Arena May Be Site Of Two WSU Games

Washington State athletic director Rick Dickson is considering moving this season’s home basketball games against Southern California and defending national champion UCLA to the new Spokane Arena.

Dickson said there is a “90 percent chance” the Cougars’ Jan. 4 matchup against USC will be moved from Friel Court to the 12,000-seat Veterans’ Memorial Arena, which is to open in mid-September.

He added there is also a chance WSU will play its Jan. 6 afternoon game against UCLA at that site, even though the Spokane Chiefs have scheduled a hockey game against Tri-Cities in the Arena that night.

Dickson said the site changes are being considered because WSU students will be on Christmas break.

“I just think we could do better attendance-wise in Spokane than we could in Pullman with 18,000 students not around,” Dickson said, “especially with the USC game being a Thursday night game.”

Dickson said he thinks the Cougars still might be able to draw a decent crowd to Pullman for UCLA, but he refused to rule out a site change.

Arena manager Kevin Toohig said he is waiting to hear back from Dickson about the UCLA game, but said he saw no problem being able to hold a basketball game in the afternoon and a hockey game at night.

Dickson said neither game is scheduled to be televised, but added that situation could change.

He said he hopes to make a final decision on whether to move the games by the end of this month.

, DataTimes