Miami University says its Board of Trustees will review and decide whether to move forward with its plan to build a new arena district on campus in Feb. 2026.
The university first announced its desire to build a new basketball arena to replace the existing Millett Hall in 2024. Millett Hall has been the home of Miami men's basketball since its opening in 1968, and now also hosts women's basketball and volleyball, along with other events.
After the school's initial announcement, Miami established its own site selection committee, comprising of administrators, former trustees, alumni, athletic staff and a faculty member to recommend a site on campus for the new multipurpose facility. No current students were included in the committee.
The site selection committee conducted a survey and recommended Cook Field, an intramural athletic field on campus, as its preferred location for the arena district. However, an analysis of the committee's survey by the Oxford Free Press showed many respondents questioned the need for a new arena and explicitly opposed the Cook Field location as a potential site. Despite the opposition, Miami's trustees accepted the committee's recommendation and voted to proceed with the initial concept and design phase of the project at Cook Field.
Between late October and early November, a new student and faculty-led research team conducted its own initial survey, gathering results from 3,347 respondents, which included undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, alumni, Oxford residents and business owners.
The new survey showed even stronger opposition to the arena district project at the Cook Field site, with 78% of respondents strongly opposing the idea and 11% somewhat opposed to it. The survey also showed a preference for renovating Millett Hall, while preserving Cook Field as a recreational greenspace.
Miami University says building a new arena would cost upwards of $200 million, while renovating Millett Hall would be about $80 million. Still, Miami Treasurer David Creamer told trustees earlier this year that modernizing the aging building wouldn't be worth the cost.
"Immediately walking into the facility, you can see the ADA issues in that building. Once you go into a facility and you make substantial improvements, you need to bring it up to today's code," Creamer said.
The new survey team says it plans to release a final report on its findings in late January or early February. The Miami Board of Trustees will meet to discuss its next steps Feb. 27, 2026. A university spokesperson tells WVXU that trustees can choose to proceed with the project as is, request modifications, pause the project or cancel it.
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