{"id":38184,"date":"2014-07-31T16:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-07-31T21:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/?p=38184"},"modified":"2014-09-23T08:25:25","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:25:25","slug":"ole-miss-breaks-ground-on-new-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web20.olemiss.edu\/news\/wordpress\/ole-miss-breaks-ground-on-new-arena\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Breaks Ground on New Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Arena<\/a>

Arena groundbreaking ceremony and reception on July 31, 2014 on the UM campus.<\/p><\/div>\n

OXFORD, Miss. – Chancellor Dan Jones called them extraordinary days for the University of Mississippi, as the athletics program and university move forward together and build their shared dream of excellence.<\/p>\n

Once a vision, the new basketball arena, which will officially be named The Pavilion at Ole Miss, became more of a reality with a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is ceremonial, but it also shows it\u2019s a reality,\u201d Athletics Director Ross Bjork said. \u201cWe have seen the construction fence, the dirt being taken out and the parking garage up, but you have to celebrate a milestone like this. Today was about the ceremony and the reality, but it was also bringing the Ole Miss community together and having our student-athletes see it firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once completed, The Pavilion at Ole Miss will not only be a destination point for the Ole Miss men\u2019s and women\u2019s basketball programs, but for the entire athletics department and university.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a lot of excellence here,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to win a lot of basketball games. We\u2019re going to have a lot of good convocations here for students. Parents are going to see their children graduate from this university. Students who come here to look at the university are going to have a great place to convene to begin their campus tours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur students, faculty, staff, alumni, family, friends and visitors love being on this campus, and so our vision was to create a front door along All-American Drive that would be a capstone for Ole Miss Athletics,\u201d Bjork said. \u201cIt\u2019s a destination point for many things that can happen on this campus, and it\u2019s also close to the heart of the campus. The Pavilion at Ole Miss will be a reflection of its name as a large building used for public exhibit and sporting events for the Ole Miss family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new arena, Bjork said, is a commitment to excellence with facilities that speaks to greatness in recruiting and fan experience and a huge statement for the athletics program that shows they\u2019re healthy financially to continue growing and building.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a game day experience standpoint and all the things that you are asking from donors, we finally have the opportunity to provide them something that equates to the other sports on this campus,\u201d men\u2019s basketball head coach Andy Kennedy said. \u201cFrom a recruiting standpoint, it gives us the opportunity to say, \u2018You have everything you need to be successful as it relates to basketball.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great, not only for us, but for everyone on campus,\u201d women\u2019s basketball head coach Matt Insell said. \u201cFor us in terms of recruiting and walking into a new building, we go on the road and play in a lot of nice facilities and our girls are always wowed, but now teams are going to be wowed by our facilities because it\u2019s going to be one of the best on-campus arenas in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

AECOM<\/a> is architect of record for the project and is providing architectural design, structural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, acoustic design and cost consulting. Construction on the attached parking structure has been underway since the beginning of the year. Arena construction is expected to be complete by December of 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe arena design features an intimate seating bowl for great student interaction and fan experience,\u201d said Jon Niemuth, director of sports for AECOM. \u201cWe\u2019re excited to create a venue that embraces the campus community and creates an environment for top-level competitive athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bjork announced that the Forward Together capital campaign has reached the $112.5 million mark, on the way to its $150 million goal, which included the $85 million set aside for the new arena.<\/p>\n

Ole Miss will continue to aggressively pursue adding a name in front of the word \u201cPavilion,\u201d whether it\u2019s an individual donor or a corporate sponsor, to work toward bridging the $37.5 million gap.<\/p>\n

\u201cDays like this help,\u201d said Bjork of fundraising. \u201cWe can take this step, get this project going. We\u2019re under construction and ready to be open by December 2015. It allows us to start focusing on that design process.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the Forward Together campaign, AECOM recently completed additions and renovations to the Manning Center football headquarters facility and currently is designing improvements for Vaught Hemmingway Stadium.<\/p>\n

To learn more about donating to the campaign or securing seats in Ole Miss\u2019 various athletic venues, fans are encouraged to go to ForwardTogetherRebels.com<\/a>, or contact the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation at 662-915-7159.<\/p>\n

AECOM is an international design, planning and engineering firm with an integrated, cross-disciplinary approach to complex infrastructure challenges. AECOM\u2019s sports practice has delivered hundreds of innovative venue designs and renovations at the collegiate, professional and international level<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OXFORD, Miss. – Chancellor Dan Jones called them extraordinary days for the University of Mississippi, as the athletics program and university move forward together and build their shared dream of excellence. Once a vision, the new basketball arena, which will officially be named The Pavilion at Ole Miss, became more of a reality with aRead the story …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":38185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4,507,690],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nOle Miss Breaks Ground on New Arena - Ole Miss News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/news.olemiss.edu\/ole-miss-breaks-ground-on-new-arena\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ole Miss Breaks Ground on New Arena - Ole Miss News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"OXFORD, Miss. – Chancellor Dan Jones called them extraordinary days for the University of Mississippi, as the athletics program and university move forward together and build their shared dream of excellence. 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