The Carolina Center, the University of South Carolina's new $70 million basketball arena, has been dubbed by school officials as the Crown Jewel of the state. The facility is the largest arena in South Carolina and the 10th largest on-campus basketball facility in the country.
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| Carolina Center is largest arena in state. |
Located mere blocks from Carolina Coliseum, the Gamecocks' old home, the Carolina Center has 18,000 seats for basketball, up from 12,401, 41 luxury suites, 400 club seats and four hospitality suites, each of which has 50 seats. The Gamecocks' old facility did not have any suites or club seats.The Carolina Center also sports almost four times as many rest rooms with 296 compared to 79 in Carolina Coliseum. There are 58 percent more women's facilities than men's, keeping with the national pattern.
The building features a double-deck design that puts every seat close to the court. In fact, even though the Carolina Center has about 5,600 more seats than the Carolina Coliseum, the distance from the farthest seat to midcourt is roughly the same at both arenas.
Although the facility was built primarily for basketball, its designers made the floor expandable for other events. The entire 212-foot floor can be completely exposed by pushing back one end of stands.
The university, through an athletic department-backed bond issue, financed the majority of the project. Only $20 million came from state, city and county funds. University officials, with the help of Action Sports Media, have been shopping naming rights to the facility since construction began.
Because the building is owned by the university, there will be a fair amount of pressure to keep the arena booked year-round. The good news is that, with the help of facility operator Global Spectrum, numerous non-basketball events already have been booked. Those events include a Bruce Springsteen concert, a WWE Smackdown event, Sesame Street Live's 1-2-3-Imagine show and a Champions on Ice performance.
ARENA FACTS
City: Columbia, S.C.
Tenants: University of South Carolina men's and women's basketball teams
Owner/facility manager: University of South Carolina/Global Spectrum
Architect/project manager: Rosser International
General contractor: Beers Skanska Inc.
No. of seats: 18,000
No. of suites: 41 (plus four 50-seat hospitality suites)
No. of club seats: 400
Projected cost: $70 million (includes land acquisition and infrastucture)
Funding: $28 million in bonds backed by the athletic department; $12.5 million in state funding; $2.5 million each from Lexington County, Richland County and the city of Columbia; $6 million from upfront suite sales; information on balance not available.
Concessionaire/premium-seat caterer:
Volume Services America (both)
Pouring rights: Coca-Cola
Scoreboard provider: Daktronics
Floor provider: Robbins*
Seat provider: Hussey
First game: Nov. 22 vs. Clemson (women)
* Venue is using the floor from Carolina Coliseum, but is refurbishing the floor from Robbins through the work of PrezChem.
Click here for a listing of subcontractors for the Carolina Center.
