Finis Horne Arena in Greenwood, SC

Basic Information

Arena: Finis Horne Arena

Location: Greenwood, SC (34.20119, -82.16736)

Owner: Lander University

Primary sport: basketball

Year constructed: 1993

Listed capacity: 2276

Date last visited: March 2026

Arena information: https://landerbearcats.com/facilities/finis-horne-arena/1

Summary Review: 2 stars (out of 5)

Watching a game at Lander University's Finis Horne Arena is almost like watching a game in Mammoth Cave.  The arena is huge relative to the size of the university and its fanbase.  Moreover, the arena is in the center of its building, so there are no windows to let any exterior light in.  Thus, the arena is rather dark, especially in the upper deck.  The stands were less than 1/3 full when I came here.  Yet almost the entire arena is a hard surface, and therefore sounds resonates rather well.  The arena isn't designed particularly well: there is only 1 walkway and 1 entrance/exit, so the pedestrian flow gets clogged around that exit door.  Also, the lobby leading into the seating area is very small.  If Lander had more fans, these would be serious problems.  Concession options are underwhelming but not out-of-line for a Division II venue.  Overall, if you like dark empty arenas, then this might be the venue for you.  While I do a lot of hiking and kind of enjoyed the solitude here, this is not a great place to watch a game.

Detailed Review:

Gameday Atmosphere: This arena is cavernous: it is huge and rather dark because there are no windows to allow exterior light in.  I came here for the Peach Belt Conference Basketball Tournament.  Lander basketball is not particularly well supported: the home team was one of the teams in the tournament, and yet the arena was less than 1/3 full.  The arena resonates what little crowd noise there is rather well, so it would give a very strong home court advantage if they had more fans.

Seating: all chairbacks, all comfortable.

Court View: acceptable but no more.  The seating area does not have a particularly steep grade, so the upper deck is somewhat far away.  There are no seats in either end, but there doesn't need to be.  They could close the entire upper deck and still have an arena that is plenty large for this university.

Audio/Video: The audio is loud and clear.  There is no video except for a nice scoreboard hanging over center court.

Concessions/Hot Dogs: The concession stand offers no hot dogs or warm food except Chick-fil-a.  The soda and popcorn I bought were fine.

Pedestrian Flow: quite poor.  This arena has only 1 walkway and 1 entrance/exit; both are at mid-level.  This design would be a problem if Lander had more fans.

Parking: plenty of free parking around the arena; look for "event parking" signs.

Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium in Spartanburg, SC

Basic Information

Stadium: Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium

Location: Spartanburg, SC (34.96341, -81.93363)

Owner: Wofford College

Primary sport: basketball

Year constructed: 2017

Listed capacity: 3400

Date last visited: March 2026

Arena information: https://woffordterriers.com/facilities/jerry-richardson-indoor-stadium/153

Summary Review: 5 stars (out of 5)

Wofford College moved up to NCAA Division I in 1995, and with that move came a commitment to upgrade their athletic facilities.  It took until 2017, but they finally built a top-tier basketball arena for a small Division I school.  Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium looks a little like an old fieldhouse.  Windows everywhere let a lot of exterior light into the seating area.  You enter the building at court level and ride an escalator up to the lower bowl's main concourse, from which all seating is accessed.  There is also an upper gallery that is accessed by elevators and stairwells in the 4 corners of the concourse.  There are no bad seats in the arena.  Like many newer arenas, there are social areas across the concourse behind the lower bowl, and a trophy case/hall of fame is located in the northwest corner of the concourse.  I came here for an NCAA Division II conference basketball tournament that was sparsely attended, but the building was still fairly lively.  Overall, I really enjoyed watching the 2 games I watched here, and for a small arena, this one is hard to beat.

Detailed Review:

Gameday Atmosphere: I came here for an NCAA Division II conference basketball tournament that was sparsely attended.  The building resonated what little noise there was rather well, so it can probably really rock for a Wofford home game.

Seating: all chairback seating except for bleachers in the ends.

Court View: there are no bad seats in the house.

Audio/Video: The audio is about average, and that may be the worst thing I have to say about this arena.  It has 4 nice video boards, one in each corner.

Concessions/Hot Dogs: They offered the standard concessions when I came here.  The hot dogs are decent sized and rather moist, but they don't have much flavor.

Pedestrian Flow: You enter on the court level with all access to seating from the middle level concourse.  Several wide staircases and an escalator get you between the levels.  This design wouldn't work for a larger arena, but it works fine for this one.

Parking: several free medium-sized parking lots in various directions from the arena; plenty of parking elsewhere on campus.