December 18, 2011
Christl Arena (Capacity: 5,043)
West Point, NY
Army Black Knights vs Texas Pan-American Broncos
Final Score: 61 – 59
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A week before Christmas, it was up to West Point to visit Army’s basketball arena on a quiet campus with all the Cadets departed for holiday break. The United States Military Academy in West Point certainly is a unique place as the very selective four-year service academy is a national landmark filled with historical sites, monuments and buildings. The curriculum consists of academics, military and athletics as Cadets fulfill “Duty, Honor, Country”. Army basketball features a couple prominent names: Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski. Both coached here in the 60s and 70s and Krzyzewski was also a graduate. Unfortunately, neither led the team to the NCAA tournament, something the Black Knights are still trying to do for the first time. In fact, it has been 26 years since Army had a winning record. Home games are played in Christl Arena, which is part of the Holleder Center, built in 1985. The seating is simple inside, but the honors and displays on the concourse walls are impressive.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Location
West Point is about 50 miles north of New York City, located appropriately on a western point of the Hudson River. All of the campus grounds essentially are within West Point, while the closest “town” is that of Highland Falls, which is adjacent to the south. This tiny village of 3,600 has a main street with a few small, older eateries and we at Schade’s for a good lunch. The village also houses the USMA Visitors Center and the West Point Museum. In addition, visitors can sign up for an hour-long tour of campus as the $17 price tag is well worth it and it is the only way to get a look at the historic grounds.
Location Ranking: 6.5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Getting to the hilly area is a bit of a chore as it is located off of US-9W. The Palisades Parkway and I-87 provide the closest access and the 15-minute ride from the highway had some awkward turning lanes. There are 3 gates into West Point and after a car check you can proceed into the area. The Stony Lonesome gate is the one to use for the basketball arena. Beware that there are no signs and nobody directing you and it takes some digging on the Army website to figure out what to do. A little research shows that the main parking lot is down the hill, right off of Stony Lonesome Road and directly across from the football stadium. There was enough parking in Lot A and Lot F for the crowd, however the exit/entrance is poorly designed, so expect it to take 5-10 minutes to leave after the game. There are plenty of stairs to navigate down to the arena, though handicap parking is available right near the building if needed.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 5 out of 8
Exterior
The complex fits in with most of the other unassuming buildings on the grounds, as it has a drab, concrete-gray appearance. It’s difficult to distinguish a shape, because there are two arenas inside. In the middle, where the two-story lobby is located, the words “Holleder Center” are written on the outside. A nice touch is a tall bronze statue dedicated to the Army athlete with a quote at the top by Douglas MacArthur.
Exterior Ranking: 4 out of 10
Concourse
Despite already climbing stairs from the outside to get into the entrance, fans arrive at the lowest level of the building, which is where the box office is. A couple more sets of stairs (with “Go Army” and “Black Knights” written boldly on the walls) lead you to a centralized area with concessions. To the right of the area is Christl Arena, while to the left is Tate Rink. Hallways go down the sides of the arena, with no access to the far end. Even though there is a cold look of concrete throughout, the gold/white/black paint goes a long way to adding character, as do the section signs and wall displays. Space isn’t an issue except if you need to get food at halftime as the lines are long. Bathrooms weren’t as bad, despite the difficulty in finding one as they were poorly marked. Lastly, to get into the actual arena from the hallway, you have to open a door. I never understood when buildings do this because it causes congestion and confusion, plus the tinted windows make it harder to see if someone is coming.
Concourse Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Food
The circular area that serves as the middle for both arenas is full of protrusions, mostly for food stands. Items are generally basic and they at least contains grilled fare like burgers, fries, sausages and cheesesteaks.
Food Ranking: 2.5 out of 8
Interior
Inside is a fairly straight-forward arena with seating predominately on the sides. It is one flat level of seats, set in concrete that is very steep and goes up pretty high, nearly to the ceiling. I like the view offered because of that steep pitch. About halfway up the seating bowl, dark gray and gold chairbacks give way to wooden bleachers. It looks like there should be bleachers that extend down to the floor, but these were not up during my visit. On the ends, there are two pullout bleachers that sit on the floor and go back about 10 rows, before meeting the close-by wall. Yellow piping fills much of the ceiling. There’s a cold feel to the place and while it’s not the most comfortable, sightlines are good.
Interior Ranking: 6.5 out of 14
Scoreboard
There are two simple scoreboards on the end walls. One just shows the basic game information, while the other has that, along with foul and point information for each teams’ starters. Above each scoreboard are Army sports logos painted on the walls.
Scoreboard Ranking: 1 out of 4
Displays
What really makes Christl Arena stand out are the numerous and varied amount of honors displayed on the walls, along with old pictures. On the basketball side, there are two plaques for Bob Knight and Mike Krzyzewski. Although both are accomplished, Army makes sure that these plaques do not stand out any more than the others. Those with honors include John Roosa, Edward Charles Christl Jr., each season’s athletic team captains and varsity athletes who get an Army “A”. There are others around too and it helps to reinforce the quality of person it takes to attend and compete at the academy. There is also a great display case for Don Holleder and his accomplishments. Inside the arena, banners are located on the end walls. For the men, an NIT banner shows the years for each appearance. In the 20 years, the Black Knights have competed in the Patriot League, they have yet to win the regular season or tournament. The Women also have banners on the other side, including a Coach of the Year one for the late Maggie Dixon.
Displays Ranking: 4.5 out of 6
Cost
With free parking and programs to go along with $6 tickets, the price is as good as it gets. Concessions feature a hot dog is $3, candy is $2 and a regular coke is $3.
Cost Ranking: 8 out of 8
Fan Support
The game we attended was after finals and the Cadets went home on break. Announced attendance was a measly 537 (with actual fans probably half that), which sadly was a season high in their fifth home game. Patriot League games pick up a little bit with crowds generally doubled. That puts Army often 7th out of 8th in the conference rankings. There is one game where the atmosphere and attendance is boosted ten-fold and that of course is when they play Navy. That game is sold out in what I am sure is a great place to watch basketball.
Fan Support Ranking: 2.5 out of 8
Atmosphere
It was no surprise that the sparse attendance led to a paltry atmosphere. A missing pep band didn’t help either. It’s a shame because the building’s acoustics are impressive and the general noise was loud enough where I had to talk at an elevated level.
Atmosphere Ranking: 4 out of 14
Other Stuff
Someone saw me reading at the Holleder display case and a staff member came over to share some stories about that great man. It’s great when you encounter somebody doing more than their job…..As mentioned before the Holleder Center also contains Tate Rink, home to Army hockey. The surrounding concourse features many honors for hockey as well…..One boo does go out to the awful t-shirts that were thrown after a made 3-pointer. I caught one (only my second such occurrence) and was looking forward to unraveling a Black Knights logo-ed shirt, only to find “T3” written on the front. What the?
Game
Army controlled much of this game with several backdoor scoring plays and through the second half they maintained an 8 to 14 point lead. All signs pointed to a ho-hum victory. Ella Ellis had a great game with 25 points, but he fouled out on a bad call with 4:50 left. The Knights were up 61-48 at this point and would not score again. UTPA slowly cut into the lead and as the game was coming to an end, another Army miss gave the Broncos a chance to win it with less than 10 seconds left. Brandon Provost missed what would have been a likely winning basket and the Knights got the rebound to barely hang on for the win. Jason Pancoe had 5 assists for Army.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
