Byrne Provides Basketball Arena Update

Greg Byrne spent time with Ryan Fowler on Friday afternoon. They discussed a variety of topics, including the new basketball arena for Alabama Men's Basketball.

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Fowler mentioned that, everywhere, Tide Hoops fans are discussing the new arena and asking when there might be progress on the arena.

Greg Byrne had a bit of a positive update for Crimson Tide fans who are searching for a new home for Tide Hoops,

Yeah, So we've actually had a pretty good last few months from a fundraising standpoint. We've had some very generous contributions from our supporters. Those conversations are continuing. I've been involved in a lot of those conversations and we've been able to have success with that. Obviously we need to make sure it works financially and it doesn't put our entire department in a very challenging financial position. But it's still a priority for us. It's still something we're raising money for. I can honestly say we've had some very positive conversations from a financial and fundraising standpoint. It still has not made up to $100 million increase in costs. And again, we can't jeopardize the entire health of our department over one facility. But we do know it's something that's important. It's it's at the top of our list right now. And we're continuing to be actively raising money for it.

They also discussed Nate Oats and his hire at Alabama. If the goal was to become competitive in March and the SEC, has Nate Oats surpassed the expectation?

Oh, yeah. I mean, to have the last six SEC championships between regular season and tournament, four of the last six have come to the University of Alabama. That's remarkable. That's an incredible thing. And I mean even going back to the arena One of the things that Nate and I talk about regularly and I've talked to Coach Curry about it as well and Ashley, with gymnastics is what are those long term priorities? Nate's done an incredible job leading our program. We want him to be the coach for a long time. I think he's shown that he wants to be here. He agreed to, I think, maybe the largest buyout in college basketball, if not, one of the top two or three. We've been aggressive with continuing to raise his compensation and investment in the program.

They also discussed some of the things Alabama is working on behind the scenes,

You know, one of the things that he and I've been talking more about is day to day operations. We have a good practice gym. You know, some of our infrastructure, I think we could continue to get better at just internally day to day where the kids are, you know, working out, developing who they are. And so that's actually been some of our focus. And we have some ideas that we're working on there as well that I think he's very positive about. But the job he's done is remarkable. I mean, you look back at our history, we've had a lot of really good history in men's basketball. But I think one could certainly say that we're having as much success as we've ever had. That's an excellent things, and we need to take advantage of that and continue to movew the program forward. We're going to do just that.

You can listen to Greg Byrne's full interview with Ryan Fowler on the Tide 100.9 app. Catch The Game With Ryan Fowler on weekdays from 2-6 p.m.