Arena #159: Bender Arena - American vs. Boston

For the 11^th and final game on my trip, I visited Bender Arena on the west side of Washington, DC for a Patriot League matchup between the American University Eagles and the Boston University Terriers.  Bender Arena served as Arena #159 and my second of four venues within the District of Columbia.  When I go to these games, there’s 3 things I usually try to collect to remember my visit by: a ticket stub, a program, and a souvenir cup.  Now obviously a lot of the smaller schools have very minimal concession stands so souvenir cups aren’t very prevalent outside of bigger schools, but usually programs and ticket stubs are pretty easy to come by.  Disappointingly, I was unable to secure either of those items for the first time in 159 stops at American U as there were no programs being sold and even though I ordered a ticket online for will call pickup so I would get a ticket stub, I was instead told I had to use an e-ticket they sent me with my order, which to me defeats the whole purpose of ordering a ticket for will call.

Beyond that, the layout inside Bender Arena is a bit interesting in that while the building is basically a big giant box for multi-purpose use, they utilize temporary bleachers on all four sides of the court when a game is being played, which makes the sight lines a little odd, especially if you’re forced to watch from the baseline seats, which wasn’t necessary in this game given the crowd numbered in the hundreds, not even close to the capacity of the building.  Sadly, I had to leave this game a little early to make sure I had time to get to the airport to head home, but for the 28 minutes or so of action that I did see, the game was quite competitive as evidenced by the 41-40 American lead when I had to depart at the Under 12 timeout of the second half.  American ultimately won the game by 4 to defend their home court in this contest.

Entrance to Bender Arena on the campus of American University

Inside Bender Arena early in the contest between the American Eagles and Boston Terriers 

American and Boston fighting for a rebound

Boston with a baby hook in the lane