The CFSB Center is an 8,600-seat arena located in Murray, Kentucky, near the intersection of Ky. 121 and U.S.
- Venue
- CFSB Center
- Town
- Murray, US
- Capacity
- 8,602
The CFSB Center is an 8,600-seat arena located in Murray, Kentucky, near the intersection of Ky. 121 and U.S. 641. The arena is the home of the Murray State Racers Basketball teams. It was previously known as the Regional Special Events Center, or RSEC, until the name was changed on September 17, 2010, following a $3.3 million donation from Community Financial Services Bank to Murray State Athletics. While the CFSB Center is commonly used for basketball, it was designed as a multi-purpose facility that also frequently hosts concerts, trade shows, and conventions. The Regional Special Events Center (RSEC) was built as a replacement for Racer Arena, the school's former basketball arena. While Racer Arena was structurally sound (it still stands and is now used for volleyball), it was growing increasingly obsolete, and its capacity of 5,500 proved too small for the men's basketball program. Talk of a new basketball arena began around 1978, when the basketball program was beginning to make big strides toward success. The project became reality in the early 1990s when the Kentucky General Assembly appropriated $18 million for construction of the project on the condition that the school would raise at least $2 million locally. Ground was broken in 1995; however, construction problems and cost overruns delayed completion of the facility until 1998 and pushed the total cost to $23 million for the 188,800-square-foot (17,540 m2) facility. RSEC officially opened on September 12, 1998, but the first event was actually the Kentucky Baptist Youth Conference in June 1998, which took place before construction was completed. Tim McGraw played the first concert at the facility on September 26, 1998, to a crowd of about 8,000 people. In 2004, new basketball locker rooms and a weight room were constructed in the Regional Special Events Center. Additional enhancements were implemented between August and September 2009, including a new playing floor and two wide screen video boards measu