Basketball is arguably the biggest sport in America right now and we’ve been able to see its growth over the years without a problem. At the end of the 1970s, the NBA finals weren’t even broadcast on television unless it was tape delayed. There’s no way that could happen now because of the interest from coast to coast and around the world. The NBA is now known as much for foreign players coming into the league as it is for the American players and there’s even talk about expanding the league to include parts of Europe and Asia. Those plans couldn’t possibly work for many years but the growth over the last 25 years is undoubtedly due to the interest and support of fans across the nation.

The days of the classic NBA stadiums are long gone and buildings like Boston Garden, the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles, and Reunion Arena in Dallas are no longer the style being used by NBA franchises. Nowadays, each stadium seemingly has a certain niche or characteristic that makes it stand out from its counterparts. The most notable of these characteristics would have to be the Memphis Grizzlies who play in the Pyramid, aptly named since it is actually the shape of a pyramid. The trend in the NBA seems to be one to limit population in each stadium in order to increase the amplitude and sound inside the building. The San Antonio Spurs recently built the Alamodome, a multi-purpose facility with a basketball capacity of almost 40,000 and a total capacity exceeding 70,000. The fans would cheer and cheer but the building was so massive that it was hard to be intimidating. The SBC Center was built and its capacity is only 18,500 so the sound has nowhere to go. Many of the stadiums now have a limit on available tickets so fans are more excited to actually attend a game and make more noise in support of the team. This might be a developing pattern or it might be the latest trend. In either case, the NBA venues are becoming more elaborate and there’s no telling where the game or the venues will head in the coming years.