After the Board of Visitors authorized strategic planning for a new basketball facility in October 1998, the Virginia athletics department did some preliminary work, such as discuss possible sites and designs, to plan for the arena. But an anonymous donor's $20 million gift on June 15 enabled the athletics department to proceed with formal planning, and the University now has a concrete outline for the future stadium.
The proposed setting is the north parking lot across from University Hall, the current basketball arena. After completing a feasibility study - a massing study to begin examining the issues of siting such a building in the landscape - architects have developed preliminary drawings of what the new facility might look like. The sketches include a pond on the east and north sides of the main building, which plans to accommodate around 15,000 people, as well as several smaller, related buildings for practices, training, team administration and meals, parking and other uses. In addition to basketball uses, the facility will be a state-of-the-art arena for concerts, public speeches and other special events.
The projected total cost of the project is $125 million, which includes expenses from associated parking. According to Virginia interim athletics director Craig Littlepage and President John T. Casteen III, the University's goal is to secure at least $60 million in pledges and donations before physically breaking ground with the project.
Because the athletics department does not get state or University dollars to build facilities, all of the money will have to come from private sources, and therefore significant planning for the fund-raising component also has begun. According to Littlepage, the $20 million donation was a huge step, although seemingly a relatively small portion of the total estimate.
"This is a long process and the start and completion of the project will be determined by our success in raising the money," he said. "The gift was a great start.
"We will follow a similar fund-raising model that was used for the Carl Smith Stadium project."
The University plans to finish the facility by the 2006-07 academic year, as the Board of Visitors included the project in the six-year capital outlay plan submitted to the state in the spring. On July 14, the Board approved the hirings of VMDO Architects, P.C. of Charlottesville as the primary architect, and Ellerbe Becket of Minneapolis as the design consultant. The University expects that design guidelines will be presented to the Board at its October meeting this fall.
The University isn't far enough along in its planning to have an exact architectural model for the arena and its interior, but it has ideas in mind. Whatever the final design, the athletics department wants the new facility to foster a definite home-team advantage for both men's and women's basketball. According to Casteen, the stadium's architecture will not based on another stadium.
"It will be a unique adaptation of traditional stadium designs to the University's local architectural styles," he said.
"The goal is to have an attractive 'signature' building which would let visitors know they have arrived at the University of Virginia," Littlepage added.
With the new arena, the athletics department hopes to fix a number of problems that the current University Hall has. These include inadequate seating, tight corridors, poor accommodations for concessions and rest rooms, poor acoustics, lack of air conditioning and little flexibility for use on the arena floor. In 1999, University Hall had to undergo repairs for a failure in its roofing and lighting system.
The new arena will most likely have a rectangular or oval shape rather than the circular shape of University Hall. The stadium's projected capacity of 15,000 is a great increase from University Hall's 8,394 - the smallest seating capacity in the ACC - and will become the ACC's third-largest arena behind North Carolina's Dean Smith Center and N.C. State's Sports Arena. The additional seats also will allow the athletics department to offer more single-game tickets for basketball games to members of the community, therefore increasing home support for the teams. Also in the plans are preferred seating in the form of suites and boxes.
The facility "will include things to help audiences enjoy attending events there," University spokeswoman Louise Dudley said.
While University Hall has its share of problems, it has hosted basketball games since 1965 and undoubtedly will be remembered as one of the University's most unique buildings.
University Hall "will be missed," Littlepage said. "It will continue to stand for a period of time following the opening of the new arena"
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