Attending a basketball game
What is it like to sit in the stands?
The University of Regina (U of R) Basketball teams tend to host home games on Friday and Saturday nights. These home games are played in the Centre of Kinesiology Health & Sport’s main gym.
The first game is typically the women’s team starting at 6:00 p.m., followed by the men’s team at 8:00 p.m. U of R students can attend these games for free with a valid student ID card, while non-students must pay an entrance fee. An adult fee is $18.89 plus taxes, a youth ticket (ages 6-17) is $5.95 plus taxes. One ticket grants admission to both games. You can purchase a ticket at reginacougars.com/tickets.
If you are looking to attend a game soon, make sure you check out the Cougars’ website and look at the schedule. Not all games are home games, and the schedule gives you descriptive information of who is playing, where, and when to ensure you know all the details of the basketball game you want to attend.
Once you buy your tickets, attendees are free to choose a seat within their section. Unlike concert tickets, there is a flat rate for a section so the price does not go up or down based on where you sit. U of R home games are doubleheaders. Watching two games back-to-back is convenient, and can be a fun weekend event for friends and families. Watching back-to-back also keeps the energy in the gym high, and keeps the crowd excited for the next game.
To keep the energy going, the U of R makes the games engaging even for the audience. This is done with commentary, a live stream of the game on a big screen, and interactive break times. When the women’s game transitioned from the first to the second quarter, the crowd was challenged to win a bag of goodies. At half-time, they had a community league called “Little Ballers Exercise” come out and get children from the crowd active. Between the third and fourth quarter, they had the University of Regina Dance Team come and perform for the crowd.
The crowd for this game was awesome. It was good to see members of the U of R community come out and cheer the team on. It looked like there were classmates, friends, and family members from both home and away.
The score was close all game long. In the last quarter, you could hear and just feel energy travel from the players on the court to the benches on the sidelines and into the crowd. There was lots of cheering involved. The women’s game ended with a final score of 72 for the U of R Cougars and Fraser Valley at 79. A very close game.
If you have the opportunity and time to come back on Saturday, you can watch the same two teams play again. With a final score so close together, watching them play the next day sure would be interesting and tense for the crowd.
After the women’s game is done, the men’s team comes out for their 20-minute warm-up. This is the perfect time to visit the canteen for a snack or a beverage. For those older than 19, you can get an alcoholic beverage for $7. They have pop and water for $2.50, chips and candy for $2.50, and popcorn and a hotdog for $5.00. The canteen only accepts debit and credit, though.
