The correct answer to “the worst NBA arena ever” is all the ones built in the late 1980s that were made immediately obsolete by the Palace of Auburn Hills’ abundant luxury suites. At least Charlotte Coliseum and the Memphis Pyramid had a high seating capacity, but Miami Arena was already the smallest arena in the league when it opened in 1988. It was barely open for a decade before the Heat (and the NHL’s Panthers) moved to nicer digs.
I think the idea of playing basketball in a pyramid is actually pretty cool, but they just didn’t get the execution down. Now if somehow something happened with Luxor in Las Vegas to where they couldn’t hold their business anymore with their hotel and casino, I wonder if it would be big enough to hold an NBA expansion team. If not, then there’s something about it where it would be such a Vegas thing if their new expansion team turns out to be in a pyramid big enough to hold the team in with enough seating capacity. Then upper floors could be used as a hotel and casino considering it is Las Vegas. I know it won’t happen but it’s not a bad idea.
The City of Memphis actually ran out of money before finishing the Pyramid. That left the acoustic panel system needed to accommodate the odd shape of the building only partially done, making concert acoustics horrid and basketball just dead-sounding. The concourses were unfinished concrete due to lack of funds for floor/wall tiling. Cool concept, but terrible execution.
The showed the Richmond Coliseum that’s still standing that’s not in Cleveland, The Richfield coliseum was demolished i think as soon the cavaliers moved out
As someone who has been to a lot bucks games at the Bradley Center, I would like to say that the arena wasn’t originally supposed to be made for basketball. The Bradley Pettit family built the stadium in hopes to bring an nhl team to Milwaukee in the 80’s but plans fell through
Smoothie King Center: Built in 1999, not early 90s. 8:45 Amway ARENA. 8:56 Bojangles Coliseum pictured (home of the Charlotte Checkers). 9:03 Richmond Coliseum pictured (Richmond, VA). The Cavaliers played in the Richfield Coliseum, halfway between Cleveland and Akron in Ohio.
I loved the Pyramid! As a lifelong Memphis fan that was the arena that Penny built when he played there from 1991-93 and took us to the Elite 8 in 92. That building was unique and sat 20,000 fans and was loud. It was properly dubbed the 'tomb of doom'.
The thing i didnt like about the Pyramid was the upper bowl sucked. All the upper bowl seats were crammed in. When the Grizzlies moved to Memphis and played in the Pyramid, me and my son used to go to the games and sat in the upper bowl.
Milwaukee actually weren’t a horrible team even throughout the 2000s, they’ve been if anything mediocre before they began their consistency making the playoffs from 2017 onward. They didn’t have any crazy long playoff droughts, they would be good enough to make the playoffs most years but not good enough to go far at all. Oracle Arena has been known for a great experience for watching the games, in fact one of the best home court advantages in the NBA because of the passion Warriors fans do have, the real ones of course which there’s plenty of. The Pyramid actually wasn’t a bad idea, doesn’t really look bad on the interior, but their problems were with constant flooding and they didn’t have a good enough drainage system in place.
The Palace of Auburn Hills is the best basketball only arena ever. It set the standard for luxury. Worked there in my youth in the early 90s to about 2003.
I went to the Bradley center for a motorcycle races in its final year. Not only was it basic as hell. But, even in the lower deck they had basic folding chairs as their seats. And I don't mean these are temp seats.
The Washington Wizards arena was actually an improved seating design over Cleveland's Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, which I personally say currently has a worse seating design than Washington's place, and the worst seating design in the NBA. The arena design in Cleveland put the suites too close to the floor, compromising the sight lines of the sideline seating from top to bottom.
You think Sleep Train Arena aka Arco Arena 2 which has a super interesting history is the worst you should have seen Arco Arena 1 in the 80’s when the Kings moved to Sacramento from Kansas City. It became a literal office building siting on the city/county line of Sacramento to ensure it being used as a basketball arena. That place was a joke and was used for only 3-4 years until Arco Arena 2 (sleep train). Arco 2 has been removed but Arco Arena 1 is still there
The biggest miss in here was the worst NBA and NHL arena ever made was the Continential Airlines Arena in New Jersey. That Arena was so bad and it a ss the blandest and most dull interior ever. Games looked dull and dark in there as it was just horrible. If you do a new one in the future, please include that one next time.
So the Cavaliers played at the Richfield Coliseum that was torn down in the 90s. You showed the Richmond Coliseum that is in Richmond, VA. Completely different things man.
@@connecticut511 Do you think it's because he's on Spring Break, and he's bored ? I'm guessin' that nobody invited him to drive down to Florida for the Par-Tay
Gee, I wasn't aware that the Cleveland Cavaliers played their home games in Richmond, Virginia. This guy is a total joke. It's as if he's just making stuff up Or perhaps Depressed Ginger is really George Santos using a fake name ?
It’s terrible! The Richfield Coliseum was torn down in 1999. Larry Bird said it was his favorite arena- he’s from tiny French Lick, IN, so the idea of a basketball arena in the middle of a cornfield is right up his alley….and Southern IN is kind of like that.
@@davidelliott9493 As someone that used to live in Princeton (in southwestern Indiana) I can most certainly assure you there’s not much of anything there to even do. I’m glad I live in Indianapolis now, but pretty much outside of Indy there’s not much to do in the whole state of Indiana
Bro i grew up going to arco arena/ sleeptrain arena and you're dead wrong. It didn't look good but there was not a bad seat in the arena. Gotta stop with the kings slander brother.
Yeah, Wells Fargo Center is nowhere near that bad and Verizon Centrr in DC too. I couldn't believe he left out Continential Airlines Arena in New Jersey that one was bad.
There are a few other NBA arenas that were missed in this video if this was supposed to be an all--time list. ARCO Arena I - Sacramento Kings home from 1985 to 1988. I believe its now a call centre. Salt Palace - Utah Jazz home from 1979 to 1991. I believe it was actually a convention centre. Why couldn't the Jazz share the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus? Miami Arena - Like Milwaukee, had a short life as an arena (also the southernmost venue where the Stanley Cup was presented in the NHL) The domed stadium era (Kingdome, Silverdome, Superdome, SkyDome, Alamodome) Cobo Arena - horseshoe shaped seating arrangement and hard to find pictures of its interior Buffalo Memorial Auditorium - better hockey arena but that's a stretch I'm sure there are more but that's what I have come up with at this time.
Will never understand the Bradley Center hate , I went to many a game there and always thought it was an excellent arena ; we actually still have the old “ Milwaukee arena” ( renamed panther arena for UWM) standing , talk about an arena that literally didn’t have a bad seat in it ! Would be great to see a video of these old arenas like Milwaukee’s that are still being used , keep up the great content Bro….
I'm surprised you didn't mention Baltimore's CFG Bank Arena (former home of the Bullets (now Wizards) which has been standing for 60+ years The fugly box is such an eyesore IMHO (FYI Baltimorean here)
Say what you want about Oracle but it was a great place to watch a game and boy was it loud. That’s why it was affectionately known as ‘Roaracle’. I guess I’m old fashion and I know it sounds crazy these days, but I actually used to go to games to watch the game. I never gave a thought to what the stadium or arena looked like, for me, the game was the star, until millennials started telling me I had to care about all the amenities.
Check out some photos of the old arena in Atlanta, The Omni. It was hideous and leaked terribly because it was designed to “rust seal” on the the roof.
Arco Arena as I remember it as aka Sleep train yes it wasn’t much to look at and became outdated early in its life span but back in the early 2000’s when the Kings were a championship contender nobody cared about that we packed the building and created a college life environment and a great home court advantage. It was a fun place to watch games. G1C of course is fantastic and was needed for my Kings but us Kings fans still enjoyed games in the old barn. Fun fact Sleep train was the second Arena in Sacramento Arco 1 was a 10,000 seat capacity building nearby in Natomas that building is still standing and got converted to a State Agency building. Arco 2 or Sleep Train has been demolished not sure what will be built in its place there is still a concrete shell next to the arena where a multi purpose stadium was to be built to try to get the A’s and Raiders to Sacramento. Now of course the A’s will play in our minor league stadium for the next 3 years. What could have been though in the early 90’s Kings Raiders and A’s all playing next to each other.
I've been going to Wells Fargo center for forever, and yeah it's terrible. A real shame since Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field are both great, but WFC brings down the average
Sleep train, Amway Arena and the bradley center were both completed in the late 80s. Alaska also has an arena made in the 80s and it's exterior looks like a library. Stadium design in the 60s to early 90s were pretty bad with exception to the ones that are still in use.
OK, at 8:58 you start talking about the Cavs old arena, Richfield Coliseum, not Richmond Coliseum. You also show a short picture of Bojangles Coliseum in Charlotte, then start showing pictures of some other old arena that is not Richfield. The Cavs left Richfield in the mid 1990s and the arena was torn down a few years later. That area is now just a field of grass near the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Whichever arena you were showing instead of Richfield, does look bad though.
Sacramento comment… Arco arena aka sleep train yes was a dump. Was built in the 80s on the cheap and I mean cheap. It was built in a time before the nba exploded with micheal Jordan and what the nba is today. It was outdated just a few years after it was built. It’s location in north natomas looked like a giant barn. If you’ve ever been to Sac you’re driving through nothing but farm land so it was fitting. From a fan standpoint, because it was also one of the smallest arenas it was actually a great place to actually watch a game. It’s small design put you right in the action. It was extremely loud as I believe still it holds the record for the loudest crowd decimal in recorded history. The concourse was terrible, bathroom situation was terrible but it’s hard to forget how good it was at actually viewing the game. Golden1 is great but doesn’t come close to the setting position and atmosphere old arco had!
richmond was for the university of richmond you were meaning the richfield colisuem which was outside of cleveland and it was a square shaped building it was torn down in the 1990's shortly after the cavs moved to gund arena/rocket mortgage fieldhouse
I'm surprised the Omni Coliseum wasn't in this video. They were still playing games there while there were massive holes rusted through the exterior walls that fans could walk through to get in without a ticket.
I hate to break it to you, but the Cavilers never played at the Richmond Coliseum, you're thinking of the Richfield Coliseum. Most of the pictures you showed were of the Richmond Coliseum, in Richmond, Virgina.
How fitting: the original ARCO Arena, where the Kings played from 1985-1988 (essentially a warehouse with grandstands built inside as a stopgap until what later became known as Sleep Train Arena was completed), was converted into a government office building after the team moved out.
Richmond coliseum? 😂 Cleveland Cavs never played in Richmond, Virginia. The Cavs played at the Richfield coliseum from the 70s until 1993 but it didn't look like that. Come on bro!
Hey, if gonna do info videos,at least get it right. Actually look up to see what the Richfield Coliseum looked like. I have no clue what arena you showed,but it sure wasn’t Richfield. Do better
@@elingtonmarshall5377 Exactly. The logos don’t mean everything and shouldn’t be dealbreakers on scoreboard presentation. Sure, it can be a bonus for some setups but other times if anything they can actually make it look worse than without the logos.
