UE Men’s Basketball To Play At Ford Center Through 20-21 Season
The University of Evansville Athletics Department and the City of Evansville Redevelopment Commission have announced a contract extension that will see the Purple Aces men’s basketball team continue to play at the Ford Center through the 2020-21 season.
“We are excited to announce the extension and continue our relationship with the City of Evansville, VenuWorks and the Ford Center,†UE Director of Athletics Mark Spencer said. “The Ford Center is a first class venue that helps us to showcase our program to the Evansville community and all the Aces fans around the area.â€
As part of the agreement, the Aces women’s basketball team will play its games for the 2016-17 season at the Ford Center before moving onto the UE campus to play in the Carson Center. The team will join the Aces volleyball team at Meeks Family Court inside the Carson Center starting in the fall of 2017.
Beginning in the summer of 2017, a full renovation of the Carson Center facility will take place that will see the addition of bleacher and chairback seats on the West side of the floor, which will bring the total capacity to 1,100. Other new amenities include new scoreboards, videoboard, sound system, basketball baskets, LED press tables, padded courtside floor seats and a portable volleyball flooring system. That project will be completed before the start of the 2017 volleyball season and will have its public debut as the UE volleyball team will take on Indiana University in September.
“Moving to the Carson Center will be a nice boost for our program, as well as volleyball,†Aces women’s basketball coach Matt Ruffing said. “The renovations we will be implementing are going to improve the atmosphere for the student-athletes and fans of both sports and provide a real home court advantage.â€
Evansville’s men will continue to play at the Ford Center. Since opening in 2011, the arena has played host to 98 men’s basketball games, with the Aces winning 63 of those contests. Highlighting the tenure at the arena for UE are three wins over ranked opponents and the 2015 CIT Championship game, which saw the Aces earn a win over Northern Arizona. The Aces also opened up the arena in 2011 with a dramatic win over defending national runner-up Butler.
Doesn’t Title 9 require that men and women’s sports are equal? I wonder how UE plans to comply when they move their women’s games from the Ford Center. I also wonder how much UE is paying per event to VenuWorks and do they get a cut of the concessions. Go figure that information is missing from their press release and will be hidden from the public. VenuWorks should have lost this contract, but the mayor is too busy counting those campaign contributions.
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