Traditions Bank Arena at Tom Drake Coliseum

View of Traditions Bank Arena

• Year Built: 1994

• Capacity: 5,080

• Primary Tenants: Wallace State Lions basketball and volleyball teams

• Location: Wallace State Community College, Hanceville, AL

• Date visited: February 21st, 2022

I'm not exactly sure what to call this arena, because, in 2020, the name of the arena was changed from Tom Drake Coliseum to Traditions Bank Arena. The thing that makes this confusing is that the current name has been placed beneath the scoreboard, but the old name (which I do not have a photo of) is still shown on the outside of the arena. I suppose the best thing to do in order to save time, would be to call the arena by its current name, Traditions Bank Arena.

Traditions Bank Arena logo

I feel the best way to express my likes and dislikes about this arena would be to write a list of pros and cons that go over many aspects of the arena.

Pros

• If you can't decide what color you want the seats in your arena to be, just do what

Multi colored seats at Traditions Bank Arena

Wallace State did and use seats of all colors! These rainbow colored seats add a lot of character to the arena. Almost all of the seats vary in color like you see in the photo on the right. The only exception are the first few rows of seats closest to the court, which are only blue and orange. The other exception are the seats in the corner

of the arena, which are just blue. Overall, I think this makes for a unique and creative choice for an arena.

• Another pro of this arena that involves the seats, is that they're all over the place.

View from the east end of Traditions Bank Arena

With over 5,000 seats, you can sit just about anywhere you'd like. Most arenas, when configured for basketball, have seats near the center of the court, but if you want more than that, this is the right place for you. If you want to sit near either end of the court, you can do that. If you want to sit in the far back corner away from everyone and everything, go right ahead. When it comes to capacity, this is a pretty big arena for a community college, but there are plenty of seating options.

• One thing I noticed was pretty average about this arena is the concourse. The concourse wraps 360 degrees beneath the seating level of the arena, which makes

Concourse in Traditions Bank Arena

navigating to every seat easy and convenient. Another observation I made in regards to the concourse was the way the floor is designed. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but I think the running track looking design adds an interesting touch. Another touch to the concourse were the pictures of various players on the Wallace State basketball team located throughout the arena. Besides those two things, there isn't much to write home about when it comes to the concourse.

I've just told you all the things I enjoyed about Traditions Bank Arena, but now, it's time to talk about the things I don't like about it.

Cons

• The seats in the arena are a bit outdated. This arena was built in 1994, and I doubt

Two broken seats

the seats have been replaced since then. One thing the seats were missing were cup holders. This isn't a huge issue, but it would be a small improvement for the attendees of the arena. Another issue with a few of the seats was that the bottoms of them were completely missing. As far as I'm aware, all of the seats with missing bottoms were clustered around the back of of the arena. Most of the seats are fine, but the seats that are damaged could use some improvement.

• One thing to take into account when visiting this arena is that this arena belongs

Look at all those seats...

to a community college, which is easy to forget when you realize that this arena holds over 5,000 people. I highly doubt a town with a population of about 3,400 needs an arena of this size, but what do I know? Maybe the people of Hanceville do utilize their sizable arena.

• The final con of Traditions Bank Arena is that the closest

You can see part of the wall here

seats are elevated by several feet due to a wall that surrounds the court. This isn't too bad; after all, it gives you a better vantage point when trying to see the action. However, it does somewhat remove you from being close to the action.

To summarize, I will say that this arena works great for basketball games or any event you use it for. It could use some small improvements, but other than that, I enjoyed this arena and I think it has held up nicely for its age. Since this arena is part of a small town community college, not much information about it can be found on the internet. So, if you are considering visiting this arena, I hope I could inform you on all there is to know about it. Thanks for stopping by!