Every time I see the exterior of Allen Fieldhouse in the daylight, I think of one of those between-innings promotions at minor-league baseball games.
As the teams change sides, the announcer advises the owner of a car with a certain license plate to pick up a certificate for a free car wash because that fan’s automobile has just been judged the dirtiest car in the parking lot.
Along those lines, any contest to identify the dirtiest building on Mount Oread must include Allen Fieldhouse as a finalist. The fieldhouse’s filthy facade reminds me of a decaying factory in a rust-belt city.
When you file into the venerable 48-year-old structure for tonight’s Kansas University men’s basketball exhibition game against EA Sports All-Stars, darkness will prevent you from absorbing the full impact of its cruddiness.
Daylight, however, magnifies just how ugly Allen Fieldhouse has become.
Years of algae and mold accumulating and adhering to the upper portions of the once-stately rough limestone walls have turned many areas a solid black. It’s almost as if a chimney sweep had finished his work and accidentally spilled his bags of soot onto the stone.
Some of the building’s polished limestone, mostly on the east side, also has deteriorated, as have several of the original vintage windows. Only one small area could be classified as esthetically pleasing. Vines have climbed about halfway up a portion of the northeast side — basically near the Phog Allen statue — and hidden the view.
Look up at the Allen statue and you can almost hear the building’s namesake muttering: “If you’re not going to clean it and repair it, have you given any consideration to calling the aluminum-siding people?”
Obviously, the fieldhouse won’t be covered with siding. The only way to improve the looks is to power-spray the limestone with cleaning agents. Sand-blasting is out, because it would damage the stone.
Allen Fieldhouse was last cleaned in 1976. That’s 21 years after it opened. Now it has been 27 years since the fieldhouse had its only bath and that is visibly too long.
Inside the fieldhouse is another story. Over the years, numerous renovations have increased safety and enhanced fan comfort with the addition of rest rooms and concession areas.
Perhaps in the near future, the fieldhouse will boast video boards.
“That’s certainly on the radar screen,” KU senior athletic department staffer Jim Marchiony said, “but we don’t have plans in place now.”
No plans to clean the fieldhouse exterior are on the radar screen, either, although athletic director Lew Perkins has explored the cost of a clean-up and received estimates in the $100,000 range.
But it shouldn’t be Perkins’ problem. Allen Fieldhouse is a state-owned building and has been ever since it was constructed with the stipulation it would be used both as a sports venue and an armory in case the Cold War should escalate.
With the state responsible for its upkeep, Allen Fieldhouse has become an eyesore. The state may have enough money to erect a statue nobody can see on the top of the capital building in Topeka, but it doesn’t have enough money to keep one of its few legitimate tourist attractions from becoming a dingy dowager.
It’s not difficult to envision a hard-core basketball fan who has never been to Lawrence motoring down Naismith Drive in search of Allen Fieldhouse, eagerly anticipating his first look at the storied home of Kansas basketball, then spotting it and exclaiming in shock: “That’s Allen Fieldhouse??? Oh, my goodness, what a mess.”
Inside the fieldhouse, they warn you to beware of the Phog. Outside, the fieldhouse has gone to the dogs.
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