Maples Pavilion

Flashback alert!
After spending years of my youth attending Stanford Women’s Gymnastics meets, my recent return to Maples was a bit of de ja vu. The faces may have changed, but the gym meet structure and venue looked exactly the same.
The venue is quite large as they also have basketball games in here, but you can still see pretty well from all areas. Plus, the big screen helps, and they can play the cliché gymnastics montages.
Seating: After years of sitting in the smaller Burnham Pavilion with no backs on the seats as we watched flips and flops (a flip flop is actually a term for a gym skill), the comfortable seats nearer to the center court in Maple are a nice change. But, don’t worry, there are still uncomfortable bleachers also!
Parking: If you don’t know where to park, you will get lost. And even on the weekend, you won’t necessarily get a spot.
All in all, it’s a decent venue. Not the smallest, nor the largest. At least there are some comfy seats and you feel like it’s an interactive experience. And you’re close enough that they can throw t-​shirts at you!

decent basketball venue. Too much red for my taste

Came here to watch the currently number 18 ranked Stanford vs the number 1 Penn State Wrestling match. When the number one team in the nation come to town and you are a fan of the sport it is a must for one to show up. Everyone showed up as fans broke the record for most fans during a wrestling match at the Pavilion. It was a great experience as my buddies got their chance to be on tv the PAC 12 Network, I got a souvenir that the mascot throws into the crowd, and got to see some great wrestling.
United for wrestling, both Penn State and Stanford, and wrestling fans got a chance to see some highly ranked athletes compete. 12 of the 20 wrestlers were ranked in the top 20 in the nation. Penn State led by California native Morgan MacIntosh ranked number 1 in the 197 weight class, while Stanford is led by freshmen and number 4 ranked at 141 weight class Joey McKeena. The highlight match of the night was at weight class 141 ranked number 4 Joey McKeena of Stanford vs ranked number 5 Jimmy Gulibon of Penn State. The matches went as expected meaning the higher ranked wrestler won. Penn State dominated the matches, and Stanford looks good being a young team. I would look for both team to have some All-​Americans at the end of the season.

Great sports venue. I come here a few times a year to watch womens volleyball and basketball with my kids or friends. Great place to bring kids and have them watch some of the best athletes in the nation compete… im always in awe! I buy my tickets online and save them on my phone. Great paperless option. They sell Cardinal gear inside. Parking has gotten better and i recently parked across the street.
All the seats are good. However the best seats are taken by season tix holders. i just wish they would open up (sell) some of those seats from season ticket holders who dont show up for games. There is a way to sell them back and open up those seats to others. Overall i love coming here and supporting women’s college sports.

$ 6 for a Haagen-​Dazs ice cream bar? Somehow that seems more outrageous to me than a $ 5 bottle of water. Hot dogs are also $ 7 here. Basically, this place is ridiculous. Whoever said that the food options are «good» is delusional.
A lot of the seats are also very uncomfortable. Needless to say, I’m not a fan.

My first experience watching a sporting event here was a great one as I saw the #1 ranked women’s volleyball team stay unbeaten by beating USC after dropping the first set to them and then taking the next three. The pavilion is a great venue to watch college sports as it’s the right size to have everyone close enough to enjoy the games and large enough to get loud and really get in to that exciting college competition spirit or atmosphere.

I attended the Stanford/​Arizona game last night. I like the intimacy of Maples and overall the concourses are pretty well laid out and the food choices are good enough. But, man I’ve never been more uncomfortable at a basketball game. If you’re seated in the upper level where it’s benches and not seats, it literally couldn’t be more crowded and uncomfortable.
I’d like to see Stanford get a new basketball arena or they need to remodel the place and get rid of the benches and get seat backs throughout the arena.

Great venue for women’s basketball! As a season ticket holder for the Stanford Cardinal, I love coming to Maples for the best women’s basketball in the country.
Pros:
The best basketball in the Bay Area!
Good screens, excellent replays, fan cam, twist off! Lots of crowd involvement and prizes.
Intimate arena, comfortable seats, that are close to the floor, no bad seats.
The ushers and ticket scanners are very courteous and will help you find where to go, even when you don’t need it.
The hot dog stand has almost all the condiments, including jalapenos!
The halftime shows are always entertaining, little kids to old ladies playing basketball, dogs running agility courses, Stanford dance troops doing dance offs, all a lot of fun.
Stanford cheerleaders and the band doing their thing.
Cons:
The Women’s bathrooms are disgusting. I try to avoid using them at all cost!
Stale popcorn and no refills. Get a popcorn machine! And butter dispenser!
The Stanford Dollys, so bad they’re good!
I wish they served beer since most of the fans are alums and community members, and not a lot of students.
All in all a good time!

Not a bad place, but I was surprised how tight seatng is here. They benches are so close and the couple of times I came, I sat next to people that don’t have any problems with invading one’s personal space.
Unfortunately, the times I came were also the times the women basketball team lost. I have a feeling I should stick to across the bay for my other favorite NCAA team.

Small intimate venue and good place to see a game, but the General Admission bleacher seats kill your back and are super tight. You have to be careful when someone tries to go by you that you don’t push them right over.

Clean and big. Beautiful basketball court. Good venue for big conferences as well.
We had our Stanford Senior Last Lecture here and it was able to accommodate a large amount of people.

It’s a decent building, just too small for me. I do like how there is no advertising of stuff around the area, just Stanford stuff and a few electronic ads. It was just annoyingly small and I wish there were more people.

I rather enjoyed our roadie to Palo Alto to catch UCLA at Stanford — well, the experience anyway, and not the result of the game! Maples Pavilion is definitely a great place to see a game. It would’ve been nice had the student section filled out with actual students, but that’s what happens when you catch a game during a session break.
Unlike Haas up in Berkeley, the upper-​level seating is a lot less cramped. The highest rows are also not obstructed-​view, which is also a plus. I’m going from feel here — not bothering to look up the actual capacity — but Maples definitely feels more intimate and closer to the floor than Haas. Only con was mentioned by other reviewers — like Haas, upper level seating doesn’t have seatbacks. So after Caltraining it from SF, sitting in a backless seat, and Caltraining it back, my crappy back was definitely sore.
But the basketball-​viewing experience was superb!

Go with the lower level seats!!! They have actual chairs… I expected the uppers to be benches, no worries, I can deal. But they are curved to differentiate between each seat, and I don’t think my behind is too big (size 8, on a skinny day) And I had trouble not spilling over into my neighbors personal space. Other than that the game was awesome, and the crowd was super high energy :)

Small and intimate… the seats are down-​right uncomfortable, so try to bring something to sit on.
Also, don’t expect any beer at the concessions. :(

I came here today to see Stanford women’s bball beat #1 UConn and end their 90-​game winning streak… wooo GO CARD! :D
The arena is a lot of fun — because it is so small and has such a low ceiling, the fans are really loud. Really, really loud… I have somewhat sensitive ears but the noise in here was on par with plenty of concerts and I would have enjoyed the game a wee bit more if I didn’t have my fingers in my ears half the time: P Still a lot of fun though! And the fact that it is so small means there’s really not a bad seat in the house.

It used to be so much cooler before the remodel. What was all that money for anyway? They didn’t do anything. Now there are fences and guards and special blocked off seats for the high muckymuck donors so you can’t even get close to the floor like you used to.
Stanford has gone corporate in everything now. We used to have season tickets for basketball but dropped them due to the crazy prices and poor teams.
And what’s with the redcoat ushers anyway? They treat everybody like they are Osama Ben Laden himself. Relax, old dudes. Lighten up will ya. All the kids want to do is slap hands with the players.
It used to be so low key before and fun. Now forget it. High security. High Prices. Crummy teams.

This review is only for Maples Pavilion.
Mr, an Alum @ Stanford took me to see a Sunday basketball game. I was excited, I love sports: Football (NFL & College — Go LSU!), Basketball (Lakers) & Hockey (Detroit).
I don’t know why but everytime Mr & I would attend a basketball game, we are approached to participate in some marketing game. My answer is always no, thank you, I’m just here to watch the game.
We found out later that Maples Pavilion is a dry stadium, bummer. My SJSU at least served beer. The staff were great though, however the concessions stand are being manned by high school kids. It’s bad enough that there’s no alcohol (I’m a social alky), they butchered my caramel machiatto. Try drinking coffee with garlic fries. :(
Oh well, at least Stanford won the game. And yeah, I made up my own chant, Go Red (Cardinal) trees! w/​c by the way Mr is giving me a weird look. I know I’m being silly! ^_​^
PS:
Visit Cantor Arts Center — Free Admissions

A friend of Matt’s, who is currently employed @ Stanford University, has a bunch of tickets for the 4 of us to go see Cardinals’ Basketball, who’ll be hosting the Oregon Ducks.
Matt loves college baskeball, but unable to followed the sport in recent years, because of his busy schedule. Matt’s first ever college basketball game as a spectator live, and to one of the elite university campus in the country. Stanford is known to have a powerful sporting program as well.
The Fantastic 4 was shocked how beautiful and breath-​taking the campus is. But Maples Pavillion, where the Cardinals play hoops, is little runned down, which ruins the image of the campus. It is kind of a bad combo. Well, it’s only a campus facility, not other high-​profile arenas where professional teams play across the country .i.e. Oracle Arena, San Jose Arena, Staples Center…
Although the aging basketball facilities, fans and alumnis were very lively, in doing their best to rock the house down. In conclusion, Stanford did win the game over Oregon, who is one of top 25 college teams in the nation. The Fantastic 4’s first ever college basketball game was no disappointment.
Daddy hopes his kids do well in their educational studies, and hopefully go to a University like where Chelsea Clinton built. It is still too early for the kids to decide on their future, but Matt hopes it’s the best.

My best memories of college are in this arena, but its gotten even better. They recent renovation has eliminated the burnt popcorn smell, lowered the roof to make the small arena even more claustrophobic for opposing players, and added some class to the venerable home of the Cardinal.
What better way to spend a Thursday or Saturday evening than watching the Stanford men’s basketball team defend home court. The best basketball in the Bay Area takes place in Maples. The only thing I don’t like about the arena is that I don’t have season tickets and that some of the fans are really fair-​weather.
Oh yeah, and the women’s basketball team plays here and they’re pretty damn good too.