April 16, 2004
Columbia, Mo. - Over the past year I have shared with you my excitement surrounding our new basketball arena. As I have maintained from the day the first set of drawings were complete, when it is finished, the Paige Sports Arena will be the finest on-campus arena in the country. It will be a phenomenal home for Missouri Basketball, and many other exciting events, for years to come.
While some people have noted concerns as to the name of this building, I choose to recognize the benevolence of the Laurie family. Had it not been for their lead gift of $25 million, this facility would not have been possible. There is no other way to more clearly state the fact that it just wouldn't have come about without their generosity. There is no question in my mind that the state of Missouri would not have contributed $35 million in general revenue bonds, nor would we as a department have been able to come up with the rest of the private funding to bring this $75 million project to fruition.
I was honored to be a part of the halftime ceremony at our basketball game on March 7th, when Chancellor Dr. Richard Wallace announced that "from this point and forever, the court the Missouri Tigers play on will be known as Norm Stewart Court." This too, would not have happened without the kindness of Bill, Nancy and Paige Laurie. I would think that most all Missourians believe that this is the only name that should grace the playing surface of the Paige Sports Arena.
For 32 years at Missouri, Coach Stewart led the Tigers to 634 wins and just 333 defeats. Not only did he put Missouri on a national stage in the sport, but during many lean years in the sport of football, he gave Tiger fans something of which to be proud. One could argue that from the mid 1980's through the mid 1990's, he kept the Missouri sports program not only in the hearts and minds of Mizzou fans across this country, but solvent when finances were touchy. We are excited about having the opportunity to pay tribute to his legacy in this way, and in other ways in the new arena that you will be able to see when it opens this October!
As citizens of this great state, one thing you must know about the Paige Sports Arena is that this project is going to be on-time and most importantly, on-budget! This is the only responsible way to operate. Not every institution can say that. In a recent two-part series in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, it was revealed that the University of Pittsburgh's Petersen Events Center more than tripled in cost. Originally a $35 million project, the final price tag for the arena was a staggering $119 million due to construction overruns and delays and changes made by the department.
In addition, the share of the bill being paid for by the citizens of the state of Pennsylvania increased fivefold, from $13 million to $66 million. According to the newspaper, costs of the two-year-old building could even continue to climb. The university is in the midst of a legal battle with an architect and two contractors who claim they are still owed another $2.3 million. This is a very unfortunate situation to develop, and I can only imagine what type of scrutiny we would face here at Mizzou had something like that happened to our project. Again, you have my guarantee that this project will be on-time and on-budget.
Among the reasons that I can make that promise is because of the people who are on the front lines in the construction of "The Paige," from our internal design team, to our general contractor J.E. Dunn of Kansas City. Mr. Terry Dunn has been a terrific partner in this project. In fact, had it not been for Mr. Dunn's ability to react to adversity recently, we may indeed have had a problem. A subcontractor that was supplying steel to the facility filed for bankruptcy due to a number of factors. Mr. Dunn stepped forward and paid that company's employees the wages they were owed to avoid any delays in construction. Partners like this give someone seated in my chair a very high level of confidence!
We are about two weeks into the seat selection process for the Paige Sports Arena. Our fans have responded in amazing fashion. The average season ticket holder has purchased on-average slightly more than five seats per account. At Hearnes, that average was 3.3! But don't worry, there are still plenty of good seats available. Remember, the "worst" seat in our new building will be equivalent to the top of C section at Hearnes. There are also 26 suites in the new arena, and to date we have sold 20. Tiger Fans are excited about the Paige Sports Arena.
As always, I would like to thank-you for taking the time to read this column. If you have any questions about this topic, or anything related to Mizzou Athletics or collegiate athletics in general, please feel free to e-mail me at aldenm@missouri.edu.