UTC’s athletic director believes McKenzie Arena can be vibrant for many more years

An artist's rendering shows what new office space might look like in the future for McKenzie Arena. An artist's rendering shows what new office space might look like in the future for McKenzie Arena.

By David Paschall March 27, 2015 6 min read

At one time, this was the optimum-sized arena, and now it's too small to be big and too big to be small.

In its 33 years of existence, McKenzie Arena on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus has housed the athletic likes of Michael Jordan and John McEnroe and the entertainment likes of Barry Manilow, R.E.M. and Van Halen.

Perhaps Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan fall somewhere in between.

Former President Ronald Reagan once spoke at McKenzie, but the multipurpose facility built to hold 11,218 spectators has received its share of rejection notices as well. The Southeastern Conference held its women’s basketball tournament in Chattanooga seven times in an eight-year stretch from 1993 to 2000 but left due to the arena’s infrastructure, though the city more than tripled the attendance at the event.

David Paschall

David Paschall has covered sports at the Chattanooga Times Free Press since 1999 and wrote for the Chattanooga Free Press in the nine years before that. David has mostly covered college athletics, with a focus on the University of Georgia from 2000 to 2019 and the University of Tennessee since 2020. He grew up in Chattanooga and is a graduate of the Baylor School and Auburn University. David has received multiple writing awards and has served as a Heisman Trophy voter since 2003. He has also worked in radio in Chattanooga and has been on the SEC Network's "Classic Rewind" series since 2014. David and his wife, Kelly, have three children — Conner, Emily and Spencer.

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.