USC Arena: Big Plans, Insufficient Funds

Two years have passed since USC announced its intention to build an arena at the edge of campus.

In those early, heady days, administrators predicted they would raise the needed money in about a year and break ground soon after. Today, the would-be construction site remains untouched and there are still tens of millions of dollars to be raised.

At first glance, it seems the only tangible thing USC has to show is a set of 10 or so preliminary drawings.

But those recently completed architectural diagrams could hold the key to a new $70-million home for the university’s basketball and volleyball teams. That is because administrators hope to use the drawings to boost donations and, in particular, to attract a sponsor who will pay big money to put its name on the building.

“Now that we have this information, we will have something to share with potential donors,” said Carol Dougherty, an associate athletic director. “We think our fund-raising will pick up.”

Administrators insist that, despite outward appearances, the project has been moving along. Private donors have pledged millions toward the 12,000-seat facility. Corporations have expressed interest in the $5-million founding sponsorships.

The missing piece is the naming sponsor, the one who pays the lion’s share of construction costs. Thus the importance of the drawings.

The set of block diagrams and artist’s renderings are under review by senior administrators. If and when they are approved, athletic department officials can get to work.

“We probably jumped the gun a little bit,” Dougherty said of the optimistic forecast two years ago. She later added, “We’re not discouraged by the fact it has taken longer.”

Administrators say several major donors have expressed interest in acquiring naming rights and the new drawings could help close the deal. A fund-raising expert said that expectation is reasonable.

“Some donors can get excited by the dream, the vision,” said Tim Seiler, director of the Fund Raising School at Indiana University. “Other donors really want to have something they can see and handle.”

In a best-case scenario, USC administrators say funding would be in hand by summer and construction could begin at Jefferson Boulevard and Figueroa Street. That would allow USC’s teams to escape their current environs--the aging Sports Arena and small campus gyms--by the start of the 2002-03 basketball season.

But with this project--a place to showcase music and theater as well as athletics--any timetable is suspect. There have been years of false starts and previous architectural models that have fallen by the wayside.

The current attempt dates to 1999, when USC President Steven Sample announced a construction flurry--seven buildings in all--to be completed by 2004.

In the two years since then, as the drawings show, the arena has undergone several potential changes.

Though the design still conforms to the campus’ red-brick and stone look, more glass has been added, a feature inspired by nearby Staples Center. The building is less domed, more square.

Inside, the subterranean court has been raised to ground level, one of several cost-cutting measures for a proposal that has already seen its price tag marked up from $50 million.

The financial burden might have been less had USC accepted an offer from an outside group that wanted to act as partner and manager. Administrators declined, fearing that a partner might, for example, want to bump a scheduled volleyball match to another site if it could book a more profitable concert on that night.

Athletic department officials wanted so badly to maintain control over the arena that they agreed to do literally all of the fund-raising, even though the building would often be used for arts and community events.

So the seating was set at 12,000 not only to accommodate large stage productions but also to meet the standard for holding a regional round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The size of the building allows for three practice courts, locker rooms, offices and a weight room.

A new arena would move four coaching staffs out of crowded Heritage Hall, where boxes are stacked in hallways and teams share meeting rooms. It would boost recruiting and improve playing conditions.

Coach Henry Bibby, for one, thinks his men’s basketball team struggles with the transition from a small practice gym on campus to the drafty Sports Arena.

“It’s not an excuse,” he said. “But if you look at our games, that might be why we play better in the second half.”

And that is why USC is pinning its hopes on a set of drawings.

“People don’t understand the disadvantageous conditions we provide to our players,” said Chris Gobrecht, the women’s basketball coach. “It’s something we think about every day.”