📍 Athens, Georgia
🏀 Home of Georgia Bulldogs basketball

One of the coolest venues architecturally in the Southeastern Conference, Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum is also home to one of the SEC’s most palpable and energetic gameday atmospheres. Though it may play second fiddle to the wildly successful football team, Bulldog basketball is still beloved and supported by the same passionate red and black fanbase here in Athens. Since it opened in 1964, fans have crammed into this beautiful building on Smith Street to cheer their Dawgs to victory.

Formerly the Georgia Coliseum, the venue was renamed in 1996 for Herman Stegeman, a college hoops pioneer and a multi-sport coach at the university during the early 20th century. Major renovations in 2010 and 2017 helped push the aging venue to the top of the SEC, with a new scoreboard, lighting system and end-zone mural further enhancing the arena’s already marvelous aesthetics. Large, convex glass windows on both sides of the arena welcome fans inside and allow lots of natural light to flood the concourse during day games, creating an open feel that contributes heavily to Stegeman’s sense of grandeur. And then there’s the intricate concrete roof, a barrel-shaped symbol of innovative engineering. A separate structure entirely, designed to move and breathe with the climate, the roof arcs gracefully over the more than 10,000 Bulldog faithful packed to the rafters.

The primary engine of Georgia’s amazing gameday atmosphere is the unhinged student section – known as the Dawg Pound – which stretches the entire length of the court and wraps the end zones. With their chants and cheers echoing off the acoustically advantageous roof, and cadenced barking distracting their opponents, it’s all part of a fan experience that’s up there with some of the top dogs – pun intended – in college hoops.

The actual performance of the Bulldogs, however, has seen them be historically outclassed by their more successful SEC brethren. It’s been hard for the Dawgs to compete with the likes of Kentucky, Florida and Auburn – though all these teams have had their fair share of ups and downs too. But Georgia has still experienced a bit of success in their highly competitive conference, appearing in 12 NCAA Tournaments and advancing to their only Final Four in 1983. The ’80s and ’90s were the Dawgs best days, to be sure, with only five March Madness bids since the turn of millennium. Being in such a successful conference, the team unfortunately always faces a hard road to the tourney, failing to secure more than two SEC Tournament wins and finding it difficult to secure an at-large bid.

Many top-tier players have come through the basketball program, but none have compared to the legendary Dominique Wilkins. Nicknamed the “Human Highlight Film”, Wilkins played three seasons for the Bulldogs before getting drafted by the Atlanta Hawks. He would go on to be a 9-time NBA All-Star and solidify himself as one of the league’s best small forwards. More recent standouts – such as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – have given Georgia fans hope that, one day, they may see their Dawgs dancing deep into the tournament.

And the coliseum has hosted much more than just basketball. It’s also the home of women’s volleyball and the dominant gymnastics team – called the GymDogs – who have won more national titles than any other program. Stegeman was even the site of volleyball matches and gymnastic performances during the Centennial Olympic Games. Murals, photos and informative plaques all around the main concourse of the arena highlight each of the school’s athletic programs and the notable events held at Stegeman over the last 60 years.