There's nowhere Dallas Power would rather be than Allen Fieldhouse on a Kansas game night.   "Oh, what a place," the Topeka resident said. "Fantastic place to play basketball. We've been to several other arenas following KU on the road, but none really have the atmosphere of Allen Fieldhouse. You walk into those other places, and you can admire the architecture and notice that their concession areas are a little nicer than ours and their rest rooms are more modern, but they don't have what we have.

 

Phog Allen stood in front of the new arena in 1955. SUBMITTED

"Ours is Allen Fieldhouse, and that makes the difference."

For 48 seasons, the fieldhouse has captivated Power and generations of people like him. Dick Vitale gets a little more animated than usual -- and that's saying something -- when he talks about the place. Sports Illustrated called it the most underrated arena in college hoops. Even former Missouri coach Norm Stewart, who hated Kansas so much he booked his teams in motels in Kansas City, Mo., before games in Lawrence, spoke fondly of the fieldhouse when he returned last season to be honored by former KU coach Roy Williams.

But beneath the compliments and rich atmosphere lies a building that in some ways is showing its 48 years.   Rust spreads on bathroom fixtures so old they look like they could have been used by Phog Allen himself. Jury-rigged television cables sag from the ceiling in the west entrance. Buckets are placed outside offices to catch condensation from window air-conditioners, necessitated by the lack of a building-wide cooling unit.

Major problems? Hardly. But throw in the fact that the place hasn't been repainted in 25 years, and KU senior associate athletic director Richard Konzem says officials know there's plenty of sprucing up to do.   "We've talked about it, and for the 50th year anniversary, you'll need to have done something," he said. "Right now, for instance, we just have painted cinder block walls in the concourse areas. And we've done a pretty good job of dressing up the east entrance, but still it's just blue, square tile. So you put in nicer siding, you put in a nicer flooring concept than what we have. You do a lot of things aesthetically."

To prepare the fieldhouse for its 50th season, 2004-05, Konzem also would like to see coverings for dozens of feet of exposed pipe, new bathroom fixtures and a long list of "continual maintenance projects that you need to be able to do." Officials haven't determined the cost of their touch-up project, which is in its beginning stages.

 

Years of fan excitement has worn the paint from many of the stairways and seating sections at Allen Fieldhouse. NICK KRUG/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

While the shortcomings seem especially glaring in a league that boasts such palaces as Texas Tech's $62 million United Spirit Arena and Oklahoma State's Gallagher-Iba Arena, which recently underwent a $55 million renovation, nobody's seriously talking about replacing the fieldhouse. The building is strong and safe, having recently been renovated to add a sprinkler system for fire protection. KU basketball coach Bill Self, like Williams, says he wouldn't dream of doing away with the fieldhouse.

That doesn't mean, however, that significant changes won't happen in the near future. Immediate items on the wish list include a new video scoreboard, which would be used to show replays and an intro sequence, and improvements in the building's notoriously sketchy public-address system.   Konzem said architects also have presented at least a couple of proposals for additions, one for luxury boxes on the west side and the other for a club level on the north end.

But thus far, Konzem said, there's been no serious push to add on. Officials are wary about doing anything that would radically alter the building's exterior, and, besides, the fieldhouse is doing just fine as a cash cow, thank you. Stained sinks, drooping cables and all, it keeps Power and 16,299 other people coming back for every game.

"It still works, in my opinion, because it's bleacher-type seating, so you crowd a lot more people in a smaller seating space," Konzem said. "When you go with chair-type seating in a whole place, one, people are more likely to sit there throughout and, two, they get spread out more. In those kinds of places, they use video and audio to create an atmosphere. Here, we get that from the stands. We don't have to manufacture it."