La Salle University's newly renovated John Glaser Arena puts the fan experience at the forefront
There's a new exploration underway for the La Salle University community. This season, the home of the university's men's and women's basketball teams has a brand-new namesake and state-of-the-art design.
The former Tom Gola Arena at the TruMark Financial Center has been renamed the John Glaser Arena, and the renovations are finally complete. CBS News Philadelphia explored the Explorers' new digs to see the highly-anticipated renovations.
Ashwin Puri, vice president of athletics and recreation at La Salle, said the arena's upgraded layout revolves around a greater fan experience.
"I really want people to beam with pride and joy," Puri said. "This was a project that our fans, the student-athletes, our coaches, everybody around La Salle deserves."
La Salle said the renovation project was made possible thanks to a gift from the late John Glaser, class of 1962. Glaser loved the university and was a die-hard La Salle basketball fan through and through.
The revamped arena design includes a 360-degree bowl design that can change the court orientation from east to west instead of north to south. Plus, La Salle fans will be closer to the action on the court, thanks to the arena's new all-around seating.
"John's vision was to make it harder for teams to play here and he used to take stats of shooting percentages for visiting teams at our home games," Puri said. "And [John] would always say, teams shoot better here because there's walls behind the baskets rather than fans behind the baskets distracting them. This was a big part of his vision."
"[We] wanted to transform what was a nice quaint and older arena into a magnificent Division I-level experience for everyone involved," Puri said. "I think it's just the start of La Salle's transformation as a university."
The arena renovation project includes a hospitality area for concessions and a remodeled locker room. Additionally, the new arena design has upgraded video and scoreboards, audio systems, lighting and in-game production to give fans the best possible experience.
"The technology is not comparable to what it used to be," Puri said. "We've got LED boards all around the court, courtside, and obviously, the scoreboard is the magnificent large center hung that everybody desired."
Beyond the building, the university will invest in its cheer, dance and band teams.
The arena's former namesake, Tom Gola, is still being commemorated with a tribute to the basketball legend outside the arena. In September, La Salle opened the Tom Gola Plaza outside the TruMark Financial Center. The university also renamed the arena's driveway Tom Gola Way.
"Tom meant so much to this institution, the naming rights to the prior arena," Puri said. "So we thought this was a wonderful tribute."
And while this transformation is unrecognizable, the university says this is just the beginning.