Built as the largest on-campus, single-sport arena in the country, Thompson-Boling Assembly Center and Arena is one of the nation’s premier basketball facilities. (Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome has more seats for basketball but is also used for football.) A mammoth building of 514,130 square feet, the $36 million Thompson-Boling Assembly Center and Arena opened its doors on December 3, 1987, with a basketball doubleheader featuring the men’s team against Marquette (UT 82-56) and the Lady Vols against Stetson (102-59). Its opening was two years later than its original completion date.
Construction began on November 2, 1983. The original contractor, B. B. Anderson Construction Company of Topeka, Kansas, was removed from the project, and Ray Bell Construction Company of Nashville took over completion of the facility in March 1986. Suits and countersuits involving Anderson, the bonding company, architects, and engineers were filed. In spring 1992 a settlement was reached through which UT agreed to drop its $7 million breach of contract suit against B. B. Anderson Construction Company and its bonding company, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Insurance, in return for payment of at least $6.5 million. UT spent more than $11 million on litigation expenses—$4.8 million in attorney’s fees, and $4.4 million for consultants and expert witnesses. Total expenditures on the arena, including litigation, came to $56,188,128.
When completed, Thompson-Boling’s capacity was 24,535 (although on opening night at the men’s game against Marquette, Tennessee played to a standing-room crowd of 25,272).
The distance from the playing floor to the roof is 120 feet, the equivalent of a 12-story building, and the building’s roof is approximately 3.25 acres. The funding package for the facility provided that UT pay $13 million; Knox County, $10 million (through an increase in the amusement tax); and the State of Tennessee, $7 million. Of UT’s share, $10 million came from private gifts, with the largest private contribution coming from B. Ray Thompson, whose fortune was made in the coal business. Just before the opening of the facility in 1987, the board of trustees named it Thompson-Boling, honoring the major private donor and, at Thompson’s request, Dr. Edward J. Boling, who had announced his retirement as president of UT on June 12, 1987. The original plaque placed in the facility misspelled “Boling,” and, unlike the 1921 plaque in Ayres Hall that misspells (twice) the name of UT President Brown Ayres, the plaque was hastily replaced with one with the correct spelling and a slightly modified bas-relief of President Boling.
The completion of the arena did not include the build-out of office space for the men’s and women’s basketball coaches or the installation of a restaurant in the east end of the building. Those projects were begun, as separate contracts, in summer 1988. The basketball floor was named The Summitt in January 2003 upon the occasion of Coach Pat Head Summit’s 800th win (76-57 victory over DePaul). In addition to being the home floor of UT basketball, the arena is used for large concerts (including, on October 14, 1990, tenor Luciano Pavarotti), for UT and local high school commencements, for the Shrine Circus, tractor pulls, rodeos, and other events requiring a large floor and substantial audience seating.
The building was renovated in 2007, and its capacity was reduced in order to provide box and other VIP seating.