Construction of the University of Arkansas’ $25 million Basketball Performance Center will officially begin on Saturday, Dec. 7 at 11 a.m.
Jeff Long, Arkansas head men’s basketball coach Mike Anderson and Arkansas head women’s basketball coach Tom Collen will be among those taking part in the festivities. The groundbreaking ceremony is open to the general public.
“We invite Razorback fans to join us as we break ground on the Basketball Performance Center, a facility that will serve as integral part of the future success of Razorback men’s and women’s basketball,” Long says. “Although we are still in the process of raising the funding needed for the facility, it is critical we move ahead to provide our basketball programs with a facility to bring us up to the level of the institutions we compete with day in and day out in the SEC and around the region. I am confident that even as we begin construction, others will step up with support to help provide the our men’s and women’s basketball programs a comprehensive practice facility which will help us better serve the development needs of our current and future student-athletes.”
The 66,000 square foot facility is scheduled to open in the summer of 2015. Arkansas is currently the only Southeastern Conference program without a basketball practice facility.
“The Basketball Performance Center will give us the ability to hold practices and other team related activities at any time of the day independent of other scheduled events at Bud Walton Arena,” Long says. “It will also allow tremendous flexibility in accommodating student-athletes academic schedules to help further assist them on their track to graduation. The everyday use of the Basketball Performance Center will also allow us to explore more frequent and diverse uses of Bud Walton Arena. Additional campus and outside events could bring significant additional economic benefits to our region even beyond the current estimated $1 billion economic impact affiliated with Razorback Athletics in the next five years.”
Following the ceremony, Arkansas hosts Clemson in men’s basketball at 1 p.m. Later that evening, the Razorback women’s team hosts Northwestern State at 7 p.m.
