Baylor opens brand-new $212 million basketball arena

WACO, Texas– Baylor’s basketball groups are playing in a brand-new home along the banks of the Brazos River after 35 years under the golden dome of the Ferrell Center.The 18th-ranked

Bears christened the new Foster Structure with a 98-79 win over Cornell. The sixth-ranked women’s group debuts Wednesday night against in-state rival and 23rd-ranked TCU in a matchup of undefeated Huge 12 teams.While there become part of the$212 million center not yet completed far from the court, the 7,000-seat arena with standing-room space for about 500 more viewers was ready for games. It came 20 months after ground was broken in May 2022. Athletic director Mack Rhoades stated there were a great deal of discussions about whether to relocate for games without everything done. “There were two main motorists for us when we thought of that choice.

One was our student-athletes, giving our student-athletes, especially our senior citizens, an opportunity to play in a venue like this,”Rhoades said.”And then I believe for our basketball programs, we knew both of them were going to be truly, really excellent teams this year, but giving them the very best home-court advantage that they could have during the Big 12 season.”Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Among those in participation Tuesday night was billionaire business owner Costs Gates, who is dating benefactor Paula Hurd, a member of Baylor’s board of regents and the widow of Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. Gates and Paula Hurd sat on the floor directly behind the Bears bench.Before tipoff Tuesday, when most seats were filled, the school’s mascot delivered the game ball with a rappel from the rafters, where there are banners that honor the men’s 2021 national championship and three national titles won by the ladies’s group. Former player Matt Sayman provided an invocation.Foster Structure is on the edge of school throughout Interstate 35 from McLane Arena, the football arena that opened in 2014. The basketball arena belongs to a $700 million riverfront development in collaboration between the school and city of Waco.”We were very intentional about the fieldhouse design, about strolling in, about clean sightlines, big volume, about holding sound, making certain that in the arena part, it can be as loud as possible for our fans and for our basketball programs, “Rhoades said.It is simply over a mile from the Ferrell Center, which had a basketball capacity for more than 10,000 fans. That center was constructed for about$ 12.5 million and opened in 1988. Ferrell Center will remain home to the school’s national champion acrobatics and toppling team, and the females’s beach ball squad.The males’s and women’s basketball teams will continue to use their practice fitness centers at the Ferrell Center. The development center at the brand-new arena with practice courts, committed locker rooms and team lounges will be completed later this year.If the

Baylor ladies make the NCAA tournament and host first-and second-round games, those would be played at the Ferrell Center since of the additional space required that would not yet be available in the new structure.