The Jon M. Huntsman Center — home to championships, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics — has anchored the southeast corner of the University of Utah since 1969. Finding a new home for the arena is part of a larger plan to reimagine campus, turning the historically commuter school into a residential, destination one.
“I want to make it clear that we have not decided where the new arena should go and that we need to study the economics, the location, the parking, the access,” University President Taylor Randall told the Board of Trustees at a March 11 meeting. “Events will continue at our current Huntsman Center until a new arena is constructed.”
The board authorized campus leaders to explore new locations. Recommendations, along with the potential cost, will be due to the board by September.
The U’s new “Campus Physical Development Framework,” which was also approved by the board, will guide future infrastructure decisions. Since it’s a roadmap, Randall stressed, any projects will still need to go through the same approval process. Beyond the arena, the plan splits the campus into districts designated for different purposes.
The highlight of the new plan for Randall, what he called the largest change from past plans, is the “College Town Magic” district.
“A focus on building a community — not only for students but also for faculty and staff — where we can engage together and build community in a very, very different way,” he said.
The school plans to use the southeast corner, where the Huntsman Center is currently located, as well as the Fort Douglas land acquired in 2024 to create that imagined college town. The university said the space will be, “centered around housing, food, recreation and wellness venues for up to 14,000 students. New developments for the 24/7 space could include restaurants, a grocery store and retail shops.”
One thing the university president has talked about since he was first inaugurated is shaking the perception that the U is a commuter campus where students travel to every day to learn, rather than live here. Randall said this new framework will include more student housing, better gathering spaces and make campus easier to navigate.
The other campus districts include Academic and Research; Research Park; Cultural; Health and Athletics.
Ute Athletics Director Mark Harlan called it “a fantastic opportunity for this athletic department to modernize” and thanked Randall for how thoughtful his team has been.
The Huntsman Center is “a historical building that all of us have benefited from so much, but the timing in this parallel path of President Randall’s vision also aligns with the timing of a building that is, frankly, not as accessible as it needs to be in this day and time,” Harlan said. “We have one service elevator. I could go on and on about some ADA standards that are expected now.”
Shortly after the board meeting, Harlan sent a letter to fans to assure them the process of finding a new arena location “will be very thorough, comprehensive and inclusive.”
The neighboring Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Basketball Facility, as well as the Dumke Gymnastics Center, will stay where they are.
The Campus Master Plan Committee was told to look broadly at gaps and opportunities in shared infrastructure, focusing first on dining and parking.
Campus leaders were also directed to study campus access, traffic patterns and parking, as well as come up with solutions to ease traffic congestion and increase parking accessibility. By June, the board will be presented with a new parking strategy and a recommended location for a new parking structure or additional lots.
Randall said they’ve been working on this plan for the last 14 months, talking to experts and getting stakeholder feedback. This transformation, Randall said, will help the university better reach its 2030 goals, which include becoming a top-10 public institution, attaining a 90% job placement rate for grads and reaching $1 billion in research funding.
It’ll also help the school prepare for the 2034 Olympics, Randall noted.
Editor’s note: KUER is a licensee of the University of Utah but operates as an editorially independent news organization.
