Santa Barbara City College moves forward with Multi-Million Dollar State-of-the-Art Sports Pavilion Project
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — It’s a slam dunk for the future of Santa Barbara. That’s according to a handful of student athletes we spoke with.
“There's not a lot of indoor basketball courts here in Santa Barbara. I try to find them all the time and I just can't. A lot of them you need like a membership. So hopefully this will be open for everybody,” said SBCC Student Joe Ursich.
This new facility will house more than just sports.
“We can have large scale events. We can open it up to the community for whatever they need and go from there,” said SBCC Spokesman Jordan Killebrew.
The rebuild will create state-of-the-art classrooms and a gym that is up to code with title 9 requirements.
It will also function as an emergency evacuation center for the community at large.
SBCC spokesman Jordan Killebrew says they are using funding from Measure P and state matching dollars.
The Measure P bond extension passed with 66 percent of the vote in the November election.
That unlocked $71 million dollars that will go toward the project’s estimated $105 million dollar cost.
Physical Education Department Chair Kathleen O’connor says the facility, which was built in 1963, has several issues related to its dated infrastructure.
“We just have a lot of issues. I mean, if you just look at the patio, we're patching everything. We have leaks everywhere. This building is a big challenge for our facilities people. We have the plumbing people here probably at least once a week to clear out the drains to fix things,” said O’Connor.
Marsha Croninger was the only member of the board of trustees to vote against the project.
She expressed concerns about costs ballooning in the future.
But others hope the pavilion will help reverse the trend of declining enrollment.
“New buildings and particularly P.E. and athletic buildings really draw people to your campus. We have over 400 full time student athletes on our campus. I mean, we want to keep those people. We want to draw those people to us. And you're not going to do that when the facility is really awful,” said O’Connor.
“Santa Barbara kind of sells itself a little bit. But, you know, having one more thing that looks kind of, you know, pleasing to the eye, I think is going to help a lot,” said SBCC Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach Trey Putnam.
The building is set to be completed in the Spring of 2028.
