Game On
The new JQH Arena opens this month on the Missouri State campus. Find out what the new space means for the university and for Springfield.
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JQH Arena is nearing completion on Missouri State University's campus. |
If you’ve been around 417-land for a while, you might remember when the Southwest Missouri State Bears played their home basketball games at SMS Arena, now known as McDonald Arena. Those cozy surroundings seated just more than 3,000 fans, and most nights there wasn’t a seat to be had. It was the epitome of a home-court advantage. Back in those days, the Bears battled the likes of Lincoln University, Evansville, Kentucky Wesleyan and other NCAA Division II powerhouses. With standing-room-only crowds for each home game, everyone knew a new athletic facility had to be built to accommodate those rabid Bears’ fans.
Enter Springfield business executive and Missouri State alumnus John Q. Hammons. Hammons pledged to donate money in the amount of $1 million so a new arena, which would bear his name, could be built on campus. In all, construction of the new facility would cost just $5.5 million, and in 1976, Hammons Student Center was born. The Bears opened their new home with a hard-fought 55-49 loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. Hammons Student Center provided a great athletic and student facility as the Bears transitioned to the world of NCAA Division I. But over the years, even it had become out of date.
Although all the seats were not being filled in the current Bear home, officials were ready to take another giant leap for “Bear-kind.” This time around, Hammons made a $30 million gift, and now the Missouri State Bears are getting a new home: the JQH Arena. Its doors open this month. Coincidentally, it will open in much the same way Hammons Student Center opened 32 years ago, with the Bears taking on the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Not Just Basketball
JQH Arena will be the home to more big events than just Bears games. Building a new basketball arena was not only a dream but also a necessity, according to Missouri State President Michael Nietzel. “It was necessary for several reasons,” he says. “First, as popular a facility as Hammons Student Center was, it had become a very dated and limited facility for our patrons. Almost half of the seats were not chair back, and it had very few of the amenities that fans expect in modern arenas.” Nietzel says it wasn’t just a new basketball arena that was needed. Other events had become difficult to draw, partly because of seating capacity, but there were other obstacles. “We were no longer able to attract first-tier concerts and shows to HSC because of its limited loading dock and support services,” Nietzel says.
Academics played a role in the need for a new arena as well. Nietzel says that the university needed HSC to be converted into shared space with academics in order to accommodate the move of an academic department out of McDonald Arena, which will become a university recreation center. “Along with all of this, we were able to put together a funding plan, which obligates no state dollars to construct JQH,” Nietzel says. “Few public universities are able to do that.”
Making the JQH Arena Happen
After a press conference in February 2006, Missouri State officials broke ground on December 21, 2006 for the new facility, which is built on the Old Main east parking lot of Hammons. Weather wreaked havoc on construction workers, but the work moved forward. Finally this summer, the roof was on and the building was sealed, so work on the inside could begin.
Major sponsors had to be secured to make everything happen. Those include Bancorp South, Price Cutter, Domino’s Pizza and Chevy Dealers of the Ozarks. But other major donors and supporters as well as additional sponsors came through with gifts and sponsorships to make the $67 million JQH Arena a reality. “We’re really blessed that Mr. Hammons stepped up and helped us get this started,” says Missouri State Director of Athletics Bill Rowe. “This new facility is going to be so much more comfortable.”
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