Could South Carolina women's basketball play an outdoor game?

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Could the Gamecocks play a basketball game at Williams-Brice Stadium? That question has gained traction following Nebraska’s spectacular outdoor volleyball game last week.

Over 90,000 fans (92,003 to be exact) packed Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium on August 30, 2023, for a match between the Cornhuskers and Omaha Mustangs, part of a celebration of Volleyball Day in Nebraska. 

South Carolina women’s basketball has led the nation in attendance for the past nine seasons. If Nebraska volleyball can go from an average attendance of 8,000 to 90,000, the reasoning goes that South Carolina can go from 13,000 to 80,000.

Furthermore, interest in women’s basketball is surging. Viewership and attendance figures are shattering records. (This is true for women’s sports in general, as Nebraska volleyball showed.) There have been outdoor basketball games in the past. 

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The WNBA played a game at Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2008. There have been several men’s basketball games played on aircraft carriers. 3×3 basketball games are typically played on outdoor courts.

There are complications, primarily weather. Some of the aircraft carrier games were canceled because of moisture on the court that was impossible to dry. Earlier this summer, the Under Armour Elite all-star game was delayed for hours before finally being canceled after a thunderstorm soaked the court.

Because college basketball is a winter sport, thunderstorms aren’t the biggest concern – cold temperatures are. Even in Famously Hot Columbia.

The college basketball regular season runs from early November to early March. It’s debatable how cold is too cold for basketball. 65 degrees seems fine, but 60 is probably the lower limit. I checked the weather for Columbia for the last ten years for three dates: November 1, November 15, and March 1.

November 15 could be ruled out pretty quickly.  The high temperatures ranged from 46-80, but three years came in below 50, and five were below 60. Four of the other five were between 62-66. 

The high temperatures for March 1 range from 43 to 83. There was one year below 50, one between 50-60, four between 60-70, two in the 70s and two in the 80s. For November 1 the highs ranged from 55-80. There was one year below 60, two in the 60s, six in the 70s, and one year at 80. Both dates are typically dry (five total days of precipitation), so rain isn’t much of a concern.

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The weather is acceptable, but the next complication is stadium access. The game would have to be scheduled around the football team. That was easier for Nebraska. The volleyball match was held before the start of football season. Memorial Stadium also has artificial turf, so constructing the volleyball court did no damage to the playing surface. Williams-Brice Stadium has grass, and constructing a court would not only damage the playing surface but probably make it unplayable.

South Carolina has been through this before. In 2018 Beyonce and Jay-Z performed a concert at Williams-Brice just ten days before the season opener. The entire field had to be replaced, but there were no negative aftereffects (it helped that the nearly $200,000 price tag was covered by the concert organizers).

There would be other logistics to consider, like where to set up the court or what court to use, or the fact that basketball is always overshadowed during football season, but those are relatively minor issues once you get past the two big ones. You also have to find willing participants. 

Nebraska held two volleyball matches, beginning with an exhibition between a pair of Division II teams. Wouldn’t it be fun to get Clemson involved and have a men’s/women’s double-header between the rivals? If you’re going to think big, think really big!

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