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John Paul Jones Arena: 'Jefferson on Steroids'
College basketball "has become an arms race, and right now we have the best tools," U-Va. men's coach Dave Leitao said of John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers host Arizona on Sunday.
(By Jim Daves -- University Of Virginia)
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About $135 million in total gifts and pledges have been made so far.
Former Virginia athletic director Terry Holland, who helped get Jones Arena off the ground before he left for East Carolina, said the only drawback to such a large arena is that unsold seats could hurt fundraising for the athletic department.
At Virginia, men's college basketball season tickets are $385. To get better seats, fans make a "donation" to the college booster club, in this case the Virginia Athletics Foundation (VAF). If Virginia games aren't sold out, "that means people could count on attending games without having to contribute to VAF or possibly even buying season tickets," Holland said.
So far, approximately 8,000 season tickets have been sold for men's basketball games, and an additional 3,200 have been allocated to students, according to university athletics spokesman Jim Daves.
Those fans will enjoy an opulent experience. Twenty luxury suites priced around $70,000 annually overlook the basketball court. Cavaliers sports fans can buy everything from a jacket to a bobblehead doll from the Virginia sports store in the arena lobby. Two giant Mitsubishi screens project still or video images as fans enter the building. The restrooms are spacious, and wide concourses allow for ease of movement.
The big donors who are helping to pay for the building can relax in the Lexus Lounge during game breaks. Many will sit in 112 courtside seats, which require a $250,000 donation that covers the seat for 20 years. When the building is not sold out, an elaborate curtain system will close off sections to create 21 different seating variations, including "curtaining down" to 1,200 for intimate gatherings or 8,892 for women's basketball games.
College basketball "has become an arms race, and right now we have the best tools," Leitao said. "We are not there yet as one of the more established programs. What we do have compared to a school that has more tradition is we have a building."
Student-athletes can dine on nutritionist-designed meals while watching one of a dozen televisions in the dining hall. Men's and women's basketball players can sharpen their game round-the-clock at practice courts downstairs. There's a quiet study area with tutoring rooms and banks of computers for student-athletes.
The training room and weight rooms are equipped with the latest amenities, including cameras that film an athletes' legs while they are running. After a vigorous workout, players can sink into a couch in the player lounge and play an Xbox video game. The individual benches in the carpeted men's locker room are covered in orange basketball vinyl.
Said Solomon Tat, a highly recruited freshman from Nigeria, "It's part of why I came here."
