I believe it's a Football stadium that has had a court put in the middle of it, is common in these circumstances, but it isnt so common that they use non basketball venues for basketball.

They mentioned in one of the telecasts that the NCAA owns 16 court that they install where ever they go.

Even at the Boston Garden they brought in their own floor and made the venue take down all the Celtics memorabilia such as singlets and championship banners

The commentators on the game indicated that this is the second year that the court has been raised for the Final Four, and it apparently allows the organisers to fit more fans in at the ends of the court (don't know how).
I'm not sure that the Detroit stadium was a football venue, I got the impression that the Detroit Ice Hockey games were played there.

I think the Cavaliers home court is also 'elevated'. Best observed when a player heads to the bench and steps down.

As an aside, read the other day that the NCAA sells the championship court every year. It offers the sale to the NCAA champion first, but if they decline, it is then offered to all other NCAA participants.

A fair few College home courts have this design now - I'm pretty sure AJ Ogilvy's Vanderbilt does.

They are mainly used for games inside football venues. I did see a player have to jump off the edge of the court after saving a ball goin out of bounds once, it made my cringe.

If you have a look at football games, the field is about 2 metres below the first row of seats - obviously because there is 200 players, staff hangers on, on each side of the field... restricting view.

The final 4 venue is Ford Field which the home of the Detoit Lions (0-16 this year) 72000+ went to the final 4 and by all accounts the Greater Detroit Area really needed the injection of funds!

btw - no NBA team has this court design

Thanks everyone. Wondered if it was a new trend to enhance viewing angles for the crowd or maybe some new structure to go over an existing surface. For the players and stats bench, it'd be like watching a game while lying down on the sidelines.

By all accounts, the NBA are in talks to use this court design for the NBA Allstar game in Dallas at Cowboy Stadium.

"I did see a player have to jump off the edge of the court after saving a ball goin out of bounds once, it made my cringe."

That was a concern of mine, too. Doesn't seem all that safe in a loose ball situation. I noticed it at mid-court - no 'score BENCH' to stop you from falling over the computers and scorers/broadcasters.

Previously, when a Football stadium was used, they put the court up one end and hung a 'curtain' over the stadium at half way.
This way, by putting the court in the middle they are able to use all the stadium seating plus seats brought in to fill the spaces around the court.
Not sure what the view would be like up near the rafters and I'm not sure what the view for the score bench etc is like 1 metre below the floor.

LC, will that be also for Mavs games (not just all star), thought they were playing out of this new stadium also?

They showed a camera shot from the very back row and it was a looooong way to the court, very slightly angled seating rather than the much steeper sharper seating that offers a better view for basketball.

DJ

I doubt Dallas will be playing out of this stadium. As the NBA has restrictions on how big the stadiums can be so that the spectators views are "reasonable" in all seats. It stops teams like Lakers which could probably sell out a 40000 seat stadium consistently from playing in big stadiums simply for the money.

The cavaliers do have an elevated court so at least 1 team in the NBA has this design, they were talking about it in one of the cavs home games on fox earlier this season.

The Cavs court and seating is defintely is different to most on the score bench side, but it isn't elevated in the way the court being used for the NCAA is - that one has the entire scorebench below the court!