The Pavilion on track for Jan. 7 opening vs. Alabama

OXFORD - Ole Miss is less than seven weeks away from opening its $95 million basketball arena, leaving athletic director Ross Bjork at a loss for words.

“I really don’t know what to expect to be honest with you because we’ve never done this,” Bjork said Friday afternoon after leading members of the media on a tour of the Pavilion. “You don’t open a building like this but once in a lifetime.

“I can’t wait to see the expression on people’s faces. When our players walk out onto the court for the first time, when our fans walk into the concourse, I just think people are going to be so excited and happy to say we have something we can be proud of for basketball.”

The Rebels will play in the arena for the first time on Jan. 7, when the men’s basketball team opens the home portion of its Southeastern Conference schedule against Alabama. The women’s basketball team plays its first game in the Pavilion three days later against Florida.

The two teams are currently playing in the Tad Smith Coliseum.

A lot of work must be completed before the new arena is finished, including installing the rest of the seats, placing the finishing touches on the concourses and finishing the main entrance.

However, Bjork is confident it will be done on time. He added the project was also under budget and described mid-December as a critical time for getting retractable seats installed and cleaning up the building before the teams start practicing there as soon as late December or early January.

The last time he went into the facility, which he does about every three weeks, he said there was no paint, no carpet and no lockers, as well very little tile laid.

“Once we hit milestones, like having the center-hung scoreboard in, the wood floor laid, the retractable seats here on site, once those big things happened, then we knew we could make the date,” Bjork said. “You can have some paint that’s not completed, you can have certain finishes that aren’t completed, but you’ve got to have those big things to play a game.”

The arena’s construction is just one part of the Forward Together campaign, which reached $155 million in donations this week and is now aiming for $200 million. Contributions have helped pay for renovations to the football team’s indoor practice facility and Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, as well as projects involving track and field and the Gillom Center, among others.

“I think it just shows you’re committed to high-level college athletics,” Bjork said. “You know how important it is on your campus. A lot of it is some catch-up, but it also needs to show that we want to have big-time athletics here at Ole Miss. We’re not afraid to compete for that.”

Contact Daniel Paulling at dpaulling@jackson.gannett.com. Follow @DanielPaulling on Twitter.

Visit clarionledger.com for a slideshow from Friday's media tour of The Pavilion.