Fairfield hasn’t made an NCAA Tournament appearance since 1997 and has never finished a season in the top 100 of KenPom. Heck, Fairfield hasn’t even had an above .500 record in MAAC play since 2017.
Still, there’s a ton of optimism around this program, and I’ll show you the reason, or rather, the $51 million reasons, why the Stags program is on the rise.
Like many in the northeast, the Stags moved their home games (or at least many of them), out of their on-campus venue, and into an arena seen as a more glamorous site. For about two decades, Fairfield played most of their home games in Bridgeport, at Webster Bank (now Total Mortgage) Arena. However, if you know anything about Bridgeport, you know that it’s anything but glamorous. The Stags maintained good attendance numbers during Ed Cooley’s tenure, but never really filled up the building. When the standard of the team dipped, the attendance did as well, and students were no longer willing to make the journey for the games.
Through generous donations, the Stags constructed a state-of-the-art facility on campus, and after years of waiting, the $51 million, 3,500-seat, on-campus Leo D. Mahoney Arena played host to its first men’s basketball game last Saturday night.
Here’s what you need to know:
The first thing that jumps out when you look at the arena is the center-hung jumbotron, with four screens, as well as a cylindrical ticker-like screen under it. It’s also easy to notice the screen that wraps around the entirety of the first deck, displaying scores and animations. Both of these types of screens are rare at this level. It’s the features like these, as well as the second level of seats, the modern concession stands, the broadcast control room, the entrance atrium, and the team shop, among many other things, that make Mahoney Arena live up to the title of an arena, rather than just a gym where college basketball is played.
Speaking of those concession stands, here’s what you can expect to find there…
- For $3.99, you can get yourself a pretty standard boiled hot dog. While it’s not a hot dog that you’ll go home raving about, it’s certainly in the upper tier of the dogs that I’ve had at mid-major basketball arenas, at a price point that’s pretty similar to most hot dogs you’ll find at college basketball games.
- For $4.99,…
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