Oct. 3, 2007

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Construction on the Joyce Center arena addition and renovation will begin in September 2008, the University of Notre Dame announced today.

The University has selected the architects for the project, and they currently are in the process of completing final design plans.

The first phase of the project, to begin next September, involves construction of a new three-story structure at the south end of the arena. That structure will include a new two-story lobby, the Notre Dame ticket operations (approximately 4,500 square feet) and a varsity shop to sell apparel and souvenirs (approximately 3,000 square feet), in addition to a new club seating and hospitality area.

Replacement of the Joyce Center arena seating, including installation of chair-back seating throughout the arena, is expected to take place after the University’s Commencement Exercises in May 2009. The project is scheduled for completion in January 2010. The arena is expected to re-open by mid-October 2009, in time for the start of the men’s and women’s basketball seasons and the end of the women’s volleyball season.

The University announced last October that this $26.3 million project had received a $12.5 million leadership gift from Notre Dame alumnus and Trustee Philip J. Purcell III. A month later, another major gift of $5 million from Notre Dame graduate Vincent J. Naimoli was announced.

The arena will be named Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center — and the new club/hospitality area and two outdoor patios will be named for the Naimoli family.

The arena is the home for Notre Dame teams in men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball – as well as Commencement, concerts, Masses and other events.

Approximately $68.5 million designated for new athletics facilities are part of the University’s new capital campaign, Spirit of Notre Dame. Plans for the bulk of these structures came out of the athletics facilities master plan that was created not long after Notre Dame athletics director Kevin White was appointed in 2000.

Already in place out of that master plan are the 96,000-square-foot Guglielmino Athletics Complex, a $23 million facility that opened in 2005 and serves as the home to the Notre Dame football program (including coaches’ offices, locker rooms for players and coaches, a new training room and an expanded weight facility for all sports), as well as a $2.1 million indoor golf structure, the Robert and Marilyn Rolfs Family All-Season Golf Facility that opened prior to the 2006-07 season adjacent to Notre Dame’s Warren Golf Course.

Ground was broken for Melissa Cook Softball Stadium in April — thanks to a $3 million gift from Linda and Paul Demo, the parents of Melissa Cook, a former Irish softball player who was killed in a Chicago scaffolding accident in 2002. The facility will include locker rooms, team rooms, media facilities, satellite offices and training room, restrooms and concessions stands. The stadium is being built on the southeast corner of the Notre Dame campus, near the Eck Baseball Stadium. It will be ready for play for the 2008 season.

— ND —