Texas Tech University Athletics
Texas Tech Receives United Spirit Arena Gift
June 21, 1999 | Women's Basketball
January 12, 1999
LUBBOCK, Texas - Longtime local television broadcasters, McAlister Television Enterprises, has donated $125,000 to Texas Tech athletics to be used in the construction of the United Spirit Arena, athletic director Gerald Myers and Greg McAlister announced today.
The gift will be used to help service the debt of the $51 million project. The United Spirit Arena, which will seat approximately 15,000 fans for men's and women's basketball and volleyball, is scheduled to open in late summer and promises to be one of the finest on-campus facility of its kind in the nation.
"The McAlister family has been a large part of the Lubbock and Texas Tech communities for over 30 years and we are proud and excited to be a part of such a monumental project as the United Spirit Arena," said McAlister. "My grandfather and father have been a part of Texas Tech for years and, as an alum, I felt like this was a natural fit for our family to be involved with this project."
The McAlister family has owned KAMC-TV since Nov. 12, 1968 when R.B. "Mac" McAlister, a former radio broadcaster for KFYO, started the station. The family, which included Mac's son, Bill, as well as Greg, has been a part of the Lubbock broadcast landscape for well over 30 years.
"We are thrilled that the McAlister family has chosen to play such a large role in the construction of the United Spirit Arena," said Myers. "I personally have known the family for years, going back to when Bill served as the broadcaster of the Monterey High School games when I coached there. We certainly appreciate their generosity and their commitment to our athletics program."
