Auburn’s new basketball arena has some curious sightlines

Some of the worst college basketball arenas you’ll ever step into just so happen to be in the SEC.  With the exception of Kentucky and Arkansas, most schools in the league have a football palace sitting next to a basketball coal pit.  That distinction pretty much sums up where the SEC’s priorities lie.

Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum is an ode to all the worst aspects of 60’s architecture.  Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena is so vast and cavernous that it borders on being too vast and cavernous.  And don’t get me started with the circular seating arrangement of the Tad Smith Coliseum at Ole Miss.  There, the guy in the front row at halfcourt ends up about 30 feet further back from the action than the guy in the front row on the baseline.  Huh?

Auburn’s Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum was right there with the rest of them.  The facility wasn’t quite as bad as the basement dungeon set up by Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of the Lambs,” but the fortunes of the Auburn men’s basketball team could make it seem just as depressing.

That’s all changed now with the construction of a new building across the street.  The Auburn Arena features every bell and whistle that Beard-Eaves lacked:  New practice facilities with all the trimmings?  Check.  Killer locker rooms?  Check.  A concession area devoted solely to the student section?  Check.   A more intimate feel?  Check.  Better sight lines?  Well, uh, not so much of a check.

Oh, the vast majority of the seats are designed to be as close to the action as possible (think Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena).  But there are a few seats that aren’t exactly prime:

I can’t tell for sure what section number that is or if those seats will even remain in place once the season starts.  What I can tell you is this: I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be sitting there.