Muskogee High School Arena Holds First College Basketball Tournament

College basketball teams from across the state are in Muskogee for the NJCAA tournament.

It’s the first big sporting event in the new Rougher Village Arena at Muskogee High School.

Muskogee voters approved a $110 million bond to build the arena back in 2019.

Dr. Jason Parker, the Athletic Director for Muskogee Public Schools, said the Rougher Village Arena is unlike anything he’s seen before.

"For me personally, I've played in arenas all over the world, all over the nation, I got the opportunity to play professional basketball and I've never seen an athletic facility at the high school level with this type of amenities," said Parker.

The arena opened in January and is already hosting the NJCAA Region II basketball tournament.

More than a dozen teams are in Muskogee for the weekend, which means they’ll be spending money eating out, staying in hotels and shopping.

"We do know that we have 16 teams, and we know it goes for 4 days, and so our community benefits from that from the economic impact with our restaurants and our hotel industry," said Tammye Howell, the Director of Tourism for the Muskogee Tourism Authority.

Howell said this facility opens the door to more national events coming to Muskogee.

"We've all learned a lot about basketball in the last 45 days, and now that we have a facility that can actually house this event, it makes us go after other contracts to bring that to our community," said Howell.

Parker hopes this new arena will not only benefit students, but also, the town of Muskogee as a whole.

"This facility was built not only as an investment in our students, but also in our community,” said Parker. “And we've in turn, turned it into an invitation to our community whereby we can host events like this and come together for the good of the city of Muskogee."

The tournament will end Saturday and will also be held at the arena next year.