Unfortunately, the hated Michigan Wolverines slaughtered my Notre Dame Fighting Irish women's team in the basketball game I saw here last weekend. As this is the home arena of the Wayne State University basketball teams and the NBA G League's Motor City Cruise, this was technically a neutral-site game even though the vast majority of fans were wearing Michigan blue because of Detroit's proximity to Ann Arbor.
It's a beautiful little arena that looks brand new. It has the old-fashioned basketball-gym design: You walk in on one end, and the court is front of you, with bleachers on both sidelines but no seating on the opposite baseline. It's more modern and comfortable, however, because instead of walking along the court and then up the bleachers to your seat, you enter above the court and walk down to your seat. The court itself is below ground level. There's also seating behind the closer baseline, as well as what look like VIP "boxes" (really more like corrals) with cocktail tables at the two corners. There's no scoreboard hanging from the ceiling. The large scoreboard is on the back wall, behind the baseline without seating. It's a huge screen, and I was hoping they would should replays on it, but they mainly used it for the score, player stats, and in-game promotions during commercial breaks.
There are two sets of men's and women's restrooms (four total), one set on each side of the court near the entrance. There are also two concession stands, I believe. Parking is plentiful in the lot, but it's $10. (I believe it's card-only.) We saw some people parking on the street outside the parking lot, but we didn't see how limited or legal that parking was. I only had bottled water that my brother paid for, but the prices for food and drinks didn't look too high.
It's a cozy place to watch a basketball game. It only seats about 3,000, so most seats have a very good view. And because of the unique way of entering from above your seat, you're not bothering anyone if you happen to be walking to your seat after the game has started; you can wait at the top and actually see everything while waiting for a break in the action.
The only glaring mistake they made is not installing cup holders. Otherwise, it's a really neat place to catch a game. read more