Miami poised to move forward with Cook Field arena planning and fundraising

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect that the Board of Trustees voted to move forward with the arena project after an executive session Feb. 28.

Miami University officials are ready to ramp up plans to construct a new arena on Cook Field following a Board of Trustees meeting Feb. 28, despite a petition which had garnered more than 2800 signatures against the idea in less than a week.

Athletic Director David Sayler spoke to the need for a new facility during the meeting. Millett Hall currently houses three varsity sports — men’s and women’s basketball, as well as volleyball — despite being built for one sport only. Previous university estimates put the cost of renovating Millett, which was built in 1968, at $80 million, but Sayler said an additional $50 million would be needed to build new practice facilities for the teams.

Millett Hall has multiple ADA compliance issues that would need to be addressed if renovated, Sayler said. The facility also features a non-regulation indoor track around the basketball court which is largely unused and pushes fans farther from the action.

“It’s just not conducive to what we want to do for our fanbase,” Sayler said, adding that updates "would be very costly and very challenging to do.”

After an executive session, the Board of Trustees voted to continue the design and planning phase of the project, according to reporting by the Journal-News.

The university’s site selection committee unanimously recommended that the arena project move forward on Cook Field last week. An Oxford Free Press analysis found that the location was disfavored by a factor of more than two to one in a survey which garnered more than 1500 responses. No members of the committee directly addressed negative feedback during the trustees’ meeting.

The Cook Field location has 12 acres of developable space and is close enough to the North Parking Garage to facilitate fans who drive, Sayler said. He added that the university could improve the intersection of SR 73 and US 27 and create an entrance to the facility that keeps out-of-town fans from causing congestion.

Sayler focused heavily on improving the student experience during his comments. The new facility will include separate volleyball and basketball venues that allow fans to get closer to the teams, he said. The proposed 6500-seat basketball court would incorporate a club level for students with special amenities.

While Sayler said at the meeting that a member of the committee was “representing students' voices,” no students served on the committee. One administrator from Student Life was a member.

Brad Bundy, vice president for University Advancement, said his team has already identified five principal donors who may give $5 million or more in support of the new arena, some of whom have offered verbal commitments. Bundy did not offer details on who the donors are. As the project moves forward, Bundy said university staff who work on fundraising will significantly alter their schedules to focus on generating gifts for the arena. In addition, Miami is hiring 10 new gift officers, one of whom will focus solely on the arena project for the next two years, Bundy said.

“I have extraordinary confidence that this is the project that we’ve been waiting for, in particular for intercollegiate athletics,” Bundy said.

While the project seems to be moving quickly, with university resources being diverted to its development, McGuffey House and Museum administrator Steve Gordon urged the university to be cautious as it moves forward with major plans like the new arena during the trustee meeting.

“One of the hallmarks of our campus is the openness and the vistas and the scale of this campus, unlike Ohio State or Cincinnati,” Gordon said. “... I would just ask the board as they move forward with plans for an arena to be very mindful of the wonderful, fragile, beautiful campus we have. The decisions you make are going to be with us for at least 50 years.”

In the survey sent to Miami community members in January, more than 200 people explicitly opposed the project, said it should focus on renovating Millett or suggested rebuilding the arena closer to the current location.

The university began drilling more than 500 geothermal wells in front of Millett Hall last year. No buildings can be placed on the well fields once complete,  said David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and business services. When the geothermal well project was announced, one of the highlights was transitioning Millett Hall itself from steam heating to geothermal. No wells are being drilled under the parking lot, according to a Q&A posted by Miami in March 2024.

Creamer estimated that the project could have an $11.5 million per year impact on the university’s operating budget for debt service starting in fiscal year 2028, despite potential donations. Construction of the arena itself will cost $187.7 million, according to Creamer’s preliminary estimates. With additional costs including upgrading parking and replacing the intramural fields, the cost could rise up to $233.7 million.

“At the end of the day, a new facility will be much more practical for the purposes that we want to use it for, and at the end of the day, not much more expensive than staying in the Millett Facility,” Creamer said.

The Cook Field location is more centrally located between northern, southern and eastern western residence halls, Sayler said. However, the new site is farther from High Street and off-campus student housing. One trustee remarked that she fully supported the project but hoped the university considered how it could still “expand that umbrella of economic development” despite its distance from Oxford businesses.

Later during the meeting, the trustees voted to change the policy that guides the facility naming process. The change adds a new line which states that “named spaces shall remain for the useful life of the space; the University may deem the useful life concluded if the named space is substantially altered, repurposed, or ceases to exist.”