How important is new arena?

[DKW 86 7,419]

http://auburn.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=687307

Is it just me or does Lebo suddenly look 10 years younger?

Jeffrey Lee

AuburnSports.com Editor

Related Links:

NEW ARENA PHOTO GALLERY

Talk about it in The Bunker

Auburn's basketball programs are one step closer to getting a new place to play. And for men's coach Jeff Lebo and women's coach Nell Fortner, that's music to their ears.

Both coaches were in attendance Thursday morning when the Board of Trustees' property and facilities committee voted unanimously to recommend spending $92.5 million to build a new basketball arena.

AuburnSports.com

Forter and her lucky sweater that she wore while winning the gold medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

"I say 'thank you' to the board for looking at this and deciding this is necessary," said Fortner, who wore her lucky blouse to the meeting.

The full board is expected to give its final approval Friday.

The plans for the arena call for a 243,792-square foot facility which would seat 9,600, and include two practice courts, locker rooms, offices, luxury suites, seats near the playing surface and the new home of the Lovelace Museum.

The arena would sit in the northwest corner of Roosevelt Drive and Connector Drive, directly north of Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, and adjacent to the new student-athlete housing project.

"It's a great day to be a basketball coach at Auburn. I am very excited," said Fortner. "I think this is an absolutely gorgeous building. I absolutely love it."

"It's an exciting time," said AU athletic director Jay Jacobs. "This is the one piece we're missing."

Fortner agreed.

"When we bring our recruits here, we show them Auburn. We show them the professors, our administrators, our president, our other head coaches and assistant coaches, and Auburn sells itself," Fortner told the committee. "But we are moving into a different age. The different age is where universities are building new arenas, building new practice facilities. Kids are wanting to play in new arenas.

"Our coliseum has been wonderful and it has served a wonderful generation of players, but we know it's time to move forward. This is a fantastic way to move forward. To bring athletes here and be able to show them what the future of Auburn basketball is going to be, is very, very exciting for me, and I know for Jeff (Lebo) also."

AuburnSports.com

Lebo was ecstatic with the news of the committee's approval Thursday.

Currently, the men's and women's basketball teams share Beard-Eaves. Scheduling practice isn't always the easiest thing to do for Fortner and/or Lebo. The new arena however would erase those problems, said Lebo.

"We share practice space. We're not able to practice at the same time," he said. "We practiced in Beard-Eaves and I charted it one year. We were out of there for 100 days, where we really didn't have a place to practice.

"Basketball, like all other sports, is 365 days. With this practice facility having two full courts, it will allow us the court space and baskets to have a competitive practice."

Although practice space is a high priority, the statement the new arena makes about the importance of basketball on the Plains is the selling point according to Lebo.

"When I came to Auburn, we fought a lot of things. There was some perception out there that basketball wasn't important at Auburn," he said. "We fight that in recruiting. They say there is no commitment to basketball at Auburn.

"We're going to put an end to that hopefully today. We're going to have some pride. We're going to have pride for our players, coaches, our fans, our students, the scholarship donors, to walk into a facility and feel good about it."

Lebo wasn't sure the day would ever come. The idea of renovating Beard-Eaves again, as well as building a practice facility, had been thrown around since his hiring in 2004. Lebo thought that might be the best he would get.

"I can't tell you how many people have told me over the past three years that this would not happen, that this was not going to happen," he said. "But this is going to be a showcase of arenas, not only in this league, but this country, and I'm happy to be a part of it.

"I can't tell you how proud I am to be your coach today."

The funding for the project will come from the athletic department and private donors. Dr. Ed Richardson, outgoing AU president, said he has contacted two big companies about naming rights for the arena, but didn't go into specifics.

Trustee Bobby Lowder said he doesn't foresee money being a problem.

"I feel confident we'll have the resources to do this," said Lowder. "I feel confident we'll have the funds in hand."

Construction would begin next summer and be completed in time for the opening of the 2010-2011 season.

[TDAuburn 2]

It will not only help attract recruits, it should also help keep Lebo, who I think is *the* coach for Auburn, from jumping ship.

[townhallsavoy 2]

It's big time important. Beard-Eaves has always struck me as being a generation behind. Jordan-Hare keeps getting renovated and look at how well our football team is doing. I see no reason why an SEC school like Auburn can't have a successful basketball team. The fan interest is there - just look at how pumped the Coliseum gets when we play Bama, Florida, or Kentucky. This new arena will be a big recruiting tool and also seems like it will be productive for the players already there.

[autigeremt 6,596]

I agree!!!!! It's vital to the overall success of Auburn Athletics. It's another piece to an impressive family of facilities here on campus.