With the basketball season approaching, the game almost everyone looks forward to is the rivalry game: Loy Norrix vs. Kalamazoo Central. 

Many might not know, but this year the location of the game will be different than past years. For many years the Kalamazoo rival schools Loy Norrix and Kalamazoo Central have had their basketball games at Read Fieldhouse, Western Michigan University’s arena.

This 2019-2020 basketball season, the athletic directors have decided to not have the games at Western due to the fact that they “Don’t make enough or barely make enough with ticket sales to cover the cost of renting out the arena at WMU,” said athletic director Andrew Laboe. 

 Athletic directors this year have also decided to host the varsity basketball games in the school’s gymnasium, so the first game will be at Kalamazoo Central and the second game will be at Loy Norrix.

“I think the fact that it is at Central is a dumb idea because it’s the one game that most people go to, and having it at the high schools makes it harder to get the same outcome that they would get at Western,” said senior varsity player Inve Williams.  

Williams thinks the outcome of the game will be different because she believes that not a lot of people will go since it will be held at Kalamazoo Central instead of Read Fieldhouse. 

Kalamazoo Central gymnasium capacity is 2,500 and may not be spacious enough because the rivalry games end up being packed. Read Fieldhouse seats 5,421 and is almost always packed for the game. 

However, players might actually enjoy the move because they will now get to play at their school instead of playing at Read Fieldhouse.

This season the first rivalry game will be held in the Kalamazoo Central gymnasium on January 11, 2020. Women’s varsity begins at 4:30 p.m. and men’s varsity begins at 6:30 p.m. Come out and support the varsity team.