The 153,000-square-feet facility is home to the Cal Baptist Lancers men's and women's basketball teams as well as select matches for the women's volleyball and men's wrestling teams.
(meta data) TITLE: New Cal Baptist University arena in Riverside impresses on opening day – Press Enterprise (meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2017-11-10 21:30:45 GET BREAKING NEWS IN YOUR BROWSER. CLICK HERE TO TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS. #### New Cal Baptist University arena in Riverside Trending: CHP officer's death River reopens Burger battle Ontario Ranch homes Casino deals for seniors # New Cal Baptist University arena in Riverside impresses on opening day Cal Baptist University hosts Cal State Dominguez Hills during the inaugural game at the newly opened CBU Events Center Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. By Brian Robin | PUBLISHED: November 10, 2017 at 9:30 pm | UPDATED: November 11, 2017 at 11:54 am The second-row, center-court season seats Carl and Sheila Conte were happily sitting in at the new Cal Baptist University Events Center in Riverside would be anything but cheap seats — were they at any other venue in Southern California. Except at $250 per seat for seats that not only come with VIP food service, but a camera eye's view of CBU Men's Basketball Coach Rick Croy's instructions to his players and occasional furrowed brow, these really are "cheap seats." "This is like something you see on television. Something like this has never been in Riverside before. This is fantastic," Sheila Conte said. "This is a fantastic venue. It's the best venue in Riverside and probably the best venue for 40 or 50 miles around," said Carl Conte, a retired elementary school teacher in the Alvord School District and former assistant girls basketball coach at North, Notre Dame and King high schools, who has followed CBU for 10 years. And the Contes' VIP-esque seats, which they said they "lucked into," display one of the many perks to the Events Center, which formally opened Friday morning with an 80-63 victory for the CBU women's team over Cal State San Marcos and welcomed a raucous near-capacity crowd for the CBU-Cal State Dominguez Hills men's game Friday night. Cal Baptist University fans do a dance before the start of their game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. Cal Baptist University fans cheer before the start of their game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. SoundThe gallery will resume inseconds Cal Baptist University fans cheer as their team scores a basket during their game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. Cal Baptist University fans watch the ball as it's passed during the game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. Cal Baptist University players warm up before the start of their game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. Cal Baptist University players warm up before the start of their game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. Cal Baptist University head coach Rick Croy talks to players during a time out in their game against Cal State Dominguez Hills Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. Basketball fans watch CBU play Cal State Dominguez Hills at the newly opened CBU event center Friday, November 10, 2017. Photo by Andrew Foulk, contributing photographer. of Expand The "worst" seat in the 5,050-seat Events Center is pretty much an oxymoron — as Palm Desert's Linda McAuliffe, perched in one corner of the Events Center with her husband, Mike and daughter, Bronwyn, could attest. "The old arena (Van Dyne Gym) was very, very tight and dark. This is spacious and this has all kinds of exciting things going on," said McAuliffe, whose daughter, Haley is a CBU sophomore. "I was really blown away when I walked in. I thought I was in a professional arena." The team store is festooned with everything from CBU "Lance Up" shirts and hoodies to socks to the ubiquitous foam fingers. The store, the comfy seats and the video scoreboard — which showed everything from game action to the packed-to-the-concourse student center dancing to The White Stripes' "Seven Nation Army" — are all music to the ears of CBU officials, who are angling to make their Division II farewell this year the perfect springboard to Division I for 2018-19. And the $73 million, 153,000-square foot Events Center provides fans and students the perfect "I-was-there-when" perch to take that leap. "This building is phenomenal. It's going in line with how the school is evolving. It keeps growing exponentially," said Bob Kelly of Riverside, whose daughter, Chase, plays on the CBU women's water polo team. "They're going into Division 1 next year and it's the perfect match for a Division 1 type of climate. Now, you have the facilities to accommodate Division 1 sporting events. "Looking at the Lancer statue in front of the arena, I can only imagine how this will evolve into something where you have school rivalries and you target their mascot — which is essentially what college is all about." Sophomore engineering major Shaun Cary of Moreno Valley, a member of the "CBU Crazies" pep group, was prepared to help unfurl a mammoth flag that went over the entire student section. He took a bigger view of what the building means to the CBU campus. "It's just amazing how the school has put all this together," Cary said. "It's really amazing because they know the building is amazing, but they care more about the community and the spirit of the students here. They're aware of what brings a community together and they do so much to put that together." 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CBU Events Center
Abstract.
The CBU Events Center is a sports arena in Riverside, California. It opened in 2017 and has a capacity of 5,050.