History of The Thunderdome
The Thunderdome was built in 1979, originally under the name of Campus Events Center. Along with Harder Stadium, 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, behind the 8,000-seat UC Davis Pavilion and the University of the Pacific's 6,150-seat Alex G. Spanos Center.
Read more about this topic: UC Santa Barbara Events Center
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