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The Tuscaloosa News
What Alabama AD Greg Byrne said about new arena timeline, naming process and locations
- Story byThe Tuscaloosa News
- What Alabama AD Greg Byrne said about new arena timeline, naming process and locations
Plenty of work remains for Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne and company.
On Friday, the UA System Board of Trustees gave Byrne and UA the green light to formally plan for a new basketball and gymnastics arena. Byrne presented plans Thursday for an arena that would cost about $183 million and seat about 10,400.
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The approval allows Alabama to get more detailed in all areas with the planning: specifically construction and cost.
So, what's next?
"There's going to be a number of processes that we go through, through the board of trustees, in the building of any facility, including this one," Byrne said Friday. "We're going to need to continue to raise money for the projects. We've been fortunate to have some success from the generosity of our donors and feel there's more opportunity for other people to get involved to make this a reality. But those will be ongoing. We'll be starting to talk more directly with architects and get further ideas and designs put together on what it can look like to hopefully, eventually, get a shovel in the ground on this."
NEW ARENA: New Alabama arena, golf complex get green light for formal planning
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RENDERINGS: Here are the renderings for proposed Alabama basketball and gymnastics arena
Byrne addressed a variety of questions related to the new arena Friday.
What's the process for naming the arena?
Byrne said the naming process must go through the UA System Board of Trustees.
"We'll obviously be identifying different things that we can recognize people who support the project through," Byrne said. "That's early on in the planning process now, and that will continue."
What will Alabama prioritize in determining location?
Conceptually, Byrne said UA wants a spot that is easily accessible for students.
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"One of the ones that we put forward as a potential site up above the RV parking and softball; obviously a lot of the new dorms (residents) can walk there easily," Byrne said. "A lot of the fraternity houses have access there. Our campus shuttle system goes right by that area."
Alabama also wants the general public to be able to get in and out as easily as possible.
Why arena will not seat more
Byrne hears those who want more seats than the proposed approximate of 10,400, but there's a reason for the number.
"You build your church not necessarily for Easter Sunday but the other 51 weeks of the year," Byrne said.
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Some games, Alabama has exceeded that number. Not many, though, Byrne said.
"So we want to make sure we keep the demand," Byrne said. "We want to make sure it's an intimate environment."
It also helps make it more affordable for building the arena and for fans. Adding height to the arena and size significantly drives the costs up. And fans would feel that through cost of tickets.
"Not saying this can't change a little bit," Byrne said. "It potentially can. But we really feel from the research we've done … I'm not going to name the school, but one of the arenas we went and visited, and we've listed most of the ones we went and visited, but we didn't list all of the conversations we've had. If they had to do it over again, most of the ones we talked to would be much more efficient with their numbers or a little bit smaller than what they've done. Not all of them, but some of them."
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What happens to Coleman Coliseum?
The new arena would be a competition-only facility, making Coleman Coliseum still important for all teams that use it now.
"We'll still have all the infrastructure that we have at Coleman still be in use," Byrne said.
Byrne wants to move women's basketball to Coleman and build a practice gym there equivalent to the men's. Then Foster Auditorium would become a volleyball-only facility.
"We did do some study of what does it look like if we brought some of these operations up to a new arena," Byrne said. "Just from a day-to-day standpoint, it's a lot more efficient to keep it right where it is from strength and conditioning to nutrition to medical, all the different things. That's the path that we went down with that and decided that we needed to continue to use Coleman on a regular basis."
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Contact Alabama reporter Nick Kelly: nkelly@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter: @_NickKelly.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: What's timeline for new Alabama basketball arena? Greg Byrne explains
