The Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center is a multi-purpose arena located on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin in Austin, Texas. It is also sometimes referred to as "The Drum" or "The Superdrum", owing to its round, drum-like appearance from outside. The multi-purpose facility hosts entertainment events and is the home court for the UT men's and women'sbasketball programs. The Erwin Center is located at the southeastern corner of the UT central campus and is bounded on the east by Interstate 35.
History
Built to replace Gregory Gymnasium as the men's and women's basketball teams' home arena, the Special Events Center was completed in 1977 for a total cost of $34 million. The Texas men's basketball team opened the events center on November 29, 1977 with an 83–76 victory over the Oklahoma Sooners. UT undertook extensive renovations of the facility from 2001 to 2003 at a cost of $55 million, adding, among other things, new and renovated seating, new video and sound systems, new lighting, and 28 suites. The building is named for former UT Board of Regents member Frank Erwin, who as a regent was very controversial due to his hostility towards the burgeoning on-campus, political counterculture movement of the late 1960s and was directly involved in the arrest of protesting students and the purging of what he deemed as "unpatriotic" faculty. Originally known as the Special Events Center, the facility was renamed in 1980 to honor Erwin, who died that same year. A two-level layout accommodates up to 16,540 spectators for basketball games and up to 17,900 spectators for concerts. The inner ring of the arena averages around 20 rows deep, while the mezzanine is slightly deeper at around 24 rows. The size of the arena's inner ring is highly dependent on the event being hosted. The DellMedical Center, a $334 million teaching hospital for the University, has identified the parking lot and Waller Creek area directly across from the Frank Erwin Center as Phase I of construction, with later phases calling for the demolition and relocation of the Frank Erwin Center, preferably on the University of Texas at Austin campus. A discussed location is the parking lots south of Mike A. Myers Soccer Stadium.
Replacement
In 2018, it was announced that Oak View Group and the University of Texas had agreed to build a new $338 million arena for the Texas Longhorns basketball program to replace the Frank Erwin Center. The new arena will be named the Moody Center after the Moody Foundation who is contributing $130 million towards the construction. Construction now underway, the groundbreaking ceremony took place just south of Mike A. Myers Soccer Stadium on December 3, 2019 with completion expected to occur in 2022.
