The Lloyd Noble Center
is an 11,528-seat multi-purpose arena in Norman, Oklahoma, some south of downtown Oklahoma City. The arena opened in 1975. It is home to the University of Oklahoma Sooners men's and women's basketball teams.
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LLOYD NOBLE CENTER TICKETS
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History
Before the construction of the facility, the teams played in the much smaller
OU Field House, located on campus near
Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. With the success of Sooner basketball in the 1970s and star forward
Alvan Adams, demand became sufficient to upgrade to the modern and spacious Lloyd Noble Center, named after an alumnus and former member of the OU Board of Regents who gave OU's first ever $1 million gift to finance the center. The Sooners frequently sold out the arena during the
Billy Tubbs era, with
All-American forward
Wayman Tisdale leading the high-scoring team to several
Big Eight Conference titles and
NCAA Tournament appearances. This led to the popular colloquialism around Norman that Lloyd Noble Center is "the house that Alvan built and Wayman filled."
In January 2006, after the
NBA's
New Orleans Hornets decided to move two games from the
Pete Maravich Assembly Center in
Baton Rouge because of low attendance, the
Ford Center in Oklahoma City was unavailable for one of the games against the
Sacramento Kings, so it was moved to the Lloyd Noble Center.
The Fieldhouse is still home to the university's volleyball and wrestling teams, and hosts a number of other on-campus gatherings. It is rather unknown these days on campus that the Fieldhouse once witnessed concerts by the likes of
Jimi Hendrix,
Frank Sinatra, and
Elvis Presley in the 1960s and 1970s.
Concert Venue
As a concert venue, the Lloyd Noble Center can hold between 2,848 and 4,516 in a theater set-up, 8,519 for end-stage concerts, and 11,205 for center-stage concerts. The arena contains of arena floor space as well as of concourse space, allowing for trade shows to be held at the arena. The arena stands only tall since the majority of the structure is under ground (including the entire lower arena level), and contains a 40-by-60-foot portable stage and a state-of-the-art scoreboard and video system. There are 12 concession stands at the concourse.