Hearnes Center is a 13,611-seat multi-purpose arena in Columbia, Missouri. The arena opened in 1972. It is currently home to the Missouri Tigers' wrestling and volleyball teams as well as the school's gymnastics and indoor track & field teams. It was home to the University of Missouri Tigersbasketball team before Mizzou Arena opened in 2004. Groundbreaking for the Hearnes Center occurred in 1969, and the arena was officially dedicated on August 4, 1972. The arena got its name from former Missouri governor and 1952 Mizzou graduate Warren Hearnes. The cost of the building project was $10.75 million. Prior to the opening of the Hearnes Center, the Missouri basketballteam played its home games at Brewer Fieldhouse, which was built in 1929 and has since been remodeled into a modern recreation center. Hearnes quickly became one of the toughest places to play during the 1980s, when players such as Steve Stipanovich, Jon Sundvold, Derrick Chievous and Doug Smith suited up for Norm Stewart. Several factors contributed to this reputation: the steep banking of the seating area, its flat roof and angling of its upper sections, and The Antlers, whose presence in Section A-16 made them the bane of many an opposition. Decibel meters were added to the corners of the arena in the early 1990s in addition to new scoreboards, and it was not uncommon to see them go well above 110 dB during conference games, and regularly cresting 125 dB against Kansas or during 2001's famed "Fire Code Game" against Iowa, where well over 14,500 people packed the building to see then-#2 Mizzou be stunned by Steve Alford's club. In its later life, the building saw several changes: a new floor was installed in 1998, rear-projection video monitors replaced the matrix boards at the turn of the new millennium, and the student seating plan was also altered. Before Quin Snyder came to coach the Tigers, student seating was scattered throughout the arena and distributed via who picked up tickets first, and while the largest amount sat along one sideline, others sat as high as the D sections, which early in the arena's life doubled as lecture halls. Attempting to create an atmosphere similar to his former employers, Duke, Snyder mandated that all students be moved to one end of the court, where bleachers would replace the old seats and primacy would be given to his new "Zou Crew" club, with all other seating areas becoming general admission. The move was criticized for changing the atmosphere at Missouri games to something less distinctive while enabling more seats to be sold at a higher cost, but was duplicated at Mizzou Arena. The Hearnes Center also contains a field house that is home to the indoor track and field team, as well as one of the country's largest blood drives. Each fall, students donate blood as part of the school's Homecoming week festivities. In 2005, students and Columbia residents donated over 5,000 units of blood. During the school year, the parking lot adjacent to the main building serves as student parking for the many on-campus residents.
