What it is
Desert Financial Arena is Arizona State’s basketball building, a round concrete arena of 14,198 seats on the Rural Road side of the Tempe campus, next to the football stadium and the butte. It opened in April 1974 as the University Activity Center, which the students shortened to the You-Ack, became Wells Fargo Arena in 1997 and took the credit union’s name in 2019, with the agreement extended in 2023. ASU’s men’s and women’s basketball teams play here from November through early March, now in the Big 12, and the volleyball team in the fall; the university’s graduations and a few big events fill in the rest of the year.
It is not a beautiful building and does not pretend to be. It is a 1970s bowl with good sight lines, no suites between you and the court, a student section that shows up for the big nights, and a concert history, Springsteen in 1980, U2 in 1987, from the years when it was the largest indoor room in Arizona. The men’s team’s revival in the late 2010s brought the upper deck back into use after eight years behind a curtain, and the Big 12 move in 2024 put Kansas, Houston and Baylor on the schedule.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
Because it is the closest major-conference basketball to your hotel, and the cheapest. The Suns are thirty minutes west downtown and a ticket costs what a dinner does; a Sun Devils game is eighteen minutes south and the seat costs what a drink does, with the band, the students and the particular noise of a college gym. Pair it with dinner on Mill or at Four Peaks and it is the easiest sports night out from Scottsdale between the end of the Scottsdale Stadium fall league and the start of spring training.
The practical version
Scottsdale Road south, which becomes Rural Road at the river, to Veterans Way; the arena is on your right past the football stadium. Park in the Rural Road structure or ride the light rail to Veterans Way and College. Buy lower-bowl corner seats. Eat first on Mill, a ten-minute walk west, or at Four Peaks, the same walk east.
When to go
Men’s basketball runs from the first week of November to the first week of March, with the non-conference games before Christmas and the Big 12 schedule after it; the Arizona game is the night, and the visits from Kansas, Houston, Baylor and Iowa State sell next. Women’s basketball plays the same months, often on alternate nights, and the ticket is a few dollars. Volleyball fills September to November and is a loud, fast, two-hour evening that most visitors never think to try. Weeknight tip-offs are at seven or eight; weekend games vary. The arena is cool in every sense, and a 1974 concrete building in February is cold enough for a jacket.
The seats
The bowl is a single tier with an upper deck above a concourse. Lower-bowl corners are the value; center court lower bowl is the premium; the upper deck is high but every seat faces the court. The student section is behind one basket and, for the big games, the reason to sit across from it.
Before and after
Mill Avenue is a ten-minute walk west for dinner, Four Peaks is ten minutes east on 8th Street for a Kilt Lifter after, and Casey Moore’s on Ash is the quieter choice if the game went long. On a cold night the walk between them along the lit campus malls is the nicest part of Tempe.
With kids
A college basketball game is two hours, loud, and over by ten; the mascot and the band do most of the work, and the price means nobody minds leaving early. The women’s games and volleyball are the family-friendliest tickets in the building.
The story
ASU built the University Activity Center between 1972 and 1974 for eight million dollars, a round arena in the brutalist concrete of its decade, to replace a gym that could not hold the crowds of a university that had passed 30,000 students. It opened on April 29, 1974 and was, for the next two decades, the biggest indoor room in the state: the Suns played in the old Coliseum at the fairgrounds, and the big tours came to Tempe. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band played it on November 5, 1980, on the River Tour, a show bootleggers have treasured since; U2 came through on April 2 and 4, 1987, on the Joshua Tree Tour, after Bono cut his chin in rehearsal and the middle night moved. Wells Fargo bought the name in 1997, as the new downtown arena took the concerts away.
The basketball program’s long middle years left the upper deck empty, and in 2010 the university hung a wall across it, cutting the official capacity to under 11,000. Bobby Hurley’s teams of the late 2010s brought the crowds back, the wall came down in 2018, and the listed capacity returned to 14,198. Desert Financial Credit Union bought the name in 2019, extended the agreement in 2023, and the Big 12 move the following year gave the old building the best schedule it has had since the Pac-10 of the 1980s. It has also hosted NCAA women’s tournament rounds, in 2015 and 2016, and every ASU graduation that will fit.
The Scottsdale connection
Scottsdale’s ASU alumni are the season-ticket base, and Scottsdale Road runs straight here, becoming Rural Road at the river and passing the arena’s east door. The ASU lexicon entry explains the university’s reach north of the line, and the Suns entry covers the other basketball team Scottsdale drives to, thirty minutes the other way.
Getting there
Scottsdale Road south, across the 202 and the river, where it becomes Rural Road; Veterans Way is the first light past the lake and the arena is on the right beyond the stadium. From North Scottsdale take the 101 south to the 202 west and exit at Scottsdale/Rural. The light rail stops at Veterans Way and College Avenue, a short walk; our getting around note has the line, which also reaches the airport.