Most survey takers don’t want an arena on Cook Field, less likely to donate if it’s built

The final results of a recent survey conducted by students, faculty and alumni of Miami University were released Feb. 9 and showed the majority of respondents do not want an arena built on the Cook Field open recreation area on campus and are less likely to donate to the school if the project goes through.

A total of 23 people spent the fall 2025 semester working on and disseminating the survey, hanging posters in academic buildings, dormitories, uptown restaurants, Kroger and at bus stops around Oxford. Multiple mass emails were sent out, and ads were taken out in local newspapers. They also handed out fliers at tailgates and on campus.

The survey was submitted to and approved by the Institutional Review Board and presented at a recent Oxford City Council meeting, and the group plans to continue presenting the results at some university meetings.

The ‘Event District’

Miami administration is currently planning an “Event District,” which would replace Millett Hall as the campus arena for basketball and volleyball. The project, if approved by the Miami University Board of Trustees, could cost the university in the range of $180 million, according to Ande Durojaiye, vice president for strategy and partnerships.

Durojaiye told the Oxford Free Press in August Miami was still in its “discovery phase” of approaching the project, which could accommodate other campus events.

But Miami announced in February 2025 a committee composed of university staff, faculty and alumni recommended Cook Field as the location for the Event District, while relocating the intramural fields to the area near Millett Hall.

During a Miami University Board of Trustees meeting on Dec. 12, 2025, Cody Powell, associate vice president for facilities planning and operations, presented a new rendering for the proposed arena placing it on Cook Field, adding Miami is also proposing a site for a land lease for a hotel developer on the property.

David Creamer, senior vice president for finance and business services and treasurer at Miami, said the university has the debt capacity to take on the project in a $200-$250 million range if the board chooses to proceed. The board will have the opportunity to make a formal decision during its next meetings on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27.

Since the possibility of the project was introduced, there has been documented criticism from the campus community.

A survey solicited by the university last year with more than 1,500 respondents showed widespread opposition to the arena being placed on Cook Field. A Change.org petition, also created last year, to preserve Cook Field now has 3,564 signatures, with the latest being added one month ago.

This year, a Miami professor, with a team of students and faculty members, decided to rehash the survey in an attempt to reach more respondents – but the overall outcome was the same. Most survey takers do not want a new arena to be built on Cook Field.

The results

The new survey garnered 3,347 respondents, including not only Miami students, faculty and staff, but also parents and Oxford residents, 89% of whom said they oppose the plan to build an arena on Cook Field. 

In fact, 1,743 respondents, or over half, said they would prefer to preserve Cook Field as a green space.

Anna West, a junior at Miami and an undergraduate team leader for the new survey, said she spent a minimum of 15 to 20 a week on the survey project during the fall semester. 

West said, “I think that the original survey that was put out didn’t really get the attention that would allow for it to have an impact, or for people to actually see it and fill it out.”

“I think that was one of our goals, was to really get the survey out so as many people as they could, could see it and fill it out and express their opinions,” she said.

The survey gauged how frequently the Miami community uses Cook Field and Millett Hall, how changes to the facilities would impact future use, what respondents consider Miami’s identity to be and what they prefer for the future of Cook Field and Millett Hall.

The opinions gathered by the team showed only 7% of survey takers support the decision to build an arena on Cook Field, with 69% indicating they are less likely to donate to Miami if this plan goes through.

The least important quality about Miami for survey takers who said they have donated in the past was collegiate athletics, with over 37% indicating it was somewhat (29.4%) or very important (8.2%).

Only 10% of respondents who have donated in the past said they support the plan to redevelop Cook Field as an Event District, and nearly 70% said they would be less likely to donate to Miami again if the plan proceeds.

Of all the respondents, including residents unaffiliated with Miami, 65% reported “occasionally” or “very frequently” using Cook Field, although 81% rated it “very important” to the Miami experience.

Two students interviewed by the Oxford Free Press in August who play intramural/club sports predicted relocating the green space to Millett Hall, which is farther away from the center of campus compared to Cook Field, could reduce its future use.

If the recreation fields were relocated to Millett Hall, an effort for which Miami said it could invest $13 million, over 80% of respondents said they would use the space as a leisure/green area a lot less. More than 66% said they would use the space for organized sports competition a lot less.

‘Perceived administrative disconnect’

According to the final report for the survey, a theme of “perceived administrative disconnect” emerged from respondents across multiple stakeholder groups who “articulated the perception that the proposed arena project was misaligned with Miami University’s stated mission and academic priorities.”

When the Oxford Free Press spoke to Durojaiye in August, he said the university “100%” has a “vested interest” in supporting its student athletes, adding he believes Miami has the strongest overall athletic program in the Mid-American Conference.

But when survey takers were asked to rank the importance of a list of values associated with Miami – the quality of education, campus beauty, institutional reputation, college town experience, career preparedness, and collegiate athletics – nine in 10 respondents described all of these values as being “somewhat” or “very important” except athletics.

Most respondents listed campus beauty and the quality of education as “very important” values.

When asked where they would focus Miami’s investments if given the choice, only 14% of respondents listed athletic programs and facilities as one of their top three strategic investments. Most respondents also ranked the quality of the athletic facility as least important to them when deciding whether to attend sporting events.

Durojaiye also told the Oxford Free Press in August the university had “multiple conversations” about the project over the past year engaging with faculty about the potential arena, adding Miami is “doing our due diligence to make sure that we’re making the right decision and we’re moving us in the right direction.”

He said the campus community was “very responsive” about the project.

Bri Fitzgerald, a senior and another undergraduate team leader for the new survey who also spent between 15 to 20 hours minimum a week to ensure the public could share their opinions, said when the first survey was taken, Fitzgerald felt like a lot of the student body didn’t know the full plan surrounding the Event District and had only heard Millett might be moved.

“The original survey was only sent out in one email, and the student body gets bombarded with hundreds of emails every day, so it was easy to get lost,” Fitzgerald said, adding the university also didn’t publicize the results of the original survey, which the Oxford Free Press later retrieved through a Freedom of Information Act request, and it didn’t publicize or make the survey accessible to all those impacted.

West said, as a result, “I think it was really important for us to have everyone be able to access the survey, and also for everyone to be able to see the results.”

According to the final results of the survey, participants frequently framed the Event District as “an example of institutional misuse of resources,” often calling for “increased transparency and clearer communication from the Board of Trustees.”

Fitzgerald said when the team published its original findings, it sent them to the board of trustees, and although they received thanks, no other responses were given.

The Oxford Free Press reached out to Miami for a response, but none was received by press time on Wednesday, Feb. 11.