MITCHELL CENTER

'Mitchell Center' is a 10,041-seat multi-purpose arena on the campus of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama. It was completed in 1998 and is the home court for USA Basketball.
The venue can seat 3,500 for theatrical presentations, 7,354 for front-of-arena concerts, 8,777 for the circus and auto racing, and 10,800 for full-arena concerts.
The arena contains 18,080 square feet of arena floor space; 6,918 square feet of meeting rooms space and an additional 4,230 square feet in the Globe area, where the Waterman Globe is located. The arena's eight-sided Daktronics center-hung scoreboard features four video screens. There are 16 ticket windows, a 14,000-watt sound system, a 60-by-40-foot portable stage; four dressing and two team locker rooms, a training room, a production office and in-house catering. The arena measures 63'8" for floor to the roof. There is parking for 4,450 cars within a ten-minute walk of the arena, including 450 at the arena itself.
The Mitchell Center hosted the 2001 Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball tournament and is scheduled to do so again in 2008.
On the May 8, 2007 edition of "Lunch with Lee" on WNSP in Mobile, head basketball coach Ronnie Arrow called the Mitchell Center "the best arena in the state of Alabama."

Contents

Waterman globe

References

External links

Waterman globe

The Mitchell Center's north entrance is graced by the Waterman globe which originally rested in the Waterman Building (now SouthTrust Bank) from 1948 through 1973 and was a major attraction in downtown Mobile. The Rand McNally Map Company painted the original aluminum exterior of the 12-foot diameter globe, which depicts countries as they were in the 1940s. The reconstructed globe rotates once every three minutes and 50 seconds. The globe's axis is identical to the Earth's. ^[1]
The Waterman Globe was part of a total display of painted murals until it was cut into 300 pieces of scrap. Former USA President Frederick P. Whiddon saved the globe and stored it for more than 20 years, anticipating its restoration. USA engineering technician Lanny McCormick completed the arduous task of reconstructing the globe in 1996. Local artist Joe Wilson worked as a modern-day Michelangelo, lying on his back at the globe's new home in the Mitchell Center to restore the paint.
The railing around the globe is original but augmented by new vertical brass safety bars. The globe’s steel base was recycled from a retired USA campus soccer goal. The globe made its second Mobile debut at the May 1999 USA Spring Commencement, which marked the opening of the Mitchell Center.

References

1. ''Waterman''

External links

★ Official website