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Bama News
Coleman Coliseum renovation talks underway
Phase 2 of the Crimson Standard includes the renovation of Coleman Coliseum, home to Alabama's basketball and gymnastics programs.
As construction continues at Bryant-Denny Stadium and the sports science center at the football complex, Alabama is beginning to look at Phase 2 of its athletic facilities overhaul.
The long-anticipated renovation of 52-year old Coleman Coliseum is moving back to the front burner of the Crimson Standard fundraising campaign, Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne said this week in an interview with AL.com.
“We’ve been very focused, understandably, on Phase 1 (of the Crimson Standard) because of the size and magnitude of what that is,” Byrne told AL.com, “and we’re starting to have discussions about what Phase 2 looks like and time frames. And we know that Coleman and basketball and gymnastics is a priority. We need to find a model that can work for us.”
Phase 1 of the facilities overhaul focused mainly on upgrading premium seating at Bryant-Denny Stadium. That $92.5 million project began in December and is on schedule for completion before the Sept. 12 home opener against Georgia State, Byrne said this week. Phase 1 also included the $3 million upgrade of Rhoads Stadium where new concessions/restrooms were added along with clubhouse upgrades.
For Coleman, the process will not be a short one. Renderings of the renovated arena released in 2018 weren’t final plans but projections that included desired elements of a completed project. They depicted essentially a new facility built inside the original walls and arched roof of the building that opened in 1968.
When announced 18 months ago, Byrne said the best-case scenario would see work beginning after the 2021-22 season and new timelines were not available this week.
Significant planning and fundraising remain before the construction crews can get to work on the 15,383-seat home of the gymnastics and two basketball programs. With a building that age, extensive engineering work will need to be completed before understanding exactly what can be constructed on site.
Back in 2018, Byrne said they were looking at a final capacity in the 9,500-10,000 range with seats moving significantly closer to the floor. The idea was to add intimacy with the closest bowl seats moving from 17 feet currently down to seven feet.
Cost estimates for the Coleman renovation were in the $115 million range in 2018 but Alabama wants to have a solid number before beginning construction. The initial budget for Phase 1 at Bryant-Denny Stadium was $78 million before increasing more than $14 million to $92.5 million. The total cost for Phase 1 including the softball and sports science buildings was $111.6 million.
The school in January announced it had raised $309 million of the $600 million goal set for the 10-year Crimson Standard campaign.
All construction budgets and plans must be approved by the Alabama board of trustees before work can move forward.
First year men’s basketball coach Nate Oats discussed the facility upgrades on a recent Birmingham radio interview.
“When they hired me, they said it was coming,” Oats said in a Feb. 17 interview on WJOX-FM. “I’m not one of those guys that’s in Greg’s office demanding all that kind of stuff. That’s not really who I am, but he told me they’re meeting with … I don’t even know how the process works here, but we went through some building stuff in Buffalo and there’s a lot of red tape up there. Hopefully they can get all that stuff done a lot faster down here but they’re talking to me telling me they’re working on it.”
Read more:
-- Coleman Coliseum to be gutted, details on what to expect for Alabama basketball (from 2018)
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