page_title: CFSB Center
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: CFSB Center / History
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: 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 measuring 10 feet (3.0 m) tall and 18 feet (5.5 m) wide.
  Community Financial Services Bank made a $3.3 million donation to Murray State athletics in September 2010 in exchange for naming rights to the Regional Special Events Center. The name of the facility officially changed to the CFSB Center on September 17, 2010. Following the donation, Murray State also unveiled plans in January 2011 for facility expansion and upgrades to the CFSB Center. Since the building was constructed as a multi-purpose facility, the other events held at the CFSB Center often restrict the amount of court time available to the Murray State basketball teams. The expansion plan calls for a new practice facility attached to the CFSB Center that will give both men's and women's basketball teams unlimited access to courts. In addition to new practice space, the expansion will include new office space for basketball coaches. The university also has plans to construct luxury boxes for the CFSB Center and relocate the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame to the CFSB Center.
  Relocation of the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame to the CFSB Center was completed in Summer 2011, and Hastings & Chivetta was selected as the architect for construction of the new practice facility and coaching office space. Construction work on the facility expansion was originally expected to begin by November 2011; however, it was delayed until after the nationally televised final home game of the 2011-12 men's basketball season against the nationally ranked Saint Mary's Gaels. Preliminary ground work on the CFSB Center expansion finally began in late February 2012. Construction of the practice facility and office space will add more than 18,000 square feet (1,700 m²) of additional space to the CFSB Center. The construction contract was awarded to Pinnacle, Inc. of Benton, Kentucky. The addition to the CFSB Center is scheduled to open in January 2013.
caption: RSEC as it appeared before naming rights were sold to CFSB
exif: {"Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK CX7430 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "1093/4", "Image YResolution": "1093/4", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:07:05 13:39:41", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "214", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "2504", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9201", "EXIF ExposureTime": "536871/268435456", "EXIF FNumber": "11744051/2097152", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Portrait Mode", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2004:01:01 12:34:47", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2004:01:01 12:34:47", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9", "EXIF ApertureValue": "5", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "6081741/2097152", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "11744051/2097152", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2270", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1093", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2368", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "80", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Custom", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "34", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Portrait", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}