The Thunderdome

The Thunderdome is the home arena of the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos basketball teams in Santa Barbara, California. The Events Center is known for one of the loudest crowd atmospheres in the Big West, with a compact bowl of around 6,000 seats that keeps students right on top of the court.

Built in 1979 as the Campus Events Center, the arena earned its nickname after UCSB — led by future Laker Brian Shaw — upset Jim Valvano's North Carolina State team by double digits in 1987 in front of a sellout crowd. The raucous student section has made it a notoriously tough environment for visiting teams in Gauchos basketball ever since.