Evangel approaches end of $24M arena work
New athletic facility prepares to host first game Sept. 19
BY: MIKE CULLINAN, REPORTERmcullinan@sbj.net
Posted online August 23, 2024 | 2:23 pm
As students make their return to Evangel University’s campus this month, they do so with the school’s highest-priced project in its near 70-year history about to wrap up.
The university’s AGFinancial Arena, a 71,268-square-foot athletic facility on the northwest corner of campus, is in the final weeks of construction, according to school officials.
It will serve as the new home for Evangel’s basketball, football, soccer and volleyball programs.
“It’s just a little bit under $24 million, and that’s all in – construction, furnishings, electronics, lighting,” said Michael Kolstad, Evangel’s chief of staff and executive vice president, of the project price tag.
The facility’s first scheduled event is a Sept. 19 home volleyball match against Columbia College, said Shawn Fink, a construction contractor for Evangel who serves as the owner’s representative for the project. He estimated work was about 90% complete as of Aug. 16. The arena’s opening is in advance of its ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Oct. 4.
Williams Construction Co. is general contractor for the project designed by Buxton Kubik Dodd Design Collective. It’s the first new building to be added to campus in over a decade, Kolstad said.
“By price tag, it is our largest, but the excitement is already starting to build,” he said. “And as the students and the athletes come back, just that childlike enthusiasm, excitement, it’s worth a million dollars to see it on their faces as they walk in.”
Financial aid
Evangel officials say the project was funded through private donations, and the university will have no debt upon the building’s completion.
Its funding included a $10 million matching pledge made in November 2023 from the Green family, who own the Hobby Lobby and Mardel Christian & Education retail chains. The Greens’ pledge was to match up to $10 million in donations to Evangel through this November.
“We’re done. We’re going to make an announcement probably in the next two to four weeks,” Kolstad said of reaching the matching pledge total for the athletics facility, which was part of Evangel’s $24 million Here.Now capital campaign. “We were able to do it in eight months.”
The capital campaign also included the renovation of campus dormitory Walther Hall and installation of a field for intramural athletics. Both were completed in 2023, according to Evangel officials.
The Green family has a history of aiding Christian universities, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting. The family previously donated $5 million to help fund a 2013 merger of Evangel, Central Bible College and Assemblies of God Theological Seminary.
Additionally, the arena project in July received a naming-level donation – described by university officials as a capstone gift – from AGFinancial for an undisclosed amount, which Fink said resulted in the facility name change from the Valor Center. Founded in 1988, AGFinancial’s original purpose was to integrate the stewardship and financial service ministries of the Assemblies of God, according to its website. It provides loans, investment planning, insurance and other financial services to individuals, families, churches and ministries. Evangel is also affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination.
AGFinancial Arena replaces the 37,200-square-foot J. Robert Ashcroft Facilities Center, opened in 1967, according to the university website.
“This was the last part of the campus that we had not upgraded, really since the start of the university back in 1955,” Kolstad said. “We have almost 500 student-athletes. And it was time.”
Arena amenities
Fink said construction of the building at Pine Lane and Park Drive started in May 2023. The southern portion, dubbed the Randy Rowden Training Center, primarily serves the football and soccer programs. It includes 16 locker rooms, 25 offices for the athletic department, an athletic medicine hub and a covered terrace area that overlooks the field used for men and women’s soccer home games and practice, football practice and marching band rehearsals.
Rowden, who died in 2013, was a longtime supporter of the university, according to Evangel officials. His widow, Shirley, wanted to honor him and provided Evangel with an initial gift to start the arena project.
“We actually accelerated the schedule on that portion of the building to try to get the soccer and football programs in so that their late summer, early fall programs could begin,” Fink said. “We were able to hit that goal, and so they’re in there and operating now.”
Practices are in full swing for soccer and football as their seasons start this month. The roster size for football is around 125, while roughly 35 students each participate on the men’s and women’s soccer teams, according to school officials.
The training center’s 4,060-square-foot weight room also more than doubles the size of the one in the Ashcroft Center. Fink pointed out the school’s Valor logo is embedded on much of the new equipment in the room, which also features padded flooring and artificial turf.
“That weight room, it’s like it’s an NFL-quality weight room,” Kolstad said. “These football players come in and they’re just grinning ear to ear. And I think a couple of tears here and there.”
On the north side of the facility is the gym, which includes two regulation-size cross courts for basketball and volleyball.
“The arena itself seats about 1,425, plus we have five box suites and some standing room,” Fink said, adding total capacity is around 1,600. “We have four visiting team locker rooms, which is a pretty huge amenity. Between that and the cross courts, it really elevates our ability to host tournaments, etc.”
Adjacent to the gym are the building’s main lobby and concourse, which include space for a ticket booth, concessions, restrooms and a store that will sell university and team apparel.
“The lobby for us will as well be multipurpose. We’ll use that for banquet facilities and other events,” Fink said, adding the space can hold roughly 100 people for gatherings.
Outside the arena, officials are planning for a student plaza in the southeast corner of the property. It will include a large exterior LED screen and parking room for food trucks.
“If you think pregame, whether it be soccer, football, basketball, volleyball in the arena, that’s really meant to be a place for students to come and congregate,” he said. “We’re putting some resources into that.”
As for the Ashcroft Center, a facility that has no air conditioning and sits across from AGFinancial Arena, Kolstad said there’s no plan to tear it down. The building, which has an arched roof and pointed spires, was designed after an airport terminal that was constructed in Texas, according to Evangel’s website.
Kolstad said the center’s future use is to be determined.
“We want to keep as much real estate as we can. We are going to take the year to study it,” he said. “It makes a nice facility for some of these other things that we’ve not had.”
Some ideas under consideration are an indoor practice facility for court sports, an additional location for intramural athletics and a pickleball venue.
“It’s not going anywhere. The bones of the structure are excellent,” he said. “It probably would make no sense to tear it down.”
