Bartow Arena

Bartow Arena is the on-campus home of the UAB Blazers men's and women's basketball teams in Birmingham, Alabama. It hosts the Blazers in a roughly 8,500-seat facility that anchors UAB athletics in the American Athletic Conference. The arena's classic, steep-sided bowl gives fans a close view of the action, and it has long served as one of Birmingham's key college-sports venues. Beyond basketball, the building hosts UAB volleyball and various campus and community events.

The arena is named for Gene Bartow, UAB's founding athletic director and basketball coach, who built the program from the ground up after the university fielded its first team in the 1970s. It opened in December 1988, giving the Blazers a dedicated on-campus home after years of playing at other Birmingham venues. Bartow's teams and their successors used the arena to establish UAB as a consistent NCAA tournament contender through the 1990s and 2000s. It remains the symbolic heart of UAB basketball, undergoing renovation investment in the 2020s to keep the facility competitive.