The Georgetown men’s basketball team played at McDonough Gymnasium Tuesday because of a scheduling conflict with the Verizon Center. The basketball game was the first at McDonough since December 2009. Georgetown does not anticipate playing another at the gymnasium in the near future.
The game, part of the National Invitation Tournament, was not played at Verizon, the usual arena for the Hoyas’ home games, because of the spontaneity of NIT scheduling. McDonough was filled to capacity with 2,133 fans packing the stands, in comparison to Verizon’s capacity of 18,000 seats. Students were given free tickets at the door while non-student seating was restricted because of space concerns.
Both fans and team members noted the smaller arena created a louder environment.
“The smaller arena trapped in the noise, leading to the earsplitting volume that persisted for pretty much the entire game,” Hoya Blue President Joe Fiorica (COL ‘14) wrote in an email to the Voice. “The game atmosphere was electric. In my four years here, I can only think of a handful of games that were more raucous and loud as this game was.”
Although McDonough is more convenient to access for students, according to Georgetown men’s basketball Head Coach John Thompson III, finances play a large role in the decision to not play games there. Games at the Verizon Center, where tickets are higher in price and can be sold in greater quantity, bring the University greater revenue.
“In this day and age, it would be grossly negligent to neglect the financial aspect. It’s such a part of the equation, that I don’t think you can’t completely answer the question without that chunk,” Thompson said.
There will be no more home games this season as the next NIT game will be in Tallahassee and potential later round matchups will take place at a neutral site. In the future, all men’s home games will continue to be hosted at Verizon.
“People, like myself, who have been to many, many games here, get nostalgic and say ‘hey, we should do that,’ but at the end of the day, we have some financial responsibility and as much as this is a great environment. … Playing here, we could lose a lot of money that we could gain on a badly attended day at the Verizon Center,” Thompson said.
