A lot of Auburn basketball fans have been waiting for this day for some time. Construction has started on the school’s new basketball arena.
It isn’t going to be ready for two years but that doesn’t matter to many Auburn hoop devotees. Construction on the school’s new $92.5 million basketbal arena started Monday. Under the current schedule, the arena would be ready in 720 days. That would put it totally done on July 4, 2010.
If that happens, AU athletic director Randy Byars says the 9,600 seat facility may come in under budget.
The arena is being built near the intersection of Wire Road and Roosevelt Drive, northwest of Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum (the building it will replace) and adjacent to the university’s new dorms, which are slated to open in August 2009.
The new arena, which does not yet have a name, will host the men’s and women’s basketball teams for games, practices, weight-lifting and meetings. It will also include the university’s ticket office, the athletic department’s Lovelace Museum and a retail store for AU-branded merchandise.
