Las Vegas • Orleans Arena, a 9,500-seat sports and entertainment venue here that sits adjacent to a casino and across the street from a defunct strip joint annually turns into Spokane South for a few days in early March. Gonzaga basketball fans flock there to watch their beloved Zags dominate the West Coast Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments.
Gonzaga supporters easily outnumber fans of all the other teams combined. BYU is by far the second most-represented school, but doesn’t come close to attracting the numbers that GU does.
Gonzaga fans have been known to buy season tickets to all the other schools in the WCC not named Saint Mary’s or BYU — often for less than $100 a season — knowing they will never step foot in venues such as the Leavey Center at Santa Clara or Firestone Fieldhouse at Pepperdine so they can get priority purchasing for WCC tournament tickets.