Ground should be broken for the University of Virginia’s new 15,000-seat arena by early summer, after two recent gifts totaling $15 million brought funds raised to more than half the project’s cost.
UVa President John T. Casteen III said Friday that groundbreaking on the facility could begin “at any time” and UVa officials have targeted late May or early June as that date. According to sources, the school likely will opt for a ceremonial event at that time.
On Thursday, the school’s Board of Visitors announced that it had received the two gifts and that a total of $75 million now has been raised. The project carries an overall price tag of $132 million.
Board member William H. Goodwin Jr. donated $5 million to the project while UVa alumnus Paul Tudor Jones II gave an additional $10 million. Jones had previously made a $20 million gift for the arena in the fall of 2001.
The new arena — set to open prior to the 2006-07 school year — will be located on the north side of Massie Road, next to the existing University Hall, which has housed the school’s basketball programs and athletic offices since 1965.
U-Hall is the smallest and second-oldest arena in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Several times in the past 20 years, UVa has sought to replace the facility, with the current effort the only one to reach this stage.
“Certainly such generosity speaks for itself,” said UVa athletics director Craig Littlepage when reached Friday in New Orleans, where he’s attending the NCAA Final Four. “It gives momentum for the project and shows the widespread support for the arena, which will greatly benefit the athletics department, the university and Charlottesville community as a whole.”
Over the past several months, the groundbreaking date for the project has fluctuated, partly due to a slight pause in donations, which likely were affected by the current economic situation.
These recent gifts, however, certainly ended any lull.
“That would be an understatement,” said Barry Parkhill, UVa’s associate director of athletics for development. “We’ve reached a lot of critical points, and I’m not sure how to rank such points in a project such as this, but this was a big, big step. This enables us to move forward and it gives the project a lot of real momentum.”
With fund-raising concerns relieved for the time being, the project now becomes a visible one, not limited to architects’ renderings and drawings.
Friday, UVa project director Dick Laurance said he and his staff plan to be on-site within the next week and a half as they have been given the go-ahead to begin the project. Furthermore, the contractors for the various aspects of the facility already have been contacted. Laurance, who had a similar role in UVa’s recent expansion of Scott Stadium, added that the major construction work on the project should begin Aug. 1.
“We are on about the same time schedule as we were. We will now begin with the early site packages, with major construction beginning in August,” Laurance said.
Bob Moje of the Charlottesville-based VMDO, the architects for the project, said Friday that everything is on schedule in terms of planning and design.
“The design side had been working as fast as we can and we are nearly complete,” Moje said.

During the Virginia football team’s second spring practice last Saturday, a high pass by Matt Schaub glanced off Michael McGrew’s fingertips. “McMullen would have had it,” one onlooking fan said to another. If McGrew heard the comment, he didn’t react. At any rate, he knows the comparisons to UVa’s all-time leading receiver are inevitable, and to some extent he welcomes them. After all, he acknowledges that his goal for next season is to fill Billy McMullen’s role in the Cavalier offense. “I want to establish myself as Matt’s go-to guy,” said McGrew, who has started at wideout along with McMullen for the past two years. But while McMullen caught 152 passes in 2001 and 2002, McGrew had about a third as many receptions (58). The two were friends and workout partners, and McGrew says he admired McMullen’s work ethic and leadership, but that doesn’t mean he enjoyed being the No. 2 McOption in the passing game. “I’ll never say Billy is better than me,” McGrew said, smiling. “When you’re a competitor, you always want a chance to get the ball and make a play to help your team win. Sometimes I’d get five, six, seven balls in a game. Other times it was more like one or two. That’s up to the coaches. It was kind of tough, but obviously it worked out. We won a lot of games.” The 6-foot-2, 200-pound McGrew doesn’t have the same size and huge hands as McMullen, nor does he possess blazing speed. But he is a good athlete and route runner who has earned Schaub’s confidence. “I think Mike McGrew can step up and be a go-to receiver,” Schaub said. “We focused on getting the ball to Billy a lot, but when we went to Mike he stepped up and made some great catches, whether it was over the middle or on some go routes.” Last season McGrew finished fifth on the team in receptions (27) and third in yards (428). Of the Cavaliers who caught more than 10 passes, his average of 15.9 yards per catch was the best on the team. UVa coach Al Groh has joked that McGrew is in his “contract year”, meaning his senior season will establish him as an NFL prospect — or not. But he said McGrew, who was voted the team’s most improved player last spring, has not needed to become any more diligent or dedicated because he was already a hard worker. “I think he’s been pretty much the same guy, which is a positive thing to say,” Groh said. “He knows what it is — it’s his final chance to prove himself — but the kind of guy you want is someone who’s trying to prove himself every day.” Groh and Schaub said it is unlikely that any single player will fill McMullen’s shoes. They expect more of a group effort, with the tight ends and running backs playing big roles in the passing game, as they did last season. The other wideouts, including Ottowa Anderson and Ryan Sawyer, also will help pick up the slack. “Instead of just looking at Billy,” McGrew said, “I’m sure it will be all of us.” Young gun. With last year’s backup quarterback, Marques Hagans, practicing at receiver, redshirt freshman Anthony Martinez has been getting all of the reps as the No. 2 QB behind Schaub. Groh wants Martinez, listed at 6-3 and 249 pounds, to shed a little weight, “but this is a big kid. This isn’t going to be a 210-pound player.” Martinez has a strong arm — “When he throws his good ball, you can hear it coming,” Groh said — but this spring is his time to learn the offense and prepare himself to play. “It’s probably a little bit of a shock to his system going from the circumstance that he was in last year, get a play here and there, and not have to step up in there,” Groh said. “Obviously, in his grooming, we want to do it as if he were the quarterback. He might be. In that spot, it could happen any time, and he hopes to be that way in the future. “The volume of things he has to deal with — formations, motions, the play call, the read — as it is for most young quarterbacks, was a little bit overwhelming in the beginning. He’s becoming more comfortable with it.” If Hagans remains at receiver, Groh said, incoming recruit Kevin McCabe will be the third-string quarterback. Snow job. Groh forbids his players to ride motorcycles because of the inherent danger. Now, because of Mark Farrington, he says he’ll have to add a no-skiing rule. The 6-2, 280-pound junior guard injured his right leg in a skiing accident this winter and has not been cleared for spring practice. “I think it’s fairly easy to picture someone like Wali Lundy or Almondo Curry or somebody like that on skis,” Groh said. “It’s not an appealing sight to think about one of these offensive linemen on skis.” Leg up. Compared to last year, Groh said there are fewer wide-open competitions for starting positions, largely because 19 starters are back. But that doesn’t mean an incumbent can’t lose his job. Connor Hughes, for instance, ended last season as the team’s starting kicker and made five of six field-goal attempts. “But if someone goes into the spring and kicks significantly better than him,” Groh said, “then that person will be the kicker.” Extra points. Sunday’s practice, scheduled to start at 2:15 p.m., will be the last one that is open to fans before the April 19 spring game. Those interested in attending are asked to pick up a credential at the football reception desk in the McCue Center. If no one is there, free passes can be obtained at the entrance to the practice fields behind University Hall. … Lynchburg native Brad Butler, who started at right tackle in the Continental Tire Bowl, has been held out of spring practice because of mononucleosis. … Because of injuries and illnesses, Groh said there is almost no way he will be able to field two full teams for the spring game.

With three multi-talented attackmen and a pair of midfield marksmen, the Virginia men’s lacrosse team has the ingredients necessary to field an explosive offense. In recent weeks, however, the sixth-ranked Cavaliers have done more imploding than exploding. In consecutive 8-7 losses to Johns Hopkins and Maryland, UVa (5-2) struggled on offense, taking bad shots, committing careless turnovers and making poor decisions. In each game, the Cavaliers went more than 30 minutes without a goal — inexplicably long scoring droughts that have frustrated many of the players. “The offense just isn’t clicking right now,” said senior midfielder Chris Rotelli, who leads the team in assists (10) and points (25). “I think maybe we’re looking for ourselves a little too much. I think everybody is getting away from our team concept and only worrying about individual matchups. Not because they’re selfish, but just because they’re not thinking out there. “I hold myself accountable for that, too. We all just need to pay a little more attention to detail and focus on the team concept.” Assistant coach Marc Van Arsdale, the team’s offensive coordinator, said part of the problem has been “guys trying to do a little too much, occasionally keeping the ball in their sticks a little too long.” Van Arsdale said the Cavaliers — who scored at least 10 goals in each of their first five games — need to do a better job of moving the ball around quickly, especially after drawing an initial double team. One player who had trouble with that against the Terrapins was sophomore attackman John Christmas, who turned the ball over five times and had no assists in the game. Christmas still scored twice and leads the team with 16 goals. But he and his fellow starting attackmen — sophomore Joe Yevoli and freshman Matt Ward — are young players who are figuring out how to handle different game situations. “I think the biggest part of it is inexperience,” UVa coach Dom Starsia said. “A lot of these guys are being exposed to things for the first time and it’s a learning exercise for them. They’re learning about what’s required to be successful on a consistent basis.” Christmas and Yevoli combined for 69 goals in 15 games as freshmen. Now they have 28 in seven games, a slight dropoff in production. But both benefited last season from playing alongside three-time All-American Conor Gill, who led the nation in assists. “They just don’t have that luxury right now,” Starsia said. “Conor always drew the opponent’s top defensemen. Now John and Joe move up the food chain in that respect. They also have the added responsibilities of making more decisions about what to do with the ball. So it’s a severe adjustment. “But I couldn’t ask for two better kids to be the future of Virginia lacrosse than those two. I think we just need to be patient. I would just tell everyone to sit tight and let us catch our breath. I feel very good about what those two guys and Matt can do.” Things won’t get much easier today at 1 p.m. when Virginia faces No. 7 North Carolina (5-3, 2-0 ACC) at Klockner Stadium. The Tar Heels are allowing fewer than eight goals per game and have a hot goalie in sophomore Paul Spellman, who made 25 saves in a 10-6 upset of Maryland two weeks ago. But Starsia and Van Arsdale said the Cavaliers are unlikely to face any defense that plays better than Maryland’s did last Saturday. The Terrapins own the nation’s stingiest defense and “were as disciplined as you’re ever going to see,” Van Arsdale said. Senior midfielder A.J. Shannon said the Terps were tough, but Virginia created many of its own problems with unintelligent play. “We took shots with guys on our hands instead of passing the ball. That was indicative of our offense the whole day,” he said. “We made a lot of stupid decisions.” The Cavaliers played much better after falling behind 7-2, generating good shots on nearly every possession in the fourth quarter. Christmas and Yevoli scored in the final two minutes, both off assists from Rotelli. The comeback fell short, but the late spurt showed how well Virginia’s offense can operate. “That’s the way we should play all the time,” Rotelli said. The Cavaliers don’t expect their offensive woes to continue for long. Unlike the team two years ago, which relied almost solely on Gill and Rotelli and had problems scoring all season, the current one is balanced and full of firepower. Christmas, Rotelli, Shannon, Yevoli and Ward all have between 10 and 16 goals and 16 and 25 points. “In 2001, we were a little shorthanded on offense. We had to do it with smoke and mirrors,” Starsia said. “This group has the potential to be very, very good. “We’re having a little bit of a dry spell, but we need to be patient and we’ll come out of it. The schedule we play will give us a full array of challenges and we’ll learn from them. What we always say is we want to play our best lacrosse in May and I still think we’ll do that.”