Speaking of seats, there are plenty of new ones as well — padded, blue seats throughout the entire lower bowl, about 8,000 in all. Seating capacity at the 44-year-old building that was once the largest on-campus arena in all of college basketball is now 18,967, down from 20,900 when the first phase of renovation was completed in 2012 and from 22,700 when the Marriott Center was almost all bench seating for most of its existence.
The latest renovation project, announced last February in conjunction with plans to build a basketball practice facility on the east side of the Marriott Center, was completed in early August, just in time for summer commencement exercises.