New HPU arena to open in 2020
By Collin Giuliani // Sports Editor
On March 27, High Point University President Nido Qubein announced that the Nido and Mariana Qubein Arena, Conference Center and Hotel will begin construction this summer. It will be completed by the start of the 2020-21 season and will be located at the site of the current intramural fields.
The arena will hold 4,500 seats and consist of a convention center with an approximate capacity of 2,500 people, as well as a hotel with anywhere from 30 to 40 rooms. It will also cost $130 million to build, paid for entirely in cash, making it the most expensive building in the university’s history.
“It will be elegant,” Qubein remarked during the announcement. “It will meet High Point University standards through and through.”
Currently, HPU competes in men’s and women’s basketball in the Millis Center, and has competed in that arena since the 1992-93 season. This arena will be the third smallest arena in the Big South Conference next year, only ahead of the G.B. Hodge Center at USC Upstate (joining the conference next season) and the CSU Field House at Charleston Southern. However, when the new arena opens up in three seasons, it will become the fourth largest arena in the conference.
Construction on the arena was originally planned to start in 2019. However, due to the recent hiring of Tubby Smith as the new head coach of the men’s basketball team, the construction has been pushed up one year. After considering other locations for the arena, such as downtown High Point and the former Oak Hollow Mall, ground will break on the new arena this summer at the site of the current intramural fields.
As part of this construction, the intramural fields will be moved to an undetermined location on campus and changed into turf fields.
A new basketball arena has been a work in progress for nearly two years at this point. On April 27, 2016, plans for a brand new $70 million arena and conference center were announced, along with the Undergraduate Sciences Building and Caffey Hall. At the time of this announcement, the arena was set to hold 5,000 spectators, with the conference center holding 2,500 guests.
While the capacity of the conference center has remained the same over the past two years, the capacity of the arena has dropped by 500, and a hotel overlooking Vert Stadium has been added to the plans.