The building’s capacity will be slightly less than that of Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum, but the noise at Auburn’s new basketball arena promises to be powerful.
“This thing’s built for basketball,” said Randy Byars, Auburn’s director of athletic facility planning, who gave reporters a tour of the site Monday.
The $92-million, 9,600-seat basketball arena is set to open July 2010, and is actually ahead of schedule as far as its construction goes, Byars said.
“That’s a first for Auburn,” he joked. “The unexpected has been positive.”
The building promises to be a bit more cozy than the cavernous Beard-Eaves. A substantially lower ceiling, which will hang very close to those seated in the building’s upper deck, will force all the noise to the floor, Byars said.
The upper deck, which will hold about 1,700-1,900 fans, hangs down toward the floor and “is one of the best seats in the house,” Byars said.
“It’s going to be much more intimate.”
Approximately 1,500 spots around the court will be reserved for students, while 450 premium seats will dot the floor courtside.
Even when fans go to the concession stands, they won’t be out of the game, as the openness of the building will keep the court and scoreboard in plain sight.
“It’s not Beard-Eaves, where you leave and go to the concession stand and you might as well be going somewhere else in Lee County,” Byars said.
A massive crane currently sits at center court, but it will be removed some time in early March, Byars said. The first roof trusses will arrive next week, he said.
Minimal changes have been made to the building’s design. One notable difference will be on the middle level seats, which were originally designed to look like tiger stripes wrapped around the arena.
The design looked good on a computer screen, but it didn’t translate well in the flesh.
“It looked like a Lego set with not enough Legos,” Byars said. “You just don’t do that in real life.”
Byars said Beard-Eaves will be knocked down in about five years, whenever the new student recreation center is completed. What will be done with the site is still up in the air.
Some possibilities are more intramural fields or a parking deck, Byars said.
agribble@oanow.com | 737-2561
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