James A. Rhodes Arena
| "The JAR" | |
Interior, March 2010
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 James A. Rhodes Arena
Location in the United States
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| Location | 373 Carroll Street Akron, Ohio 44303 |
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| Owner | University of Akron |
| Operator | University of Akron |
| Capacity | 5,500 |
| Surface | Hardwood |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | March 8, 1982 |
| Opened | December 3, 1983 |
| Construction cost | $12.5 million ($28.8 million in 2017 dollars) |
| Architect | Thomas T. K. Zung |
| Tenants | |
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Akron Zips (NCAA) Men's basketball (1983–present) Women's basketball (1983–present) Women's volleyball (1984–present) |
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James A. Rhodes Arena, commonly nicknamed "The JAR," is an arena in Akron, Ohio, United States on the campus of the University of Akron named for former Ohio governor Jim Rhodes. The arena opened in 1983 and is home to the Akron Zips men's and women's basketball teams and women's volleyball team. The new facility was six years in the making. Some delays were encountered after the General Assembly, in 1977, appropriated $8 million for the construction of a 10,000-seat building for the 1977-79 biennium. However, by October 1978, when preliminary plans for the new complex were presented and accepted by the Ohio Board of Regents, construction costs had risen so rapidly that it required $12.5 million to complete the project. After scrapping the original design, the University decided to go ahead with plans for a scaled-down version of the building. The 125,538-square-foot (11,662.9 m2) building, including an 18,000-square-foot (1,700 m2) wood floor, was designed by architect Thomas T. K. Zung. The University Board of Trustees approved the new version in July 1981, and ground breaking occurred on March 8, 1982. The building first opened on December 3, 1983 replacing the University's 3,000 seat Memorial Hall gymnasium located right next door. The building site on the eastern edge of campus is located on the northeast corner of Union and Carroll streets, and once served as the home for Fire Station No. 5 and a parking lot.
The JAR hosted the Ohio Valley Conference men's basketball tournament in 1986. Renovations to the arena is 2002 included a new hardwood floor, four Opto Tech LED displays screens hangs in the center of James A. Rhodes Arena, and most importantly a brand new sound system at a cost of 1.1 million dollars.
Under the guidance of the University Athletic audio engineers, the JAR received a major upgrade in the fan atmosphere experience. At construction, the JAR employed a distributed horn powered PA system with very narrow dispersion angles, coupled with near-proximity coaxial speakers for the upper deck. This setup lead to several hot zones and many fans wondering what the announcer said. That changed in 2005 with the installation of a fully zoned system employing EVH model horn loaded boxes coupled with 6 TX Series subwoofers in the South catwalk for that tipoff "Thunderstruck" kick. A separate zone was also included for the floor for the UA Dance Team and Basketball team warmups. Precision series EV combined amplifiers and DSPs tune the system to near perfection in every seat. A Midas Venice series mixing console along with several channels of external dynamic channel processing, as well as enhanced hyperspheric modulation accelerators, handle all audio inputs. The system has reached a maximum decibel level of 115 dB during games, and is rated up to 130 dB. The facility currently seats 5,500 people. The arena has two floors. In addition to the court, the first level features locker rooms, a sports medicine and training facility, a ticket office, a fan team shop and meeting rooms. The arena hosted the boys basketball team from nearby St. Vincent - St. Mary High School during LeBron James' tenure at the school. His games would typically outdraw Zips' men's games.
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