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Lloyd Noble Center locker room project won't slow push for new OU basketball arena
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- Lloyd Noble Center locker room project won't slow push for new OU basketball arena
Tuesday's decision by the OU Board of Regents to approve a $9.5 million renovation of the Lloyd Noble Center's locker room areas won't do anything to slow down the push for a new arena.
"I think everyone knows the commitment needs to be toward having a new venue — a new venue for men's basketball," Sooners men's coach Porter Moser said Monday, the day before the board's action. "You look at some of the teams' venues and atmospheres in this league, and it becomes very hard to play in. Everything I've heard is that everything is about moving in that direction."
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In late 2022, OU and the City of Norman conducted a survey to judge the appetite for a new arena.
Results of that survey are now being compiled, and will be used in conjunction with a feasibility study of an arena and entertainment district in the University North Park area just east of Interstate 35 and north of Rock Creek Road.
It's the same area where an arena and entertainment district were proposed five years ago. That plan fell through.
"We expect that process to be … culminating in the next couple of months, certainly in time for the June board meeting, maybe a little before then," Sooners athletic director Joe Castiglione said.
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"At the same time, we've engaged an architect to study how the Lloyd Noble Center could be reimagined and rebuilt to be an arena that will serve our programs. So sort of, I guess you could call it a simultaneous effort — not waiting on one to do the other but having both going on at the same time. So when we get the results, then we can make the best decision."
More: What went wrong for OU in season-ending loss to OSU in Big 12 men's basketball tournament?
Debates over whether to build a new OU basketball arena, but what OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. did is reminiscent of a professional sports owner threatening relocation.
Castiglione said the survey done ahead of the project proposal five years ago showed moving the arena away from campus couldn't deter student attendance.
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While Lloyd Noble Center is on campus, it's hardly easy walkable for the vast majority of students.
"About 85% of them drive," Castiglione said, referring to the earlier survey. "So driving to Lloyd Noble or driving over there, I think, from their engagement wouldn't change that much."
The board approved the design development phase of the LNC project, the overall budget and $7 million in funding. The project will be paid for by athletics department funds and private donations.
The project, first approved as an addition to the campus master plan in May 2022, includes an update of approximately 13,400 square feet of team spaces including locker rooms, and approximately 8,400 of office, meeting and support spaces.
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The Lloyd Noble Center was completed in 1975 at a cost of $6 million.
While the arena remains among the top half of newest arenas in the Big 12, many of the five older arenas in the league have undergone extensive renovations to modernize the facilities.
OU is set to join the Southeastern Conference in the summer of 2024. Only four arenas in the SEC are older than Lloyd Noble Center.
More: Tramel's ScissorTales: Porter Moser knows OU men's basketball needs a talent upgrade
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU basketball: Lloyd Noble renovation won't slow push for new arena
