The plan for a new Alabama basketball/gymnastics arena was announced Thursday in a board of trustees committee meeting.
The long-awaited reveal is the first of many steps required before a shovel hits the ground or a ball is dribbled. Several more approvals must come with construction bids to come in a process that will last a few more years.
FULL DETAILS: All you need to know about the proposed new Alabama basketball arena
Proposals call for a 10,136-seat replacement of 54-year-old Coleman Coliseum with an estimated cost of $183 million. Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne detailed the plans Thursday at the physical properties committee meeting of the UA System Board of Trustees meeting.
Let’s take a look at the artist renderings of the new arena.
The exterior drawing (seen above) shows a structure with a fieldhouse looks complete with windows behind the baskets to allow natural sunlight.
Byrne was asked about how they’d handle that possible glare and he said they’ve spoken with representatives at facilities like Butler’s Hinkle Fieldhouse, a legendary complex with windows. Byrne said they’d look at drapery that would block that light when necessary.
A rendering of the interior of the proposed new arena at the University of Alabama. (Photo courtesy UA Athletics)
One of the primary issues with Coleman Coliseum is the proximity of the seating bowl to the floor. The permanent seating sits a full 17 feet from the sidelines in Coleman and this proposal would cut that distance significantly.
Student seating would wrap three-quarters of the way around the basketball court in a design similar to many college arenas built in the last decade. The goal is to create a more intimate setting where the crowd can have more of an impact on the game.
The student seating would be bleachers instead of fixed seating since there’s not much sitting involved.
Artist renderings of the proposed new basketball/gymnastics arena on the University of Alabama campus. (Photo courtesy UA Athletics)UA photo
Alabama looked at a number of new college basketball arenas around the nation for design inspiration. There’s a clear influence of the Pavilion at Ole Miss, which opened in 2016 with approximately 9,500 seats.
A two-tiered arena with steep pitch keeping fans close to the action, the Pavilion has students on three of the four lower-level sides near the court.
Artist rendering of the gymnastics setup for the proposed arena on Alabama's campus. (Photo courtesy UA Athletics)
This will also be the home of Alabama gymnastics and here’s a view of how that would look. The bleachers used for student seating at basketball games would retract so equipment for all four of the events could fit on the floor.
The capacity of the unnamed arena would clearly decrease for gymnastics. An exact figure was not presented but Byrne said the student section would hold approximately 2,200.
Alabama athletics also released a video of the renderings on social media.