South Carolina women's basketball: The ten year anniversary of the last game at Carolina Coliseum
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Colonial Life Arena has been the home to South Carolin basketball for 20 seasons. On January 17, men’s basketball hosts Ole Miss, the 687th men’s or women’s home game during those 20 seasons. Colonial Life Arena hosted 686 of those games.
Ten years ago, on January 17, 2013, South Carolina and LSU took the court for a Thursday night game at the Carolina Coliseum.
The idea of playing occasional “throwback” games at the Coliseum had occasionally been floated. So too had the idea of playing women’s games there full-time, to accommodate the smaller fanbase. (Yes, it was a different time – ten years doesn’t sound like a long time until you start trying to gather information from that game.)
It wasn’t nostalgia or atmosphere that caused the venue change, however. It was a concert.
Miranda Lambert and Dierks Bentley wanted to kick off their 33-date “Locked and Reloaded” tour the same night. The Gamecocks were coming off a Sweet 16 appearance and were floating around the lower end of the top 25 (they haven’t left the top 25 since). Their average attendance was 4,082, good for 26th in the country, but not good enough to bump Miranda Lambert.
So the Gamecocks had to relocate.
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Ten years ago, the Carolina Coliseum existed in a weird limbo. The 45-year-old building was still actively used, although it hadn’t hosted a sporting event since the Columbia Inferno suspended operations in 2008, and hadn’t hosted a basketball game in over 10 years, since March 21, 2002. The university was only minimally interested in arena upkeep since then, even for Inferno games. It seemed like nobody wanted to be there.
The classrooms were being phased out. It was the backup practice facility for the basketball teams. It seemed like every inch of it was covered in dust, and there was junk everywhere (I once opened a file cabinet in a corner of a hallway and found concert programs from the 1970s). (And yes, you could wander around opening random file cabinets because nothing was put into organized storage, including hundreds of boxes of unworn uniforms and shoes.)
It was like the Gamecocks had left the Coliseum, but not moved out.
Most in the media, and some fans, were excited about the game. Game day operations staff was not.
The original court (with its oh-so-2003 gradient paint job) and baskets from Colonial Life Arena had already been moved into the Coliseum, so that part was easy to set up. That was about the only easy thing.
Temporary concessions were set up, offering hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, and drinks. I recall nothing looked very appetizing.
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Temporary internet access had to be set up for the game. That was one of the most difficult tasks since it had to be wired from scratch. The media workroom was a converted concession area near the court.
Despite everything that could have gone wrong (and a few things that did, like malfunctioning scoreboards), the game went off without a hitch.
Ieasia Walker scored 24 points and Ashley Bruner had a double-double to lead #19 South Carolina to a 66-59 win over LSU. The Tigers were just a few years removed from appearing in five consecutive Final Fours, so beating LSU was an important stepping stone for the Gamecocks.
We in the media loved the game and wanted to do it again We were the only ones. Announced attendance was only 1,991, less than half the season average. Maybe the pull of nostalgia wasn’t as great as people thought. Combined with the effort required to get the Coliseum game-ready for one night, it probably hastened the plan to convert the Coliseum into a full-time practice facility.
The conversion was made in 2014. Later, the men’s basketball offices were moved in, along with a weight room and other facilities. That prolonged Carolina Coliseum’s useful life while benefitting the basketball programs, but its days of hosting games were officially over.
That became relevant in 2019. Colonial Life Arena hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s tournament. That meant the women’s team, which had earned the right to host, had nowhere to play. With the Coliseum no longer an option, the Gamecocks ended up getting a waiver from the NCAA to “host” its games at Charlotte’s Halton Arena.
