USA Basketball will move from Colorado Springs to Tempe, Ariz., as part of a $350 million complex next to Arizona State University, the organization officially announced Wednesday. The move is expected by the fall of 2015.
USA Basketball plans move to Arizona by 2015
A $350 million complex in Tempe, Ariz., will include a training facility as USA Basketball moves from Colorado Springs.
Gary A. Vasquez-US PRESSWIRE
Built with private money, the facility will include an Omni Hotel, apartments and retail space. The basketball complex will include five full courts and two half-courts and will serve Team USA tryout events in a 4,500-capacity gym. The Arizona Interscholastic Association, the state’s high school sporting organization, will also make use of the facilities.
Both the Tempe City Council and Arizona Board of Regents will need to sign off on the plan that is expected to bring more than 300,000 people to the city each year.
The move was first reported by The Arizona Republic in June and is a long time coming for USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, who built the sports scene in the Phoenix area with the Phoenix Suns and later, the Arizona Diamondbacks:
“This is a big-time move for USA Basketball, one that I personally have been dreaming about for some time,” said Jerry Colangelo. “All of amateur basketball will flow through our facility. It’s going to make its mark on the game that I feel so passionate about.”
Colangelo and Team USA planned to move to Glendale, Ariz., in 2008 but a $53.8 million project failed because of financing issues during a period of economic hardship. He told The Arizona Republic that there will be an Olympic Hall of Fame built into the facility to celebrate USA Basketball’s 14 gold medals won by the men’s national team and seven by the women’s squad.
The men’s national team has an ongoing agreement with Las Vegas to host its USA minicamp.
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