Where's the best place to watch a game? Star staffers love the comforts of home, and a few road venues

During the coronavirus shutdown, Arizona Daily Star staffers and contributors are answering burning sports questions.

Today’s question: What’s the best place to watch a game, and why?

GREG HANSEN, sports columnist

After watching Arizona play at Kansas’ Phog Allen Fieldhouse, I remember thinking “best place ever.”

After watching Arizona play at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium, I told people it was the best game-day experience possible.

But year after year, the one place I most looked forward to visiting was Oregon’s ancient Mac Court, a basketball arena built in 1923. Most of the time Arizona played at Mac Court, the Ducks weren’t very good. Yet about 9,500 fans squeezed into the triple-decker and made so much noise you’d have thought the Ducks were No. 1 and protecting their place in the Final Four.

Fans were so close to the court; they waited all year to give Lute Olson an earful. It was as old school as old school gets.

In 1981, when Oregon State was ranked No. 1 — I was working for a Corvallis newspaper — someone smuggled a duck into the building and let it fly while an OSU player was shooting a foul shot.

Oregon athletic department official Herb Yamanaka raced from his seat and tried to catch the duck, chasing it hopelessly as the crowd roared. When Yamanaka finally grabbed the duck, even stoic OSU coach Ralph Miller laughed.

Mac Court, I miss you.

BRUCE PASCOE, UA basketball reporter

Again, an impossible question to answer. I mean, I’ve been paid to go to the Lahaina Civic Center. Who gets to do that? But of the places I experience regularly, I’d go with Hec Edmundson Pavilion/Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. It’s a historic building with a modern interior and great sightlines. But the best thing about it is that students are allowed to sit entirely along the courtside behind the benches, unlike at many schools, and there are only tight entrances to the floor that allow fans to also heckle players as they walk through.

You don’t need steroidal amounts of piped-in music to create atmosphere there.

BRYAN ROSENBAUM, contributor

McKale Center, for a big game. Going to a live sporting event in 2020 is, for the most part, an underwhelming and disappointing experience. You’re more like a customer than a fan.

Some people will tell you, “oh, there’s nothing like being there” and I just roll my eyes. Better than my couch? I doubt it.

There are notable exceptions. Few environments anywhere match a big game at our own McKale Center. They don’t happen all the time — who gets excited about Cal State Fullerton on a Tuesday night in November? — but when they do, they’re loud.

There have been great games over the years to reflect on, but the loudest I’ve ever heard McKale was back in 2011: Derrick Williams blocked Darnell Gant’s shot at the buzzer and preserved an 87-86 win over Washington. The place sounded like a jet engine.

CAITLIN SCHMIDT, sports enterprise reporter

These days, my favorite place to watch a game is at McKale Center with my friends and family. I will never get tired of the thrill of watching NFL games in the RCA Dome, Qualcomm or University of Phoenix stadiums, but there’s something to be said for being at a hometown game with the people you care about the most.

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The older I get, the more I find myself drawn toward amateur sports. Because when you take away all the money, all you’re left with is heart. Even in college, these are kids just playing their hearts out, hoping for that slim chance to make it to the next level.

JUSTIN SPEARS, sports producer

I’m a homebody, so watching a game in the comfort of my own home is clutch. But it all depends on what type of food is on the menu at home.

Watching a game on a 70-inch TV with lemon pepper and hot chicken wings, maybe chicken tenders, jalapeño poppers, Sonoran hot dogs, potato skins, a nacho bar, root beer or cream soda and a dessert of choice is the ideal way to watch a game. Who’s hungry?

ALEC WHITE, sports producer

The best spot to watch a game is on the couch in the comfort of my home. Going to bars and restaurants can be fun, but oftentimes they opt to play music instead of the TV audio of the game and I end up spending too much money if I stay for too long. My home is stocked full of food and drink options, and my couch is quite comfortable.

The best venue I’ve been to for a game is Busch Stadium in St. Louis. It’s baseball heaven.

MICHAEL LEV, UA football and baseball reporter

I grew up attending games at two iconic Chicago venues: Wrigley Field and Chicago Stadium. But for this exercise, I’m going to pick two West Coast stadiums.

The first is Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. It’s on its fourth name since opening in 2000, but that doesn’t matter. The designers of this ballpark absolutely nailed it. It feels like an old-time park with all the modern amenities. The views are breathtaking. The outfield dimensions are delightfully quirky. Right field, with its bricks and odd angles and the possibility of hitting a home run into McCovey Cove, is a treasure.

My second choice is right here in Tucson — Hi Corbett Field. Man, do I miss that place right now — even though 95% of my trips to Hi C were for work. Although the games can last four hours or more, ask anyone who’s a regular attendee of Arizona baseball and they’ll tell you there’s no place they’d rather be. The park is just the right size. It’s been spruced up in recent years, yet it still feels quaint. And the sunsets! Every night, a gorgeous collage of colors frames the outfield wall. You can’t beat it.

PJ BROWN, contributor

I love Wrigley Field, Oracle Park, Dodger Stadium — for baseball — and Stanford Stadium for football. There isn’t a bad seat in the place. But, I think tops on the list is Rita Hillenbrand Stadium. I like being close to the action. Now that it’s been redesigned, I like the new seating in the infield, although I typically sit in the outfield bleachers when I’m not covering a game. Great fans, a great new scoreboard and I like having lights in the press box when I write during night games.

JOHN MCKELVEY, contributor

Nowadays? In my living room. But seriously, probably at the baseball park. There are a lot of good ones. Camden Yards at Oriole Park in Baltimore, Petco Park in San Diego, and even Chase Field can be great places to watch a game. Just make sure to get good seats (or move down in the later innings).

BRETT FERA, contributor

My heart says the press box at the Rose Bowl. My head says it’s my couch. Don’t get me wrong; Tucson has legitimate gems in McKale Center, Hillenbrand Stadium and Hi Corbett Field. And the day the “Fabulous Forum” in Inglewood, California, gets raised to rubble, I plan to be there to watch, cry and maybe try and steal a chunk of those concrete Roman-inspired columns.

But it’s 2020. And stadiums and arenas, for the most part, haven’t adapted fast enough to the creature comforts that come with being at home. A crystal-clear cable package on a giant screen; My own endless supply of eats; Comfortable padded seating. I can even lay down and watch. And, hey, a restroom all to myself is highly underappreciated, if you ask me. So, yeah, it’s blasphemous, but I’m having a hard time trading any of that for five hours in metal football bleachers or trying to fit my bigger-than-average frame into a typical upper-level arena seat.

RYAN FINLEY, sports editor

I’ve been at McKale Center 30 seconds before tipoff, Pauley Pavilion with the game on the line and in the rafters above Oregon’s Mac Court as the old wooden gym shook. I’ve been on the field at the Los Angeles Coliseum at the start of the fourth quarter, at Husky Stadium on a clear fall day and inside the Rose Bowl at kickoff on Jan. 1. I’ve leaned into Arizona Stadium’s press-box balcony at sunset and watched Cal’s “Tightwad Hill” come alive after a touchdown.

But the best place to watch a game? Give me the new Stanford Stadium. A $90 million renovation has turned the once-dumpy football facility into the pride of the Pac-12. Clear sightlines and elevated walkways allow fans to move around, talk, eat and drink without missing a play. In 2006, Stanford cut stadium capacity to give fans what people today call a “gameday experience.” Nearly 15 years later, teams throughout the Pac-12 — including UA — are following Stanford’s lead.