Rutgers Facilities: Renovating the Basketball Arena

Rutgers athletics has seemingly always been playing a game of catch-up with its facilities, with a decent amount of work that still needs to be done to bring the university’s facilities to the same level as the rest of the Big Ten. One of the most pressing needs in terms of facilities is to renovate Jersey Mike’s Arena (JMA), or the RAC, whichever you prefer to call it. Rutgers currently has a naming rights deal with Jersey Mike’s for the rights to have their name on the side of the basketball arena.

However, as a part of the contract, Rutgers must either build a completely new basketball arena or severely renovate the existing arena by 2029. If they fail to do either of these options, Jersey Mike’s has the option to suspend the sponsorship agreement it has for the building, which is currently a 20-year, 28 million deal. However, if a major renovation is done, it could provide both parties with an opportunity to rework the contract, which could lead to a further financial contribution from Jersey Mike’s.

(If they are open to it, of course) Rutgers athletic director Keli Zinn has already made it clear that they intend to renovate the arena and that they are in the hunt for a design firm that is going to take a look at the building. Before he unceremoniously departed from the university, former AD Pat Hobbs had several renderings of a renovated stadium made based on input from fans, which are pictured below. During a podcast recorded with The Knight Report, Zinn talked about how everything that is going to be done to Jersey Mike’s Arena is meant to enhance fan experience, and that nothing about the current arena damages the actual play on the court.

The areas that Zinn talked about on the pod revolved around the arena’s bathroom situation, its lack of premium seating, the navigation of the building, and its seating capacity to a certain degree. “The only thing that stands in the way of us being a premier program in those programs (basketball, gymnastics, wrestling) is that competitive arena. ” We have broken down the renovations to the arena that we here at OnTheBanks feel are necessary to bring JMA into the modern age.