Earlier in the 2017 season, the University of Kansas announced their plans to expand on their Horejsi Family Athletics Center to give the arena a 3,000 seat capacity following the 2017 season. This, however, the process has been delayed and will not begin until the conclusion of the 2018 season.
The delay has been announced as a suggestion from the architect for the project, as to make the facility the best that they can without rushing the process.
“We discussed doing it at the end of this season. What we decided based on the what the architects were telling us and based on their advice, we will build it after next season. The reason is we want to make it the absolute best volleyball arena we can make it for the program and don’t want to rush it. We want to make sure to do it the right way, do it the best way. We want to build the best arena we can for this program,” KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said Tuesday.
Long-time Kansas benefactor, Stewart Horejsi, pledged $10 million for the new arena that would more than double the seating available from 1,300 seats to 3,000 seats. This improvement would give the Jayhawks a large enough arena to host come post-season in the NCAA Tournament. They are able to host for the first and second rounds of play in their fieldhouse as is, but if they held a top-four seed and advanced to regional play they would have to host at a different location to meet the 3,000 seat requirement.
The expansion idea sparked following the recent success of the Jayhawks program, after their fifth straight NCAA Tournament appearance along with a Final Four in 2015 and the #5 seed in the tournament in 2016.
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