The Big East may be the best conference in all of college basketball, but wow do they have some TERRIBLE names among their collection of home venues. The super-conference is comprised of 16 teams, and many of them play in arenas with names so blandly and offensively corporate, they make the names of many of the college football bowl games sound romantic and wholesome.
1. KFC Yum! Center (Louisville) photo credit Flickr
An arena name with an EXCLAMATION POINT! It’s like that infamous Seinfeld episode:
“the night was cold, so I put on my SWEATSHIRT!” Seriously, it’s bad enough the Colonel branded the home of a proud program, but did he really have to included an additional self-aggrandizing promotion to turn a two word name into three?
2. Dunkin Donuts Center (Providence)
Nothing says the experience of watching one collection of fast, lean, and finely tuned athletes battle another like…a company famous for 1,000 calorie globs of deep-fried dough and sugar.
3. Wells Fargo Center (Villanova)
Given the current Great Depression like economic landscape, for which much of the blame falls on Wall Street, who wants to go inside any place with name associated with an investment bank? I feel like someone is trying to steal my money just typing the name.
4. Prudential Center (Seton Hall)
See above. Make sure your tickets are worth more than credit default swaps.
5. All State Arena (DePaul)
As a second city native, it will ALWAYS be the Rosemont Horizon to me. Just like I’ll never call Comiskey Park (Sox Park) U.S. Cellular Field. “The Cell” is doable. What Adding to the general lameness of DePaul’s home arena is it’s edge city location. That along, with the Blue Demons 1-45 conference record the past two and half seasons, cripples attendances. a 6pm tip isn’t exactly optimal when you have a home arena adjacent to the world’s busiest airport. Rush hour traffic on the way to O’Hare International airport is not good for anyone involved.
But hey- plenty of hotels, chain restaurants and strip clubs around!
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He doesn’t have a real nickname, but he is also a regular contributor to the Tribune’s Chicago Now network, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
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