Texas collegiate arena administrators perceptions of and experiences with operating multipurpose arenas

The purpose of this descriptive collective case study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of collegiate arena administrators of operating multipurpose arenas owned and operated by Texas public universities. For the purpose of this study, collegiate arena administration included those who served in the role of arena manager or directly oversaw the arena (regardless of title), and those within the university who had some type of oversight of the arena. The specific interests of this study included the reporting structure of the university arena within the organizational hierarchy of the university, the perceived purpose of the arena, and what the financial expectations were of the arena within their university. Within these areas of interest, risk management was explored. These exploration of these areas of interest were guided by three research questions. This study was conducted through the constructivist lens and conceptual framing. The study settings were six public universities with on campus multipurpose collegiate arenas. The 12 participants were the university employees who had direct authority over the campus arena. Data collection for this study occurred through the lens of the researcher, semi-structured interviews, field notes, reflexive journaling, and institutional documents. Data was analyzed through the constant comparative method as well as open and axial coding. Trustworthiness in the conduction of the study was ensured by member checking, triangulation of data sources, the use of rich, thick descriptions, and self-reflection through reflexive journaling to maintain the researcher’s biases. The findings of this study included that reporting structures for the collegiate arena varied within organizational hierarchies within each institution, the reporting structure had evolved over the years, and purposes of the collegiate arena were to serve the university and community needs. Additional findings were that arena operations were expected to cover their operating expenses but there were risks, and financial support was provided from the study settings in some manner to support arena operations. The findings of the study resulted in the following implications for higher education. The first is though the participants’ perceptions were that the current reporting structure worked well, there were inconsistencies as to where university arena operations sat in the institution and some appeared to be better situated for a revenue generating unit. The second implication was that the collegiate arena was revenue generating and study settings were dependent on this revenue. A skilled arena manager was needed to ensure that the need to generate revenues was a priority. The final implication was that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the operations of the collegiate arena and the ability to generate revenues were affected. This type of disruption should be a concern for universities who are dependent on these revenues. There were three recommendations for higher education administration. The first and second recommendations are focused on the need to have clear understandings of the reporting structure, purposes, and arena management needs of the collegiate arena. These areas directly affect revenue generation as well as university and community relations. The third recommendation is for university administrators to ensure there is financial support in place for the operation of the collegiate arena, specifically in situations where there could be decreases in revenue generation due to disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic.