I am going to miss McArthur Court.
Watching basketball games at the venerable and intimate arena teaches you just exactly what those two well-meaning adjectives mean. Student fans are packed into Section 10 like sardines, allowing for an intimate connection with a person you’ve never seen before. Fans share awkward hugs over high-flying acrobatics with other strangers. Bringing down the house is no longer an overwrought cliché but a stated and attainable goal. The stars of college basketball are mere mortals that can be touched – and pulled back into the mass of students. Atmospherically, Mac Court is less a basketball arena than it is a living room with great acoustics.
Within the next few years, Mac Court will be replaced by a new, shiny arena with roughly 3,000 more seats and enough amenities to rival the Rose Garden. This nameless new arena has passed a critical test – obtaining a conditional use permit, bringing it one step closer to an official building permit – and one of the oldest home basketball courts in the nation (built in 1926) will require repurposing.
In light of the forthcoming construction, a lot of friends have told me how much they would probably hate watching games from Mac Court. There is a lot to support this: treacherous staircases, seats built for the smaller and thinner people of yesteryear and the possibility of falling out of the third-floor balcony areas. I won’t likely be around as a student for the first season in the new arena, but the excitement about it is palpable even now.
There remains, of course, the question of what to do with the ancient building. It sits on pretty valuable land on University Street, and a mostly vacated basketball court is no one’s idea of efficient land use. An Oregon student proposed a resolution to the ASUO to keep Mac Court intact last spring, and the occasional rumor regarding Mac Court’s demolition persists.
I see no reason why not to keep it. That court means too much to too many people, and another indoor facility for student purposes – especially one with such quirk and charm – never hurts school pride and public relations. The building is, after all, named after Clifton (Pat) McArthur, Oregon’s first student-body president. It is a true building of the people upon which the University thrives.
That said, Mac Court ought to be recast.
It would be somewhat difficult, but I envision a remodeling project where the first floor and downstairs areas are renovated, becoming athletic department offices. Goodness knows that custodians and construction crews may never fully rid the place of all its imperfections, but such an intimate venue – there’s that word again – has a place within the context of the greater University. Surely, the administration and athletic department appreciate the value of a 9,087-seat, covered venue.
This paves the way for the real eyesore to go: Esslinger Hall. The day that building gets the wrecking ball treatment (let’s forget logistics for a brief moment), I’d like to be the first one on the release lever. McArthur Court at least has 82 years of history behind it; Esslinger Hall is a pallid, austere afterthought, hardly contributing to its surroundings. Tear that down and build something bigger and better in its place, connecting the Student Recreation Center to McArthur Court, with more space for classrooms, faculty offices, student recreation facilities – anything that’s practical, cost-effective, spacious, and architecturally cognizant of its surroundings.
Mac Court was built for the students, and it should be kept in their hands.
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