DAHLONEGA – The University of North Georgia is set to unveil its newest addition to campus – the nearly 40 million dollar UNG Convocation Center – with the Nighthawk basketball programs scheduled to christen the arena with a Peach Belt Conference doubleheader against Georgia Southwestern on Saturday (Feb. 24) beginning at 1:30 p.m.

The games are part of Homecoming 2018 festivities and will include performances by the Boar's Head Brigade Patriot Choir, Color Guard, Saber Arch, Loyal Blue Pep Band and Nighthawk Drumline, as well as a special show between basketball games by the Blue Ridge Rifles.

"The opening of the Convocation Center is a crowning moment for not only our basketball teams, but for the entire UNG campus community and the North Georgia region," said Lindsay Reeves, director of athletics at UNG. "Having perhaps the country's best NCAA Division II facility will have an immediate and visible impact on both our student-athlete and fan experiences. Our basketball programs are honored to be able to call the Convocation Center their new home soon."

While Nighthawk fans can get a sneak peak of the new facility at the university's homecoming basketball games, the building's official ribbon-cutting celebration is set for Friday, March 30, with Gov. Nathan Deal being a special guest.

Ticket prices are $6 adults, $4 children ages 7-18 and free for UNG students, faculty and staff; children six and younger; and all Nighthawks Athletic Club members. Ticket purchases will be cash only, no credit cards.
 
The new arena, located on the southwest side of campus, includes high-tech classrooms, a physiology lab, offices, a sports performance lab, athletic training facilities, locker rooms and other amenities. It will serve as the home court for the UNG men's and women's basketball teams and the Department of Kinesiology.

The UNG Convocation Center encompasses 103,000 total square feet, which includes locker rooms for the home team, visiting team, and officials. The basketball arena features a 22x14 LED video board on each end of the court and digital ribbon scoring tables, all of which is digitally run through a 12-screen production suite on the concourse level.


The northeast side of the Convocation Center features massive three-story windows that offer an excellent view of the Dahlonega campus and the iconic Price Memorial gold steeple set against the backdrop of the Appalachian mountains.

The 3,602-seat arena exemplifies the creation of transformable venues to meet the varied programmatic needs of each event. With all of the retractable lower bowl seats in place, it is one of the country's premier NCAA Division II basketball arenas. Retracting half of those seats and adding a portable stage converts it to a convocation center. With all of the seats retracted, the large, open floor can be used for Corps of Cadets military events, large student gatherings, job fairs, alumni functions and trade shows. 

The new facility will take over as the main arena for large activities at UNG, including concerts, sporting events, graduation ceremonies and military training exercises. Currently, many of those events occur in the aging and seat-limited Memorial Hall, which was built in 1960 with a capacity of 1,049. It will also host community and regional events, such as job fairs, tournaments, and large-scale meetings.

One of the first big activities which will take place there will be the UNG spring concert, held previously in Memorial Hall. This year, popular band "DNCE" (featuring Joe Jonas) was picked to headline the spring concert on April 11.