Morgantown, West Virginia
🏀 West Virginia Mountaineers

West Virginia’s largest indoor sports venue, the Hope Coliseum has stood amongst the rolling hills of Morgantown for over 50 years and served as the irreplaceable home of Mountaineer basketball for just as long. It opened in the winter of 1970 and can contain more than 14,000 fans under its iconic concrete roof, which deflects crowd noise back onto the court and helps the Coliseum remain architecturally divergent.

Known for more than half a century as simply the WVU Coliseum, the arena was renamed Hope Coliseum in 2025 after the university struck the first naming rights deal in the venue’s lifetime. The building has also experienced consistent upgrades throughout its lifetime, with new videoboards, seats, lights, ribbon boards and improvements to the court itself seemingly coming year after year.

As the cradle of West Virginia basketball, the Hope Coliseum is almost a shrine to the school’s deep-seeded history of hoops. Lining the walls of the mid-bowl walkway is the Mountaineer Legends Society, a showcase highlighting some of the best athletes to ever touch the court in Morgantown.

Among the most notable of the school’s alumni is Jerry West, the inspiration for the NBA logo and one of the program’s all-time greats. West took the Mountaineers to their first National Championship game in 1959 – also the first time WVU had advanced past the first round of the tournament – and helped the team get as far as the Sweet Sixteen the following year. History cases full of old photos and memorabilia sit on the main concourse, telling the story of “Mr. Clutch” both during his years at West Virginia and later in the Association.

Mountaineer basketball has been headlined by stars beyond just Jerry West, such as “Hot Rod” Hundley before him and Rod Thorn after, both of whom led the team to NCAA Tournament appearances in the ’50s and ’60s. In the modern era, West Virginia has made numerous trips to the Sweet Sixteen and even advanced to another Final Four in 2010. Additionally, in the last quarter century, the team’s win percentage hasn’t dropped below .500 inside the Coliseum.

And what a pleasure it is to see a Mountaineers win under the dome, as players and fans alike – some donning coonskin caps – lock arms and sway to the tune of John Denver’s “Country Roads.” From rolling out the blue carpet during player introductions, to the buckskin-clad Mountaineer firing his musket at the start of the game, there’s no doubt that gameday in West Virginia is almost heaven.