Tom Gola Arena, Basketball arena at La Salle University in Philadelphia, United States.
Tom Gola Arena is an indoor sports facility on the campus of La Salle University in the Olney neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It seats around 3,400 people and centers on a basketball court surrounded by tiered seating, with additional training spaces used by students and athletic teams.
The arena was built in the late 1990s to give La Salle University a modern home for its basketball program. It was named after Tom Gola, who played for the university in the 1950s and went on to a long professional career before becoming one of the most recognized names in Philadelphia sports history.
The arena is named after Tom Gola, one of the most celebrated basketball players to come out of Philadelphia. Visitors can see tributes to his career displayed inside the building, connecting the university's basketball tradition to the wider story of the sport in the city.
The arena sits on the main campus of La Salle University in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, and it is reachable by public transit. Access is generally limited to scheduled games and university events, so it is worth checking the athletic calendar before visiting.
Tom Gola, for whom the arena is named, was part of the US men's basketball team that won gold at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. That chapter of his story is rarely mentioned inside the building, even though it makes him one of the few players to win an NCAA title, an NBA championship, and an Olympic gold medal.
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