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Yuengling Center
Yuengling Center (formerly the USF Sun Dome) is an indoor arena on the main campus of the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. Construction began in November 1977, and it opened in November 1980. The arena serves as the home venue for several University of South Florida athletic programs, including the men's and women's basketball teams. With 10,500 seats (including over 3,500 in the student section), it is the third-largest basketball arena by capacity in the American Conference.
Before the Yuengling Center, USF's basketball teams played at various locations on and off campus. The basketball teams first played at Curtis Hixon Hall in downtown Tampa, and later split their home schedule between Curtis Hixon Hall, the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds, and the USF Gymnasium on campus, among others.
By 1975, both the University of South Florida and the University of Florida in Gainesville had decided to build new on-campus indoor sports facilities. The two schools pooled their resources and shared the cost of a basic arena design to stretch limited state funding. The "core unit" of the Sun Dome and UF's O'Connell Center were nearly identical, and they each featured a flexible, inflatable roof made of Teflon and supported by a system of blowers. However, the O'Connell Center included facilities for other sports (namely gymnastics, volleyball, swimming and diving) around the main arena, while the Sun Dome as originally built did not, though it later added The Corral for the women's volleyball team after a renovation in 1995.
The $12 million Sun Dome broke ground in November 1977 on formerly open land on the southeast side of campus near Fowler Avenue. Construction was slowed on both the Sun Dome and the O'Connell Center when cracks appeared in precast concrete support beams. The problems were eventually fixed, and the sister facilities were completed within a few weeks of each other in late 1980 – the Sun Dome in November and the O'Connell Center in December.
The first two events at the new arena were a USF men's basketball game against Florida A&M and a concert by Alice Cooper.
In 2000, the original inflatable roof was replaced with a more conventional hard dome and additional facilities for USF indoor sports programs were added around the main arena at a cost of about $8 million (about $15 million in 2025 dollars).
In 2011, USF began a major renovation of the Yuengling Center at a cost of $35.6 million (about $51 million in 2025 dollars). Among other interior improvements, this renovation reconfigured the seating area to make the facility ADA compliant and LEED Silver certified. It also added a larger center hung scoreboard, a larger team store, a new concourse level with concessions and restrooms, and a new, athletes-only dining hall. On the outside, original exterior concrete was repaired, bricks were added to some portions of the façade, and the entrance gates were improved. This project was completed in April 2012.
In 2017, USF announced that the Sun Dome's management would be taken over by Jeff Vinik, owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, via Tampa Bay Entertainment Properties, LLC. On June 12, 2018, USF announced a 10-year naming rights deal with brewer Yuengling, effective July 1, 2018.
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Yuengling Center
Yuengling Center (formerly the USF Sun Dome) is an indoor arena on the main campus of the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, Florida. Construction began in November 1977, and it opened in November 1980. The arena serves as the home venue for several University of South Florida athletic programs, including the men's and women's basketball teams. With 10,500 seats (including over 3,500 in the student section), it is the third-largest basketball arena by capacity in the American Conference.
Before the Yuengling Center, USF's basketball teams played at various locations on and off campus. The basketball teams first played at Curtis Hixon Hall in downtown Tampa, and later split their home schedule between Curtis Hixon Hall, the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds, and the USF Gymnasium on campus, among others.
By 1975, both the University of South Florida and the University of Florida in Gainesville had decided to build new on-campus indoor sports facilities. The two schools pooled their resources and shared the cost of a basic arena design to stretch limited state funding. The "core unit" of the Sun Dome and UF's O'Connell Center were nearly identical, and they each featured a flexible, inflatable roof made of Teflon and supported by a system of blowers. However, the O'Connell Center included facilities for other sports (namely gymnastics, volleyball, swimming and diving) around the main arena, while the Sun Dome as originally built did not, though it later added The Corral for the women's volleyball team after a renovation in 1995.
The $12 million Sun Dome broke ground in November 1977 on formerly open land on the southeast side of campus near Fowler Avenue. Construction was slowed on both the Sun Dome and the O'Connell Center when cracks appeared in precast concrete support beams. The problems were eventually fixed, and the sister facilities were completed within a few weeks of each other in late 1980 – the Sun Dome in November and the O'Connell Center in December.
The first two events at the new arena were a USF men's basketball game against Florida A&M and a concert by Alice Cooper.
In 2000, the original inflatable roof was replaced with a more conventional hard dome and additional facilities for USF indoor sports programs were added around the main arena at a cost of about $8 million (about $15 million in 2025 dollars).
In 2011, USF began a major renovation of the Yuengling Center at a cost of $35.6 million (about $51 million in 2025 dollars). Among other interior improvements, this renovation reconfigured the seating area to make the facility ADA compliant and LEED Silver certified. It also added a larger center hung scoreboard, a larger team store, a new concourse level with concessions and restrooms, and a new, athletes-only dining hall. On the outside, original exterior concrete was repaired, bricks were added to some portions of the façade, and the entrance gates were improved. This project was completed in April 2012.
In 2017, USF announced that the Sun Dome's management would be taken over by Jeff Vinik, owner of the Tampa Bay Lightning, via Tampa Bay Entertainment Properties, LLC. On June 12, 2018, USF announced a 10-year naming rights deal with brewer Yuengling, effective July 1, 2018.