Tour of Baylor's new $213M Foster Pavilion basketball arena

As Baylor University prepares to close the doors on its old basketball home the Ferrell Center, the new home very much remains a work in progress.

Baylor plans to open the Foster Pavilion for use with a men’s game against Cornell University on Jan. 2. Then the Baylor women will get their chance to play at the new $213-million arena on Jan. 3 against Texas Christian University.

Yet even with those dates fast-approaching, construction is ongoing on the 7,500-capacity arena. Workers from AECOM performed a variety of tasks as a group of local media toured the still-unfinished facility on Monday. Among the projects still awaiting completion is the installation of flooring in the lobby area where Baylor expects roughly 5,000 fans to enter on game days.

Nevertheless, Baylor officials expressed optimism that the arena will be ready to host a game by the scheduled grand opening.

“I am confident we’ll be playing basketball here, that men’s game on the 2nd and the women’s game on the 3rd, and then we have another game on Saturday (the 6th),” said Henry Howard, Baylor’s associate athletics director for capital projects. “We have the greatest backup plan of all, it is the Ferrell Center. But I do not anticipate using the Ferrell Center for this opening conference season.”

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