by Jesse Thomas
It was supposed to be easy. It was supposed to be entirely funded through philanthropy. It was supposed to cost between $90 million and $130 million.
University President Dave Frohnmayer announced Feb. 11, 2004, that plans had changed and the new arena, which was to replace the existing McArthur Court, was placed on indefinite hold as the University faced financial complications.
"Review of the project -- its scope, its complexity, its financing -- make it clear that we cannot move forward at this point," Frohnmayer said at the news conference. "We thought it would be more important to postpone it until we could make sure all the right elements come together at the same time. We will need to develop an alternative in the near future."
Oregon's McArthur Court has a national tradition for being known as a difficult place for opposing teams to play.
The new arena was to have contained 15,000 seats as well as a separate facility for additional training and academic. In the beginning, the University expected it could fund the new arena through private donations.
As costs continued to grow, the University managed to raise just $100 million in philanthropy, less than it had hoped. The University and the Athletics Department would have to fund the rest.
Oregon's Athletics Department, which is completely self-sufficient, was prepared to finance as much as $30 million of the project. The extra $50 million would come from bond sales.
Oregon has been a national front-runner in the facility-expansion race in the last few years. Oregon received great recognition for the expansions done to Autzen Stadium 2002.
The University again flexed its muscles this past summer with the upgrade of the men's football locker room. It is considered one of the best among collegiate sports and even rivals some NFL locker rooms.