Steele: New arena project on schedule

At the moment, it isn’t much.

It’s just one of a few dozen classrooms in the heart of Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Most days, no one even bothers to unlock the door. The room sits in quiet darkness.

The only furnishings are a blank blackboard, several tables and a handful of plans.

But looks aren’t everything.

This modest room is the nerve center for the largest single building project in Auburn University history: AU’s new basketball arena, scheduled to break ground this summer and host its first game in the fall of 2010.

And the quiet in the room won’t last. Auburn’s Board of Trustees is scheduled to give its final approval for the project, expected to cost $92.5 million, in April.

Between now and then, Jeff Steele will be busy.

Steele, AU’s associate athletic director for facilities, is one of several AU administrators involved in the project. A full-time project manager won’t be appointed until construction begins in the summer.

For now, Steele is part of a sizeable group taking care of the final planning details, with members scattered across the country. The group also includes representatives of the two architecture firms hired by AU to design the project, the construction consulting firm Robins & Morton, and officials from several other AU departments and committees, including University Facilities, Handicap Access, Risk Management and a half-dozen others, including other athletic-department representatives.

Some or all of those planners meet once a month in the small, quiet room in Beard-Eaves. Surrounded by humming laptops and video projectors, they painstakingly review each step of the construction process.

In those meetings and in weekly conference calls, they’ve discussed every feature of the new arena, down to the most trivial-seeming details.

“We’re at the point now where we’ve literally gone room-by-room, door-by-door, and said, ‘What hardware is in this door? How do you want this door to operate?’” Steele said. “It’s really, really detailed. It’s amazing.”

Soon, those theoretical discussions will give way to practical construction. Steele says the project is still on schedule.

“We’re still in good shape with every piece of the puzzle that’s got to fit here,” he said. “So far, through a great team effort, we’ve been able to get in position to stay on schedule.”

The arena, currently slated to seat around 9,600 fans, will be built near the intersection of Wire Road and Roosevelt Drive, northwest of Beard-Eaves. The new arena will host the men’s and women’s basketball teams for games, practices, weight-lifting sessions and meetings.

It will also host the university’s ticket office, the athletic department’s Lovelace Museum, a university merchandise retail store and more.

“It’s a tremendous commitment for the Auburn people and for Auburn athletics,” AU athletic director Jay Jacobs said in a recent interview with the Opelika-Auburn News. “I just appreciate the Board of Trustees and the President’s vision to keep us moving forward.”

The new arena isn’t yet named, though the university is expected to consider selling naming rights to a corporation. The bulk of the construction costs will be borne by a bond issue; university fund-raising is expected to provide the remainder of the $92.5 million price tag.

The arena will replace Beard-Eaves, currently in its 40th year.

cmickle@oanow.com | 737-2561