It’s funny what a national championship can do to a program. For Villanova, it may have led to a massive donation that will be used to upgrade their home arena, the Pavilion. The upgrades are sorely needed for the Wildcats, now a national championship program for the first time since 1985.
Villanova alumnus Bill Finneran donated $22.6 million to the Villanova basketball program back in April, following Villanova’s run to a national championship victory over North Carolina. It is the largest single donation in school history. The donation is great, but it leads to an interesting problem for Villanova’s basketball program once the arena upgrades are set to begin: where will Villanova play their home games?
It is expected the arena upgrades will render the Pavilion unusable by the Wildcats for home games for as long as one whole season. Fortunately for Villanova, they play in a region with some alternatives to work with on a temporary basis. Villanova has played a handful of games each season at the Wells Fargo Center, but tries to shy away from overloading the schedule with games in the NBA and NHL arena because it could disqualify them from playing NCAA tournament games there in the tournament (that plan, by the way, backfired on them this past season). So where will Villanova turn when it comes time to close the doors for a season?
How about the college basketball cathedral, The Palestra?
The home of the Penn Quakers has been the central point for Big Five basketball for decades and has served as a temporary home for St. Joe’s in the past under similar circumstances. This season, Penn State will move a home Big Ten game against Michigan State into The Palestra as well. There is a certain charm to playing games in The Palestra, and it would be fascinating to see Villanova take on some of their Big East rivals in the arena (assuming they are not moved to the Wells Fargo Center first).
It remains unknown just when Villanova will have to counter this quirk in venue shifting, but Jay Wright says it is inevitable it will happen. We do know it will not be this coming season.
“Earliest would be next year,” Wright told The Associated Press. “It could be year after that, year after that. But it’s inevitable. And I think inevitable within the next two, three years.”
So, the search is on for a temporary place to call home.
