement to season T-l' SWWsJK? :••■ ** »• w M- W • PHOTO BY CANDI HAUGLUM/THE GAMECOCK The Carolina Center, shown here during the construction process, replaces the Frank McGuire Arena, which was the home of USC basketball for 34 seasons. Get into the game! .1 ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ Campus Recre I officals! Come by the Bl uptoaay! __Ll BY KYLE ALMOND THE GAMECOCK A new era begins Friday when the USC women’s basketball team opens its season against Clemson. The Gamecocks will be playing the first-ever game in the Carolina Center—a new state-of-the-art arena built on cam pus in the offseason. “We are very excited to host the very first event in the new Carolina Center,” USC head coach Susan Walvius said. “The Carolina Center will be a great opportu nity for us to sell our program and will be an exciting venue for us to play.” The new arena has 18,000 seats and will be home to both the USC men’s and women’s basketball teams. It replaces Frank McGuire Arena, which is located in the Carolina Coliseum and has been the Gamecocks’ home for 34 seasons. me oaroima oenier can accommoaaie other events, such as concerts, motocross, professional wrestling and hockey games. But it was primarily built for USC basketball “It is with a great sense of appreciation that we designed the Carolina Center with our basketball fans in mind,” Athletics Director Mike McGee said. The Carolina Center should be an ex cellent place to watch college hoops. For starters, the seats are close to the action. Even though there are 5,000 seats more than in Frank McGuire, the farthest seat in the new arena is just as close as the farthest seat in the old arena. And the overlap of the upper deck extends far over the lower deck, giving those up top a great view as well. It’s steep, but it allows for better sight lines. The scoreboards in Frank McGuire did n’t offer much more than the score. But the main scoreboard in the Carolina Center will feature four high-definition video screens — eacn lacing a sine oi tne arena — and the point and foul totals of all the players on the floor. Complementing that multimillion-dollar scoreboard will be two smaller score boards on the upper deck and two “hustle boards” in the comers that will give the statistics for such categories as rebounds and assists. “This venue is one that is architec turally engineered in a fashion that is very participant-friendly,” said Dave Odom, head coach of the men’s basketball team. “It is very fan-friendly.” Outside on the concourse, fans can en joy concessions and re-live some of the greatest moments in Carolina sports his tory. Featured throughout the arena are picture displays of these moments, such as B.J. McKie’s winning basket against Kentucky and the baseball team’s win over Clemson in the College World Series. And don’t worry about waiting in line forever to use the restroom. There are 2% restrooms, almost three-quarters of which are for women. The old arena only had 79 restrooms. Bob Dekas, the coordinating producer of NCAA basketball on CBS, was blown away by the new building when he visited on a business trip. “The Carolina Center is one of the nicest on-campus basketball arenas that I have ever seen,” Dekas said. “And I say this hav ing done every basketball arena survey for CBS Sports for the last 19 years.” Student seating a concern In Frank McGuire, there was often a conflict between the students and the pay ing customer. The students, who were scat tered around the building, wanted to stand and cheer like at football games, while the paying customer, usually a booster or alum, wanted to sit to watch the game. McGee and his staff were committed to fixing that problem and giving both sides what they wanted. “Both sides were right,” said Chris Massaro, the associate athletics director in charge of ticket operations. “The stu dents have a right to stand, but the booster pays a lot of money, and he’s got a right to watch the game without standing.” So when they went to draw up the new seating chart, USC officials tried their best to make everyone happy. “At Frank McGuire Arena, students were broken up a little bit. So we wanted a clearly defined student area, and I think we’ve accomplished that,” Massaro said. The student section in the Carolina Center will include all of section 110, which is behind a basket; sections 111 and 112, which are located in the comer; and sections 216,217 and 218, which are in the upper-deck comer. The first eight rows of sections 113,114 and 115 — which are courtside on the sideline — are also stu dent seats. With nearly 500 sideline seats and 1,700 lower-level seats, the student section is not only unified, but bigger and better ♦ ARENA, SEE PAGE 11