Dayton Athletic Director Neil Sullivan talked about the issue Tuesday in an interview with the Dayton Daily News.
“We’ve had engineers and architects look at that,” Sullivan said, “and the electrical infrastructure upgrades are just exorbitantly expensive and cost prohibitive for a couple matches a year where it’s hot. We’ve hosted a home tournament on Labor Day or before I think in 14 of the last 18 years, and it’s been hot — don’t get me wrong — but we’ve never had moisture on the floor where we felt it was not appropriate to continue.”
The Frericks Center does have many offices with air conditioning in the area around the arena. The court area, which is the fourth-largest volleyball-only facility in the country, according to the UD website, does not have air conditioning. In the summer, when many youth volleyball and basketball camps are held in the arena, giant fans on the floor cool the space.
No. 22 Dayton and Ohio State each won a set before the match was stopped. After the second set, more than 20 people were on the court at one time, trying to dry the floor with towels and mops. Sullivan said they could have tried to press forward, but they decided they did not “want to take any chances with the players slipping” and weren’t confident they could prevent the moisture from returning with two or three more sets to play.
The decision took place in front of the largest volleyball crowd in Frericks Center history: 4,196. It was the seventh and final match of the Dayton Flyer Invitational and the only one that was stopped by the condensation problem.
“We regret that we had to suspend the game for student athletes and for fans and for people that came out,” Sullivan said. “It was a great environment, and it was a difficult decision. We apologize to fans from both teams.”
The size of the crowd raised the temperature in the building. UD tried to keep the shades drawn at the top of the arena and the windows closed, but fans opened them in hopes of cooling down.
“I don’t know all the science, but when the moisture and the humidity from the outside makes it in there,” Sullivan said, “then it’s tough to get it back out.”
Sullivan said it would take a major capital project to add air conditioning to the arena.
“Hopefully, at some point, we’ll be able to do that,” he said, “but it just hasn’t been in the cards.”
A $1.2 million gift from Lori Hausfeld and her family in 2016 allowed UD to add a team lounge, more lower-level seating for fans, a new sound system and upgraded video boards. That followed a $1.8 million renovation in 2015 when a new locker room was built along with an atrium and the offices in the building were improved.
Dayton did consider playing the invitational at UD Arena, knowing the crowds would be larger than usual, but opted not to because it had never had an issue with playing matches at the Frericks Center.
“We’ll go back to the drawing board to determine if a tournament like that is best off hosted at the arena at this time of year,” Sullivan said.
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