A new basketball stadium will be under construction by next summer if everything goes as Vice President Dan Williams and Athletic Director Bill Moos hope.
Once completed, the new arena will be able to house 50 percent more raging Duck fans than 77-year-old McArthur Court, which seats about 9,000. The as-yet-unnamed arena could cost more than $100 million and will be funded largely through private donations.
According to Moos, it should be possible to build the entire arena without incurring any debt to the University.
“There’s been a lot of excitement about the project,” he said. “The school’s been enjoying considerable achievement, and the donors are excited to be involved.”
University officials began working with the consulting firm CSL International in December to identify appropriate sites for the new University basketball arena. Thursday, University officials announced the seven possible sites identified by CSL.
Two of the sites are on land already owned by the University. The site next to Autzen Stadium, located on Centennial Boulevard, provides adequate space for the arena and is already zoned for the appropriate level of use. Howe Field, the current home of the University softball program, is right on campus. If the arena were built at Howe, it could be used for other University needs, allowing McArthur Court to be used as an auxiliary gym.
Three of the sites are within walking distance of the University: the federal courthouse site, located on Broadway Street; the old Coca-Cola bottling site, on Riverfront Parkway between Franklin Boulevard and Millrace Drive; and the Williams’ Bakery site, located on East 13th Avenue between Columbia Street and Villard Street. Both the bottling site and the bakery site are already zoned for acceptable land use. All three sites could easily be used for other University activities.
There are two sites stationed along Franklin Boulevard, one in Glenwood and one in Springfield. Both are on the bus line and are of adequate size for the arena.
In making its final selection, the University will judge each site by its proximity to campus, capacity, parking, acceptable traffic flow, ability to serve other needs, appropriate land use, community development goals and availability for construction before July 1, 2004.
Williams said all the sites were equally acceptable, but he was hopeful that one site, after evaluation, would rise above the rest.
Regardless of the site chosen, both Williams and Moos said they will work with planners to ensure the arena adequately serves the needs of the students and the athletic program. These needs include incorporating the emotional attachment many fans feel with McArthur Court into the new building.
“There’s a tremendous amount of passion for Mac Court,” Moos said. “The challenges we face include the need to capture the intimidating and unique environment of Mac Court in a new arena.”
This intimidation factor may have helped the Ducks win 30 of their 32 home games over the last two seasons, Moos said.
The University hired the HKS architecture firm, from Dallas, to aid in the planning of the new arena, which Williams said will have a similar feel to the current stadium.
Men’s basketball head coach Ernie Kent said it is not the building that is important to the team and to the University; it is the people that attend the games.
“The image that I sell all the time, on the road, all across the country, is not so much the building but the community,” Kent said. “It’s the people that make Mac Court what it is. If we can keep that same community, that same involvement, then the transition to a new court will be smooth.”
Not everyone is ready to give up McArthur Court so easily, however. Sophomore Rudy Tyburczy has attended several men’s basketball games at the venerable stadium and said a new court would not hold the same magic, or intimidation factor, as the original.
“It’s always great going to games at Mac Court,” Tyburczy said. “Whenever you go, you’re going to have a great time. There’s just something sort of special about Mac — there’s no other place like it in the nation.”
The athletic department will present plans for the new arena by July 1 to University President Dave Frohnmayer, but a formal announcement of the plan will probably not occur until fall term 2003, according to a University spokeswoman.