Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse

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Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse

Location	Saint Joseph's University Philadelphia, PA 19131
Opened	November 11, 1949
Owner	Saint Joseph's University
Operator	Saint Joseph's University
Tenants	Saint Joseph's Hawks basketball (NCAA Division I) (1949-present)
Capacity	3,200

Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse is a 3,200-seat multi-purpose arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The arena, home to the Saint Joseph's University Hawks basketball opened in 1949 and was inaugurated on November 26th with a loss to the University of Rhode Island. The first women's varsity home game was a loss to Immaculata University on January 17, 1974. The building was dedicated to all college soldier-heroes on its dedication day, Veterans Day 1949.[1]

In addition to serving as an arena for the basketball teams, Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse also contains locker rooms for students, faculty, and other varsity teams, an additional recreation room, squash courts, a swimming pool, and a weight room.

On October 26, 1967, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to 3,400 people in the Fieldhouse. Today, a bronze plaque in the lobby recognizes his visit.

The fieldhouse is scheduled to be renovated, with work starting in the summer of 2007. The project will add 1,000 seats to the arena, as well as the addition of a new basketball center. The renovations will continue until 2009, meaning the Saint Joseph's basketball teams will play their home games at the historic Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. With the reopening, the fieldhouse will be renamed the Michael J. Hagan Arena, in honor of Hagan who donated $10 million to the project. The renovations are expected to cost approximately $25 million. [2]