With the renovation of Foster Auditorium, the University of Alabama women’s basketball team will have a new place to play this season.

The Crimson Tide, which has recently been playing in Coleman Coliseum, is moving back to the facility, which housed the women’s athletic programs in the 1970s and 1980s. Head coach Wendell Hudson said he’s excited about the move.

“From the time I’ve been back at Alabama and Foster was sitting there, not anything being done to it or in there, I always felt that, ‘Boy, you need to make it what it is,’” Hudson said. “It’s a place you play basketball.”

While the Tide hopes moving to Foster will generate excitement, the team also hopes the smaller venue will create a better atmosphere to play in. The 5,400-capacity Foster is a far cry from Coleman Coliseum, which houses well over 15,000 people. The Tide hopes the move will result in a more prominent home court advantage.

“I do believe that when I took over the women’s basketball program a couple years ago, I really felt like we needed a home court advantage, and the Coliseum for us, you know, even good nights, good crowds, we’re not gonna be 15,000,” Hudson said. “And so, from that standpoint, I was really excited about the renovation of Foster.

“I think the first game we play at Foster, that’s going to be a real exciting atmosphere. That’s the atmosphere you want, where it’s jam packed and people are excited and the noise factor affects the other team and not you because you’re used to playing in front of that type of crowd.”

With the move, the team hopes crowd turnout will increase as well.

“I think people might be excited or interested to see how it looks inside, so I think that’ll help us out,” said junior Ericka Russell. “If we win games, it’ll bring a fan base also. Hopefully we can get students to come out and support us and help us build this program to make it better, bring it back to the great tradition it always was.”

Another important factor is how the move can affect team recruiting. Hudson said the move to a smaller venue would appeal to prospective players.

“I think that definitely will help in recruiting,” Hudson said. “You bring people into a full house, I don’t care what size it is, it’s a whole lot better than bringing them to an empty house. Everybody that we are recruiting and have recruited over the last two years, we’ve told them about the renovation and moving into a smaller venue. ”

While the Tide is excited about the move, it’s still concentrating on what matters most: how the team competes. Freshman Celiscia Farmer said Hudson keeps them focused on preparing for the season.

“Oh, that’s like the only thing he’s stressing right now,” Farmer said. “He’s already told us we’ll get to Foster when it’s ready. He said that pretty much earlier in the practices, and now we’re just focusing on practicing and what we have to do to be a good team. As of late, no, it hasn’t been a big [distraction]. But everybody’s excited about going to Foster.”