IUPUI considering on-campus arena

INDIANAPOLIS -- IUPUI officials are developing plans to build an on-campus arena with seating for 8,000 to 10,000 people.\nWe are in the very preliminary stages, but we are interested in designing a multipurpose convocation center," said Cheryl Sullivan, IUPUI's vice chancellor for external affairs. "What we see is a facility that would be a campus center for athletics and for student-parent orientation, guest lectures, commencements and other events."\nThe discussions come on the heels of IUPUI's basketball team's first appearance in the NCAA tournament.\nIUPUI, with an enrollment of 27,619, plays men's basketball games in a 2,000-seat physical-education gymnasium with pullout bleachers and no permanent seating. It is the smallest venue in the eight-team Mid-Continent Conference.\n"The physical education building was not built for a Division I program," Sullivan said.\nThe Jaguars are in their fifth season of Division I play. Having an on-campus arena would be another major step in putting the basketball program on equal footing with other mid-major schools.\n"If anything is holding us back, it is a (lack of a) facility. If we get a facility, there's no telling how high we can get this program," basketball coach Ron Hunter told The Indianapolis Star for a story published Saturday. "It's something I'm looking forward to telling our recruits, and we have the administration to get this done."\nSullivan said early figures show a facility would cost about $35 million.\n"IUPUI must seek a corporate or community partner and individual donors -- or all three," Sullivan said. "The current plan is not to go to the General Assembly to seek funding."\nMen's basketball is IUPUI's highest-profile sport, especially after garnering national attention from its NCAA tournament berth. Athletic director Mike Moore conceded an arena is key to recruiting.\n"I don't think it's any secret when you're recruiting student-athletes today that the types of questions they have aren't always related to the academic part or what kind of degree they're going to get," Moore said. "They're looking at, 'Where am I going to play?"