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The new arena provides
better spectator seating, with approximately 43 percent
of the seats in the upper bowl and 57 percent in the lower
bowl. Students have more reserved floor seating. One thousand
club seats, with dedicated concessions and restrooms, are
located in the lower bowl. Photo courtesy Intercollegiate
Athletics
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Paige
Sports Arena Opens in Grand Style
By Nate Carlisle
With the closing
of the scissors, the University of Missouri-Columbia opened the
Paige Sports Arena this morning with a ribbon-cutting ceremony
that lauded the facility as the best of its kind.
Paige
Laurie, for whom the arena is named, did the honors by cutting
the ribbon at the end of the ceremony on a gray, windy morning
that had the MU flags flapping.
The $75 million
arena is the new home of the MU men’s and
women’s basketball teams. Along with a basketball court,
the building includes training facilities and more seating
and luxury suites than its predecessor, the Hearnes Center.
“It
is truly a magnificent facility,” MU
Athletic Director Mike Alden told a crowd of a few hundred
outside the arena’s entrance. “It is the best, the
finest on-campus basketball facility in the United States of
America.”
The ceremony drew numerous MU administrators
and state officeholders, including Gov. Bob Holden. Women’s
basketball coach Cindy Stein and men’s basketball Coach
Quin Snyder posed for pictures.
The arena ball started rolling in 2001 when
it was revealed that St. Louis Blues owner and Columbia businessman
Bill Laurie was pledging $25 million toward its construction.
In exchange, the Laurie family received a number of concessions,
including naming rights.
The arena became a controversial topic. It
required $35 million in state bonds. Some said that money could
be better spent, while others countered the Laurie gift meant
the campus could have an arena at a low price.
There were complaints this spring when it
was announced the arena would be named for Bill and Nancy Laurie’s
daughter, Paige Laurie, a 22-year-old who has never attended MU.
Retired MU Chancellor Richard Wallace thanked
the Laurie family this morning.
“With their support, it was a wonderful
opportunity—it was the right thing to do,” Wallace
said,
“and I’m so grateful to them for a gift that will
so wonderfully support MU’s basketball programs and also
so wonderfully represent and serve MU fans and friends for many,
many years to come.”
Paige Laurie, a student at the University
of Southern California, sat on the stage between her parents this
morning and smiled when Alden mentioned that two of her cousins,
Josh Kroenke and Spencer Laurie, have played basketball for MU.
When she walked to the podium to address the crowd, she received
the morning’s longest applause.
“Having been born and raised here,
I grew up with an appreciation for all the wonderful things
Columbia has to offer, especially the feeling of belonging that
naturally comes along with living here,” she said. “But
when I developed an interest in filmmaking, I had to leave in
order to study and pursue that California-based feel, and when
I did leave, it became immediately apparent that this will always
be my home.”
After cutting the ribbon, Laurie autographed
ceremony programs for a few of the attendees and posed for pictures.
The arena will see its first action tomorrow
with the annual Black and Gold Game.
Note: Republished with permission, Columbia
Tribune, Oct. 21, 2004
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November 15, 2007
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