Over the summer, the Palestra got a makeover. Students arriving for basketball season this fall may be surprised to see that the Palestra now sports a brand new floor.
The new floor, in addition to its asthetic enhancements, will serve to improve the safety of the arena by adding cushioning that the old wood did not have.
"The technology is changing and it's safer," athletic director Steve Bilsky told Soft Pretzel Logic, the Philly.com sports blog. "We're more aware of the fact that students are stronger and faster and you hear more about stress fractures, so you want to make sure that you're taking care of them from a standpoint of safety first."
The new look incorporates a dark red color scheme into the Palestra floor to replace the generic red that used to surround the court. Additionally, the "UP" logo that used to adorn center court is gone. It has been replaced with the "split P" logo that is now featured on most athletic gear.
Also different may be the color of the key. On the old floor, it was painted blue, but on the new floor it is currently the same light brown as the rest of the court.
The renovation is only the fourth major one in the Palestra's 81-year history. It is the third floor to serve as the Palestra's court, with the 1927 original replaced by a new floor in 1985. Other renovations were the changing of bleachers from wood to plastic and addition of seat-backs in 1987 and the addition of the museum in the main concourse in 2000.
"To think that the building is that old and there's only been two floors previously is kind of remarkable," Bilsky said.
The change is not a direct part of the University's eastward expansion program, which will include removing the tennis courts in front of the arena to make way for a public green space.
Bilsky did, however, tell the blog that his department will be doing a feasibility study to determine whether a large-scale, long-term, multi-million dollar renovation could be in store for the Palestra.
And for those who question whether the new floor will ruin some of the Palestra's mystique - it is, after all, the Cathedral of Basketball - Bilsky points out that the atmosphere of the famous arena is unchanged by the new floor.
"I know it sounds corny and cliché but I still have goosebumps when I come into a game," Bilsky said. "It still has the same feeling that it did 40 some-odd years ago. It has something to do with playing here or watching a game. It's the sound, it's the noise, it's the smells, it's the history. It all seems to linger."
