UT Austin holds groundbreaking ceremony for new $338M Moody Center

AUSTIN, Texas - The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Moody Center took place Tuesday afternoon at UT. The $338 million arena will be the home to UT basketball games, graduations, concerts, and other events.

There were hundreds of people at the site of the new center Tuesday evening to celebrate this new state of the art arena that will be here in a few years.

The Moody Center will replace the 42-year-old Frank Erwin Center. The university says this state-of-the-art facility will be home of UT’s men and women basketball games and will even have student seating surrounding the court.

The Moody Foundation donated $130 million to help build the arena. The Moody Center will have the ability to expand to 15,000 seats and will also be a venue for not only university, high school, and community events but touring concerts and shows too. 

“The Moody Foundation is very proud of this transformational gift," Ross Moody said. "It is the largest gift the foundation has ever made and the single largest gift from a foundation in the University's history.”

UT says eventually this will make way for the future expansion of the Dell Medical School. 

“This is going to be the finest arena built in all of the NCAA we are guaranteeing that," CEO of Oak View Group Tim Leiweke said.

“For Austin, this needs to be the very first place any big band in the world wants to come play,” actor Matthew McConaughey said.

The University says the Moody Center will be ready first quarter of 2022.