AU HOOPS: New arena on schedule for opening late next year

Under budget and ahead of schedule.

Music to Randy Byars’ ears.

The new Auburn basketball arena is about 56-percent complete and is on target to be finished before its July 14, 2010 contract deadline, said Byars, Auburn’s director of athletic facilities, construction and planning.

To view a photo slideshow of the new arena, click here.

“I’d be surprised if we don’t finish a little ahead of that,” he said.

It’s also about $9 million under the original $92.5-million budget.

“(Being under budget) has allowed us to put money back into (the arena),” Byars said from the unfinished floor of the arena Thursday while giving members of the media a tour.

And that’s a good thing. So much of a good thing that the left over money already has a place to go, as Auburn is now moving ahead with plans to build another athletic facility for soccer and track and field.

Three million of what was under budget went back into the basketball arena, Byars said, completing some things that would have been originally unfinished when the building opens next summer — such as two 50-person banquet rooms inside the arena.

The other $6 million is going to a two-story facility which will house both the women’s soccer and men and women’s track and field offices and locker rooms, Byars said.

“That was something we were going to do, but it helped speed up the process having that extra money,” he said of the soccer and track facility, which Auburn will bid on in the next two weeks.

The soccer and track and field building is set to break ground in August, Byars said, and will be finished around the same time as the basketball arena.

With anywhere from 200-250 people working on the arena per day, it’s easy to see why the project is moving along so rapidly.

The scoreboard is set to be put in by the end of October. The seats arrive in November. The floor, which will be one of the final pieces of construction, is expected to arrive in December, Byars said.

“What’s nice about it being done is July is that we get a chance to work out all the bugs before the season starts,” Byars said.

The 9,600-seat arena will have everything from cushioned seats with arm rests to cup holders to an open-air view of the court from anywhere inside.

“You can be standing at the concession stand, getting food and still see the court,” Byars said. “There’s no bad seat in the house. Everything will be open.

“Except the bathrooms. We decided to close them,” he quipped.

There will also be a section specifically for students, equipped with their own entrance, concession area and lobby.

Fifteen hundred bleacher-type seats will surround three sides of the floor making up the student section.

The rest will be chair-back seats, with the lower level seating colored blue, the middle level (which will seat the majority of the fans) orange and the upper level (about 1,400 seats) blue.

Media, coaches, players and scholarship donors will enter from a separate entrance, as will students. The rest of the fans will enter through the north side of the building, which faces the new student housing development.

Once inside the main entrance, fans will immediately see the Lovelace Museum, which used to be in the first floor of the athletic complex. The 6,000-square foot museum will also be open for fans to walk around, while still being able to keep an eye on the game. There will also be a Hall of Honor, leading fans in and out of the main entrance.

“It’s not going to be the biggest, but I think it’s going to be one of the best in the SEC,” Byars said. “Just walking in the place, you’re going to look at it and say ‘Wow.’”

mszvetitz@oanow.com | 737-2513