Lloyd and Jane Petit’s decision last week to build the Bradley Center at County Stadium does not mean the men’s basketball team will be heading west, according to Hank Raymonds, athletic director.
Raymonds said “nothing has been decided yet” about where the team will play its home games once the new arena is built. But the decision to build it at County Stadium has raised some concerns, he said.
“The three big concerns are cost, transportation and dates,” Raymonds said, considering problems that could arise should the team move from its current home at the MECCA Arena.
“(The Bradley Center Board) can’t tell us how much the rental costs will be there because they don’t even know yet,” he said. “We’d have to figure out how to get the students out there for games.”
Another major obstacle preventing a move to the new arena is scheduling, Raymonds said. “We need to schedule dates well into the future,” he said. “We’ve got to schedule three to four years in advance.”
Until Bradley Center officials can offer future dates, “we can only sit here,” Raymonds said.
Marquette’s interests were not relevant to the Pettits’ decision to build the Bradley Center at County Stadium Raymonds said. Since they alone are funding the project, the decision was rightfully theirs to make, he said.