Arlington, Texas
🏀 UT Arlington Mavericks

A 7,000-seat facility with all the modern bells and whistles, College Park Center became the new home of the University of Texas at Arlington’s basketball and volleyball programs in 2012. The venue replaced Texas Hall, a compact theater where the basketball court sat on a stage, a setup that made it one of the more unusual settings in college basketball. While that arrangement gave Mavericks games a distinctive atmosphere and brought fans close to the action, it also limited capacity and throttled modern amenities. After almost 50 years of use as a sports venue, the unique theater was replaced by a sleek new multi-purpose arena, envisioned as a more traditional and versatile space for athletics, concerts and university events while keeping the programs on-campus in Arlington.

In addition to the UT Arlington teams, the College Park Center is also the home of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, who relocated from Tulsa in 2016. Thanks to star players like Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers, the franchise has made a few playoff runs on their chase for a championship. The Wings, however, intend on deserting the venue in 2027 for a revamped Memorial Auditorium in downtown Dallas.

For most events, including Mavericks men’s basketball games, the upper deck of CPC is sadly curtained off. The venue has, in fact, only sold out three times – each time for a concert. The biggest basketball crowds have come in at just over 6,000, primarily for some of the building’s first games in 2012 and for postseason games like their heartbreaking NIT quarterfinals loss to CSU Bakersfield in 2017.

A longtime competitor in the Western Athletic Conference, the Mavs enjoyed a brief 9-season stint in the Sun Belt before returning to the WAC in 2022. The men have just one conference crown under their belt, a 2008 title that sent them to the NCAA Tournament for the first time. There, they’d fall to eventual runners-up and #1-ranked Memphis in the first round.

As a still somewhat fresh but established sports arena, College Park Center has certainly become a part of Arlington’s increasingly sports-focused identity. The city is already known for palaces such as AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field and Choctaw Stadium, regularly staging major events during every part of the calendar. While those stadiums host global events and major league teams, CPC fills a different role by anchoring college athletics, a place that’s ready to support UTA basketball as they push towards their next chapter – one that fans hope will become their heyday.