Villanova will use a lottery system to decide who gets to attend its Nov. 29 game against Penn, giving priority to current Villanova students, men’s basketball alumni, and family members of the 2017-18 team.
The reason for this lottery is the game will be held at the Jake Nevin Field House, which has a current seating capacity of just 2,200. The venue opened in 1931 and hasn’t hosted a regular season men’s basketball game since 1986.
Comparatively, the Finneran Pavilion, which has been the Wildcats' on-campus arena since Feb. 1, 1986, has a seating capacity of 6,500. It is currently undergoing a renovation and will be unavailable for the 2017-18 campaign.
The Wildcats will look to rebound from last year’s surprising second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Wisconsin when they open their season against Columbia at the Wells Fargo Center on Friday, Nov. 10.