Fairfield University Mahoney Arena

Mahoney Arena is a 3,500-seat, 85,000 sf multi-purpose facility designed to replace Alumni Hall as the new home for Fairfield University’s Division 1 basketball and volleyball teams. The arena also accommodates concerts, commencements, and other on-campus events, complete with a “stage” area at one end of the arena.

Acentech collaborated with Centerbrook Architects & Planners, providing audiovisual system design and acoustical recommendations to support the arena’s multi-use functionality.

Mahoney Arena features a state-of-the-art broadcast and media control room, a spacious, open concourse, luxury seating, and concession stands. Above the concourse, a special club features private seating and a premium bar/lounge. The court level houses amenities to support student-athletes, including locker rooms, a film room, a team lounge, and a training/first aid room.

To support the variety of events, the overall audiovisual system design is comprised of two main components: an “arena” system for athletic events, and a “performance” system for events or concerts. The in-house broadcast video production system, with infrastructure for supporting external TV broadcasts, was designed to operate in conjunction with Fairfield’s on-campus Media Center. This allows the broadcast components in the arena to be used independently, to provide feeds over to the Media Center for rebroadcast or postproduction, or for staff at the Media Center to operate the arena system remotely. For pre- and post-events, the arena’s film room doubles as a space for conducting press interviews when not being used for reviewing game footage and related content.

Acentech’s acoustics team provided recommendations for soundabsorptive finishes, sound isolating assemblies and details, and MEP systems’ noise and vibration control measures for the entire arena. Appropriate acoustics were also developed for smaller spaces like the film room, broadcast control room, lobby/concession, club lounge, and locker rooms.

Mahoney Arena is dedicated to donor and former Trustee Leo D. Mahoney. Since its opening in 2022, the facility has garnered multiple accolades from the press, students, faculty, and alumni.