Cheyney University Breaks Ground on $36.5 Million Athletics Complex

Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the nation’s first HBCU, has broken ground on a $36.5 million Athletics Complex that will give its students and student-athletes a new home on campus.

The facility will feature three basketball courts with volleyball capabilities, a fitness center, locker rooms, multipurpose areas, athletics offices, recreation areas and concessions. It is slated to be complete by Winter 2028.

The project also includes outdoor upgrades, among them a new track and soccer field along with site and pedestrian improvements across campus. The track and field is slated to be complete by Fall 2027.

Funding comes through a $48 million capital investment provided through Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education capital project process. The effort began as a plan to replace Cope Hall, the gymnasium that has served Cheyney students and student-athletes for more than six decades. The University then worked with the Pennsylvania Department of General Services to expand that vision into a multiuse athletics and recreation complex, and it plans to carry elements of Cope Hall’s history into the new facility.

“We are creating a place where our students can compete, train, learn and build community at the highest level, while honoring the generations of Wolves whose accomplishments built the athletic legacy we inherit today,” said Cheyney University President Aaron A. Walton.

Director of Athletics Fred Reynolds added, “Our student-athletes deserve facilities that match their talent, ambition and commitment.”

PZS Architects is serving as the project designer.

Nearly two centuries after its founding in 1837, Cheyney University is building the spaces its next generation of Wolves will call home, on the same campus where the story of HBCU education began.