Fastbreak: UO Men's Hoops Checks Out New Arena Construction
UO men's hoops checks out new arena construction
Friday, May 1, 1:30 p.m. PT
The Oregon men’s basketball program joined the volleyball team and a variety of other athletic department employees on Thursday night for a tour of the Matthew Knight Arena construction site. Groups of 20 people were taken into the pit for a first-hand look at how the new facility is taking shape. Click here to view a photo album of the construction site visit.
UO men's basketball team getting
a tour of the new arena.
The event was designed for student-athletes and employees to get the most up-to-date info on the development of the new arena.
“It’s great having student-athletes from volleyball, basketball as well as a lot of our coaches and staff to see this built from the ground up,” UO’s Executive Senior Associate Athletic Director Jim Bartko said.
Head coach Ernie Kent and the men’s basketball program came over as a unit after meeting at their current facility McArthur Court. “The magnitude of just how big this new arena is going to be, it’s just amazing,” Kent said. “You get a sense of what that arena is going to mean to this community.”
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The impressive size is also what captured the attention of the student-athletes from UO men’s basketball. “When we walked down in that hole, we started to realize how big it’s going to be,” Garrett Sim said.
Sim, who started in 26-of-31 games as a true freshman this past season, is one of 10 players on the current men’s basketball roster who will have a chance to play in the new facility. Both the UO men’s and women’s basketball programs are expected to begin playing at Matthew Knight Arena by the Pac-10 Conference portion of the 2010-11 schedule.
“I thought it was pretty cool,” Sim said of the tour. “We (the team) were all trying to visualize how it would look when it was done. The guide let us know where the court was going to be and how high the seats were going to go.”
UO’s new arena will be 397,825 square feet and is set to hold a capacity of 12,541.
GoDunks.net is a website devoted to all things related to UO’s new basketball and volleyball arena. Visit that website for arena information, ticket and seating information, as well as downloadable media. Check out blog posts from coaches and other officials involved with the construction of the arena.
