Bender Arena

I went to Bender Arena for a Stony Brook Seawolves road basketball game when they traveled to Washington DC to face the American Eagles on ¹²⁄₁₇. The arena itself is ok. It is not big, but everything is close in so you can feel the action. The food is actually not as pricy as any other average sporting event food. The atmosphere is not very loud, but I believe the school is on winter break. I sat near the Stony Brook bench on the visitor side.
The most disappointing thing about my visit is how some of the other visiting fans were treated by the AU security. Three gentlemen sitting in front of me were cheering for Stony Brook and have a large flag representing their school. However, after the first timeout, the security guard came over and told them to put the flag away. I guess they didn’t want to see the big Seawolves logo on the TV broadcast screen. The Stony Brook fans put their flag way, but continue to cheer for their team. However, after the second time out, the security card came and told them to move to a section behind the basket. Apparently they were cheering too loud for the visiting team. COME ON!!! What a disgusting act by the the school.
So just a warning if you are a visiting fan cheering for the visiting team. The school doesn’t like it if you cheer louder than the home crowd. I also think this is a violation of the first amendment.

Ah Bender Arena, home of the American University Eagles!
Massive venue in DC big enough to accomodate 4,500-seated and 6,000-standing for concerts and such. Cheer on your eagles at AU Basketball games, Volleyball games, Wrestling matches, etc., seen the Roots concert, Snow patrol Concert, and Ted and Caroline Kennedy endorse Barack Obama for Democratic candidate for president back in 2009. Yea, that makes AU’s gym pretty cool even if it lacks school spirit. Or maybe the school spirit is lacking because the D1 athletics department is run like a juvenile high school. No value for instilling traditions, pride for their student body and alumni (unless you are an athlete bringing in revenue) but instead want to impose ridiculous rules and regulations (childish time outs, no noisemakers– are we at church because I’ve been to other games at D1 schools and they’re LOUD and FUN as hell and beaucracy– can’t do anything without so and so saying so and so approved it. At least the bathrooms are decently clean for the most part and the weiners and sodas are cheap! Go Eagles!

** 3.5 **
I have to admit it makes me giggle that AU’s Bender Arena has a page on Unilocal.As an alum of AU, I have been here many times and Bender has served me for a wide variety of events. These include:
Sporting Events: AU Basketball — (and we made it to the NCAA Tourney this year!), AU Volleyball, AU Swimming, Gym and Pool Facilities
Concerts: Bob Dylan, The Format/​Jimmy Eat World, Ben Folds, Ok Go!/Snow Patrol
Sports: IM Indoor Soccer and IM Volleyball
Speakers: Mikhail Gorbachev, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Barack Obama, John Glenn — to name a few.
AU’s graduation ceremonies are also held in Bender.
Complaints — Acoustics are terrible. Kinda stuffy at times — especially when there’s a high volume of people. I know it’s a gym — but some of the seats are REALLY uncomfortable.
Likes — Generally clean overall — including the bathrooms. Cheap food during sporting events. Spacious. Good facilities for working out/​gym usage though not enough machines.
For a university’s sporting facilities, Bender is great. For concerts, meh… it’s nice that it can hold a lot of people but it’s really not the best venue.

I came here for the Jimmy Eat World/​Paramore concert last weekend and was shocked to see that it was the same size as my high school gym. The acoustics were best towards the back of the floor, near the sound board (of course). We made the mistake of standing with the moshers and crowd-​surfers and ended up getting our ears assaulted and LITERALLY kicked in the head by 15-​year-​old wannabe punk rocker girls. Not that that’s the arena’s fault, of course.
My biggest complaint is that it just seems lame and if I were a band, I would never want to come to a place like this.

Pros
— Decent sightlines from the bleachers
— $ 2 hot dogs and nachos — cheaper than at the movies
— It’s a real sports arena. Last night OK Go had the audience do the wave! So fun.
Cons
— It can get stuffy, and it smells like a gym
— Not enough women’s restrooms last night. (It could’ve been the predominantly female Snow Patrol crowd though)
— The acoustics are bizarre. Several times during last night’s concert, we could hear a distinct echo coming from the back of the venue! It was like broken surround sound, with the real band in front and an ill-​timed percussion delay in the back. Very unfortunate.

Known to American University students as the athletic complex, this stadium hosts concerts and sports events. If you are an AU Eagles fan, this is the spot for you. The scoreboard is new-​ish, so it has a huge animation/​video display just like a professional sports arena. and. As far as music goes, Ben Folds is there tonight. I am mad at myself for missing out on that!
Inside the Bender are also a fitness center which includes an 8 lane pool and the AU Campus Store.