Ryan Center

February 12, 2011
Thomas M. Ryan Center (Capacity: 7,657)
Kingston, RI
Rhode Island Rams vs Charlotte 49ers
Final Score: 71 – 70 (OT)

.

My second trip to the Ocean State brought me down to the southern part of Rhode Island on a Saturday Afternoon. Kingston is the home of the University of Rhode Island, a state university with about 14,000 students. URI is known to be a very good and popular school for nursing and engineering, while also conducting a lot of marine research. Kingston meanwhile, is a small village (population ~5,400) located within the larger town of South Kingstown. Most of the college town feel of the area comes from Wakefield, just a few miles away. Rhode Island Rams basketball has been good the last few years, however their last NCAA appearance was in 1999, when they were in the midst of the team’s best two-year stretch (led by Lamar Odom) as the year before they reached the Elite Eight. After nearly 50 years in tiny Keaney Gym, they moved next door to the gorgeous Ryan Center in 2002. It has provided a great home court advantage and it is a beautiful arena.
Prestige Ranking: 3.5 out of 5

Location

URI sits in an open, relatively rural spot in Kingston. The arena is on the west side of campus with all of the other athletic facilities. Kingston doesn’t have too much to offer and you have to go 3 miles south for the closest town (Wakefield), which has a Main Street featuring some local dining establishments, along with a couple larger shopping centers. Scenic Narragansett along the ocean is about 15 minutes to the southeast, but it’s not really a popular spot during basketball season.
Location Ranking: 3.5 out of 10

Accessibility / Parking

Though it’s a good distance from I-95, the arena is easy to get to using Route 138 from the West, or arriving from the North using the highway-like Rt. 4 / Rt. 1. Parking is simple too as there is a lot right off of Rt. 138, though most fans seemed to go into the main campus entrance and use the Plains Road lot. Will-call ticket windows are only available on this side of the building and beware that you can’t really walk around the arena if you enter from the south gate (a mistake I made). Everything was well signed and directed, plus there was no traffic coming in, while traffic going out was busy on the two-lane roads, but smooth.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7 out of 8

Exterior

A beautiful design greets fans as they arrive from the North entrance. The Ryan Center features a light-colored brick at the bottom and a normal colored-brick at the top, while the ceiling and awnings are sea-green. Three of the corners were designed to invoke Rhode Island lighthouses and though that didn’t come to my mind when I saw them, it still was a nice design with a glass-window like structure at the top. Box office windows are located outside (not fun when its windy and cold) and just above the doors to the entrance it says “North Lobby” with “Thomas M. Ryan Center” written above that. The South entrance has a fine look to it as well. The arena’s shape is a little irregular because it is attached to other buildings within the athletic complex. Also, one of the sides serves as a back to the West stands of Meade Stadium, the University’s football field.
Exterior Ranking: 8.5 out of 10

Concourse

Inside the main doors is a small foyer that gets tight when everyone is arriving. The wall straight ahead features a mural of the people/companies that likely have donated and helped out the program. After passing either the “Rams Zone” team store or a concession stand, there are three “towers” that spiral around stairs bringing you up to the main concourse which circles much of the building. It’s a beautiful concourse, most of which is open to large windows allowing for full views of the outside, including the football stadium. It’s unusually pretty and has a beach feel to it as walls are painted tan, reddish-brown and sea green, along with full carpeting. There’s even a section that opens up for a corner view of the game (but ushers won’t allow fans to stay there).
Concourse Ranking: 4 out of 5

Food

Multiple stands around the arena had the usual assortment of stadium food. There were chicken sandwiches to go along with chicken strips and you could combo those with Fries. A concession area specializing in sweet stuff was the main draw as you could get fried dough & gourmet apples here
Food Ranking: 5 out of 8

Interior

I thought the seating bowl and design was terrific at the Ryan Center as it was unique, intimate and appealing. The shape is in a rectangular octagon, but with a twist. One of the corners features an open area where fans walk through the concourse and this is set at the same level of the 2nd deck of seats (underneath is a wall). It’s a great vantage point to watch the game (but you can’t stay there for some reason). All of the dark blue seats are individuals with backs and there are three levels for the building. The 100s are a small telescopic set and sections have gaps in all of the corners. 200s wrap around most of the arena, while the 300s are a steep upper-deck that rises high over the middle section and they also hang over the first couple rows of the 200s. Suites are at the top of the building and only on one side, ensuring that all the other seats are as close as could be. I didn’t like the huge circular pipes surrounding the ceiling, but these are only truly noticeable if sitting at the top of the arena. Also, lighting was on the dim side. Concrete is the setting for the arena and overall, I really liked the design and set-up.
Interior Ranking: 13 out of 14

Scoreboard

Located on the corner wall is the main scoreboard as there is nothing that hangs over the center. This main board is quite large and it features game information at the bottom, video in the middle and player points/fouls on the sides (ads are further on the sides). The video could be bigger and clearer, but it suffices. At the top, “University of Rhode Island” is spelled out, along with a small Ram logo in between “of” and “Rhode”. For those with end seats on the one side that may struggle to see the board, there is another scoreboard in the far corner on the other side of the arena. This one is so high up that it’s hard to see and can get obstructed by the pipes. It also has video, along with box score and player info.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2.5 out of 4

Displays

Upon entering the main foyer, the wall straight ahead features new inductees to the University of Rhode Island Athletic Hall of Fame. Also, throughout the rest of the concourse, each HOF class is displayed in the form of pictures. URI did a nice job with their banners inside the arena as they had a pleasing look to them. Each individual NCAA appearance (Men’s and Women’s) is lucky enough to have its own honor, complete with the year on it, along with how far the team advanced. One other banner has the years of the NIT appearances. Another set of plain, white banners is reserved for “The Stars of the Ryan Center”, which lists various acts that have performed there. Three retired numbers sit in the rafters and there’s only one for Men’s basketball and that one belongs to #3 Ernie Calverley. We could’ve use some URI basketball history, but the rest of the displays besides that missing piece were good.
Displays Ranking: 3 out of 6

Cost

This was a reasonable game with free parking and programs. Tickets were between $11 and $22, however the side seats in the 100s and 200s were $30, which is kind of pricey for the A-10 and on par with programs that are more elite and popular (like Temple and Xavier). There is also a $5 increase for three premium games on the schedule in 2010-2011. Concession prices included $3 for a 16oz soda, $3.25 for a hot dog and $6.75 for a cheeseburger and chips.
Cost Ranking: 7 out of 8

Fan Support

Through this season, the team is averaging around 4,800 per game and that’s down a bit as the last few years they’ve been over 5,000. That is a little better than average for the A-10 and rankings-wise, they do pretty well and comparable favorably to other similar A-10 teams like UMass. This state certainly leans more towards Providence College when it comes to hoops, but that does not mean that URI lacks support. For this Saturday Afternoon game I saw, the crowd was decent as 60-70% of the building was filled.
Fan Support Ranking: 5.5 out of 8

Atmosphere

After a very lackluster showing by the crowd in the first half, the atmosphere improved as the game went on. URI playing awful did not help, however I found it terrible that fans were booing their team when shots weren’t going in. Not cool to boo college kids because they can’t make a shot. The lack of energy in the crowd can also be attributed to the weak student section, which numbered very few, even though they were trying to make noise. All the other students (pretty much wearing fraternity and sorority sweatshirts instead of school stuff) sat on their hands and made no effort to get into it, even when the game got exciting. As the proceedings got more interesting, the rest of the fans were more into it and many stood after made shots and big plays. Crowd noise escalated and it was downright loud at times, as it became a fine place to watch a game. URI is very tough at home with a 97-40 record, since the arena opened. Most of the chants just came from the student section and they consisted of “U-R-I…clap” and “Let’s go Rhody”.
Atmosphere Ranking: 8.5 out of 14

Other Stuff

An interesting tidbit about URI basketball is how remarkably similar they are to the University of North Carolina. From the colors, to the mascot, to even the fight song, the similarities are striking. Give the fight song a listen and if you are from ACC country, see if it’s familiar.

Game

The game was incredible with one of the best finishes I’ve ever seen. It started terribly for URI as they shot just 32.1% in the first half. However, a little 5-0 run just before halftime cut the Charlotte lead to 32-23. The 49ers continued to shoot very well in the second half and eventually went up by 17, before Rhody turned it on and ripped a 13-0 run complete with threes, turnovers and alley-oops. After taking a brief lead, the game went back and forth. The Rams held the lead in the final minute, but sloppy play including two turnovers allowed Charlotte to have a chance to tie it 14 seconds left. Chris Braswell got fouled and made both free throws to send the game to overtime. A close extra session featured Charlotte hanging onto the lead nearly the entire time. With under a minute left and Rhody down three, a frantic possession eventually saw them get a layup with 12 seconds left to cut the lead to 70-69. They then were able to trap the player receiving the inbounds pass and force a tie-up with the possession arrow to URI. After a missed layup went out of bounds, the Rams had 3 seconds left and an Akeem Richmond three missed long, but Jamal Wilson got the put back layup just before the buzzer sounded and URI won! Star forward Delroy James only had 8 points and fouled out, while Marquis Jones had 10 assists.

Stadium Experience Ranking: 71 out of 100