Thunderdome
Encyclopedia
UC Santa Barbara Events Center, originally known as Campus Events Center and now most commonly known as The Thunderdome, is a 5,600-seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium
Multi-purpose stadium
Multi-purpose stadiums are a type of stadium designed in such a way as to be easily used by multiple sports. While any stadium could potentially host more than one sport, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy that stresses multi-functionality over specificity...

 on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...

 in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

History

The Thunderdome was built in 1979, originally under the name of Campus Events Center. Along with Harder Stadium
Harder Stadium
Harder Stadium is a 17,000 seat, outdoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California. It serves as the on-campus soccer stadium for both the men's and women's programs...

, it has since become one of the most patronized venues at UC Santa Barbara. After a naming contest and vote among students and faculty (which included some tongue in cheek nominations such as "Yankee Stadium", the Jerry Brown Arena, the Corrugated Fortress), it was eventually given the generic name "Campus Events Center". Eventually, the name was unofficially shorted to the "ECen" (much like UCSB's University Center being called the "UCen").

For basketball, the stadium seats 5,600. Other configurations result in differing capacities, most notably 5,814 as a maximum (for boxing or wrestling) or 3,584 to 4,848 for concerts. Currently, the 5,600 seat stadium is the third largest arena in the Big West Conference
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference is an NCAA-affiliated Division I mid-major college athletic conference. When the conference began in 1969, its name was the Pacific Coast Athletic Association . After nineteen years, in 1988, its name was changed to the Big West Conference. The conference stopped...

, behind the 8,000-seat UC Davis Pavilion and the University of the Pacific's 6,150-seat Alex G. Spanos Center
Alex G. Spanos Center
Alex G. Spanos Center is a 6,150-seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.The Alex G. Spanos Center opened on 9 September 1981 and was constructed for over $7 million dollars. It is named after Pacific alumnus and San Diego Chargers...

.

Transformation into The Thunderdome

At first, crowds were small, but with the hiring of Jerry Pimm
Jerry Pimm
Jerry Pimm is a men's basketball coach who is best remembered for coaching at the University of Utah from 1974–1983 and the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1983-1998....

 in 1983, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball program began to experience greater success. As the size of crowds began to increase (often exceeding the stated capacity), the Events Center became increasingly loud and hostile, creating significant problems for opposing teams.

After UCSB (led by future Laker Brian Shaw) upset Jim Valvano
Jim Valvano
James Thomas Anthony "Jim" Valvano , nicknamed Jimmy V, was an American college basketball coach.While the head basketball coach at North Carolina State University, he won the 1983 NCAA Basketball Tournament against high odds...

's North Carolina State Wolfpack
NC State Wolfpack men's basketball
The NC State Wolfpack men's basketball team represents North Carolina State University in NCAA Division I men's basketball competition. The Wolfpack currently competes in the Atlantic Coast Conference, of which it was a founding member....

 team by double digits in 1987 before a sellout crowd, the raucous atmosphere had transformed "The Events Center" into "The Thunderdome". Credit has been given to the Athletic Director at that time, Stan Morrison, for having coined the nickname. Also many believe it was further reinforced from Valvano himself when he said in a postgame interview, "It was louder than thunder in there tonight."

Quotes about The Thunderdome

The Tortilla Technical

In the early 1990s, it became customary for the students to toss tortilla
Tortilla
In Mexico and Central America, a tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flat bread, made from finely ground maize...

s onto the court like frisbees after the first UCSB basket of the game. The team would then be assessed a technical foul for delay of game while the tortillas were cleaned up, which became infamously known as the "Tortilla Technical." Despite continued pleading from the players and coaches to stop the practice, students continued the behavior.

During a game televised by ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

, tortilla fragments got into one of ESPN's professional video camera
Professional video camera
A professional video camera is a high-end device for creating electronic moving images...

s. The school had to purchase a replacement for the network. The school established a policy of searching students for tortillas as they entered the arena and eventually the novelty wore off. While the tortillas have stopped flying at The Thunderdome, raucous students have brought the practice to Harder Stadium
Harder Stadium
Harder Stadium is a 17,000 seat, outdoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California. It serves as the on-campus soccer stadium for both the men's and women's programs...

, home of the 2006 NCAA champion UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's soccer team where no such penalties are enforced.

UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletics

The Thunderdome is the home to teams of the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos athletic program. Currently, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos men's basketball and UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's basketball teams, as well as the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos women's volleyball team all call The Thunderdome home. In 2002, 2,794 fans attended a women's volleyball match between UCSB and the USC Trojans in which the 9th ranked Gauchos upset USC 3 games to 1.

Other events

The facility also hosted and the first and second round games of the 2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2004 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament began on March 20, 2004 and concluded on April 6, 2004 when Connecticut won a third consecutive national championship, becoming only the second school in history to accomplish such a feat. The Final Four was held at the New Orleans Arena in...

. In addition to sporting events, The Thunderdome has seen many concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...

s, boxing
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 matches, and performances come through.

Dave Chappelle
Dave Chappelle
David Khari Webber "Dave" Chappelle is an American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist. Chappelle began his film career in the film Robin Hood: Men in Tights in 1993 and continued to star in minor roles in the films The Nutty Professor, Con Air, and Blue Streak. His...

 performed comedy on 02 June 2004, while The Killers played at The Thunderdome on 6 April 2007 and the Harlem Globetrotters
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...

 played an exhibition game on 15 February 2007.

Katy Perry
Katy Perry
Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by Christian pastor parents, Perry grew up listening to only gospel music and sang in her local church as a child. After earning a GED during her first year of high school, she began to pursue a...

 will have her homecoming concert at the Thunderdome in 2011, as part of her California Dreams Tour
California Dreams Tour
California Dreams Tour is the second concert tour by American pop singer Katy Perry, in support of her third studio album Teenage Dream. Beginning February 2011, the tour will visit Europe, Australasia, Asia and the Americas...

. Perry is a Santa Barbara native.

External links

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