Drury to build $12M arena with O’Reilly gift

Called the O’Reilly Family Event Center, the venue will be located on campus south of and adjoining Weiser Gymnasium, and it will be used for sporting and cultural events, commencement and other major university and community functions.

O’Reilly family members Rosalie Wooten, Larry and Nancy O’Reilly, David O’Reilly and Charlie and Mary Beth O’Reilly together provided the lead gift of $6 million for the facility.

“We have a strong family history with Drury,” Wooten said in a Drury news release. “Many of our family members graduated from Drury, and we’re happy to be offered this opportunity to give back to a university that has done so much for us.”

To cover the remaining $6 million, Drury Vice President for Athletic Affairs Edsel Matthews will head up the pursuit of additional funds.

The school is looking to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for the facility. Construction is slated to begin in the spring and finish in 2009. (Click here to view a project rendering.)

Features of the 55,000-square-foot building will include:

• an arena, other event spaces, training and varsity dressing rooms, athletic offices and storm shelter space;

• luxury boxes behind team benches;

• a banquet and events hall with a panoramic view of Springfield;

• a multiuse concourse for academic poster sessions, trade displays and other purposes;

• increased quantity and quality of summer basketball and volleyball games for K-12 students;

• sufficient size to host NCAA Division II national tournaments;

• expanded space for physical education, exercise physiology and athletic training classes; and

• a Hall of Fame for Drury athletics.

“The new O’Reilly Family Event Center will enhance our fan base, help us recruit students and make Drury a possible future site for the NCAA-II national tournament,” Matthews said in the release.