NCAA BASKETBALL
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The Thunderdome
Home of the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos
Events Center
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
Opened: January 1, 1979
UC Santa Barbara Events Center, previously known as the Campus Events Center, also known as The Thunderdome, is a 5,000-seat, indoor multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara in Santa Barbara, California.

The Thunderdome was built in 1979, originally under the name of Campus Events Center. Along with Harder Stadium, it has since become one of the most patronized venues at UC Santa Barbara. After a naming contest and vote among students and faculty (which included some tongue in cheek nominations such as "Yankee Stadium", the Jerry Brown Arena, the Corrugated Fortress), it was eventually given the generic name "Campus Events Center". Eventually, the name was unofficially shortened to the "ECen" (much like UCSB's University Center being called the "UCen").

For basketball, the arena seats 5,000. One of the recent upgrades to the Thunderdome has been the replacement of bleachers with chairback seating which significantly improved the fan experience but did reduce capacity by about 600 seats. The floor of the Thunderdome was named by Bleacher Report as the 11th best court design in college basketball.
Last 10 Games
Date Opponents Result
Mar 7, 2026UC San Diego @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Feb 26, 2026UC Riverside @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Feb 19, 2026Cal State Northridge @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Jan 22, 2026Cal Poly @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Jan 8, 2026UC Davis @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Dec 22, 2025Portland @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Dec 4, 2025Long Beach State @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Nov 24, 2025Nobel @ UC Santa Barbara 0 - 0
Nov 17, 2025Loyola Marymount @ UC Santa Barbara 78 - 74
Nov 8, 2025San Jose State @ UC Santa Barbara 74 - 85