Barnhill Arena is a 10,000-seat multipurpose arena

Arena

An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Fayetteville is the county seat of Washington County, and the third largest city in Arkansas. The city is centrally located within the county and is home to the University of Arkansas. Fayetteville is also deep in the Boston Mountains, a subset of The Ozarks...

, now used primarily for volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

. The arena opened in 1954 and was home to the University of Arkansas

University of Arkansas

The University of Arkansas is a public, co-educational, land-grant, space-grant, research university. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as a research university with very high research activity. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and is located in...

 Razorbacks

Arkansas Razorbacks

The Razorbacks, also known as the Hogs, are the names of college sports teams at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The term Arkansas Razorbacks properly applies to any of the sports teams at the university. The Razorbacks take their name from the feral pig of the same name...

 (men's) and Ladybacks (women's) basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 teams before they moved to Bud Walton Arena

Bud Walton Arena

Bud Walton Arena is the home to the men's and women's basketball teams of the University of Arkansas, known as the Razorbacks...

 in 1993. Prior to that, the arena had been considered to be one of the toughest to play in, first in the Southwest Conference and then in the Southeastern Conference

Southeastern Conference

The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...

, especially when Nolan Richardson

Nolan Richardson

Nolan Richardson is an American basketball head coach, who was elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He has coached teams to winning a NCAA Men's Division I Basketball National Championship, a NIT, and a Junior College National Championship, the only coach to do so. Most...

 was coach; it earned the nickname "Barnhell Arena" because of its ravenous student section. After the opening of the new arena, the university converted Barnhill Arena into a volleyball and gymnastics-specific facility, and the Ladybacks' volleyball and gymnastics

Artistic gymnastics

Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics where gymnasts perform short routines on different apparatus, with less time for vaulting . The sport is governed by the Federation Internationale de Gymnastique , which designs the Code of Points and regulates all aspects of international elite...

 teams have played there ever since. The arena is also occasionally used for special events, such as concerts, graduations, and speakers.

It was originally built as the Arkansas Fieldhouse and renamed in 1973 in honor of John Barnhill, the school's former head football coach and athletic director

Athletic director

An athletic director is an administrator at many American colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in intercollegiate or interscholastic athletic programs...

.