Thanks in part to a major gift from alum John Q. Hammons, Missouri State’s basketball players have a new 11,000 seat facility to play in this winter.
SPRINGFIELD, MO – JQH ARENA
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Scheduled Opening: |
November 2008 |
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Capacity: |
11,000 (basketball); 10,542 (concerts) |
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Owner: |
Missouri State University |
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Arena Cost: |
$ 67 million |
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Suites: |
22 |
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Team (s): |
Missouri State University |
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Address: |
901 S. National Avenue, Springfield, MO 65897 |
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Phone: |
417-836-4143 |
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Website: |
www.missouristate.edu/arena |
It’s nice to have friends like John Q. Hammons. The Springfield, MO hotel developer, an alumnus of Missouri State, kicked in $30 million towards the construction of a new arena on campus. The school came up with the rest and, on November 22, the Bears’ men’s team will host Arkansas to jumpstart the arena. (The women start the next day against Arkansas State.)
The most amazing statistic regarding JQH Arena has nothing to do with the actual seating. It is the fact it is expected to be completed roughly $1 million under the anticipated $67 million budget.
The comparisons between the new place and Hammons Student Center (where both teams will play two exhibition games in early November) are striking. For example, JQH offers twice as many seats with chairbacks on them and three times as many student seats more than the old place. There are 6,000 plus seats in the lower bowl area as opposed to the 2,000 some at HSC. JQH also has more handicapped seating and offers three thigns not available in the old arean: courtside seating, Loge Seats and 22 suites.
All of which has led to a run on season tickets so heavy the school may have to cut them off to leave some individual game seating available to the Springfield area public.
Such a problem.
Missouri State has 17,000 students and plays in the tough Missouri Valley Conference with Drake, Wichita State, Bradley and Northern Iowa.
In addition to opening with Arkansas, the men’s team has a non-conference home date with Utah and is scheduled to appear on ESPN twice this season. Not to be outdone, the women will play host to Western Kentucky and DePaul in 2008-09. These dates were much easier to get with advent of the new arena.
