Hard Hat Tour at Mattew Knight Arena

Trafton B.

November 11, 2010 - 6:03 PM

I'm not usually one to talk about work at Facilities Services very often because, well, it's work. I sit at my desk, crunch some numbers and turn in my time card at the end of the week. Don't get me wrong it's been a solid career builder, but it's not exactly the most blog-worthy portion of my college experience. Except today was a pleasant deviation from my normal data saturated routine. This afternoon my co-workers and I took a hard-hat tour of our new basketball arena.

 
Matthew Knight Arena, named in honor of Phil Knight's son who died in 2004 in a scuba diving accident, is the future home of the University of Oregon men's basketball and women's basketball and volleyball teams. The grand opening is on January 13, 2011 when the men's basketball team takes on the USC Trojans, and when I say "grand" opening I mean it in every sense of the word.

MacArthur Court, our former basketball arena, was built in 1926 back when we were still the Oregon Tall Firs. Times have changed since then but Mac Court lived on as a museum of 20th Century NCAA basketball. As much as well I loved watching games at "The Pit," I cannot wait to move. Let's just say that after eighty-four years of Oregon sports, Mac Court was showing signs of age. Once you see Matt Knight Arena, I think you find it easy to come to terms with the change.

The first thing you'll notice about Matt Court is the floor itself, which we're calling "Killkenny Floor" after former Oregon Athletic Director, Pat Kilkenny. Take a look at the picture above for a sneak peak (and keep in mind that the scoreboard will be raised slightly during actual games). There are three layers of trees on the floor to represent the Pacific Northwest forest, hence the "Deep in the Woods" right below center court. We all know the real reason for the forest on the floor is to create an obnoxious distraction for our opponents; a true home court advantage.

The new floor at Matthew Knight Arena.

The logo just under the scoreboard is meant to say "MATT." If you ask me is looks like Stonehenge, but according to the contractor that showed us around the arena the design was inspired by a photo of Matthew's smile when he was young.

Also on the floor you'll notice the new Pac-10 logo, and on the other side there are three smaller, subtler logos that Kilkenny had installed. The first is the emblem of his hometown of Heppner, Oregon. The second is the university's old "UO" symbol (pictured below), which was the main logo when Kilkenny was at school here, with shamrocks to represent his Irish heritage. The third logo is a cartoon depiction of a sunset to represent his San Diego-based company, Arrowhead General Insurance Agnecy.

The court is the most obvious attraction, but in true Oregon fashion there are more bells and whistles to notice as you walk around the arena. At the front of the west entrance construction workers were starting to install a new piece of artwork that was funded through Oregon's Percent for Art Initiative. It's a large expanse of glass cubes backed by thousands of motion sensors and LED lights. Supposedly the motion sensors will pick up fans walking through the doors and grow larger and brighter as everyone walks closer to the artwork. The lights will be moving and blinking like crazy as people walk past. Only Oregon would think up something like this.

My coworkers and I also heard the inside scoop on the environmental aspects of the building. The U.S. Green Building Council is still evaluating the building but it's very likely to become the first LEED Gold Certified arena in NCAA sports. Somewhere on the main concourse we plan to install an information kiosk highlighting all the "green" features of the building, and what's even cooler is that I will most likely be the person that puts together the information for that kiosk. Last spring I put the kiosk information set for the Lillis Business Complex.

I could go on about Pat Kilkenny's private suite, the insanely tall showerheads being installed in the players' locker rooms, or all the old center court logos from Mac Court (pictured below) being painted in the McArthur Club - i.e. the high rollers lounge - but I want to leave some mysteries for you to uncover yourselves.

 Old Oregon logos from Mac Court painted on the floor of the new MacArthur Club.

Long story short, this arena is going to be SWEET!!

Apparently it's already paying off in dividends, too. Word on the street is that we've signed a couple big recruits from California and Oregon, so we might not have a Final Four team this year but we're certainly on track to become a big name in NCAA basketball. Fingers crossed.