If you hear loud noises emanating from an area of Saint Louis University’s campus right next door to the Grand Forest Apartments, hold off before contacting your RA. Chances are, the sound is nothing more than a Billiken sports team taking the court, or adoring fans cheering a political figure on to victory, or even thousands of devoted fans of a famous musician screaming and swooning. Essentially, it’s just another night at SLU’s newest on campus attraction.

The Chaifetz Arena, which opened its doors to the public on April 10 plans to carry its introductory three-month run into the 2008-2009 school year.

“Everything is going pretty well,” Chaifetz General Manager Darius Dunn said. “We’ve had approximately over 30 events, we’ve exceeded over 60,000 visitors thus far, and we’re looking forward to our annual goal number of 400,000 … We keep charging towards those numbers.”

Dunn said that Chaifetz is a venue that can be used for a wide variety of events. It has played host to events varying from concerts to carnivals to commencement ceremonies

“We’ve kind of set the tone for the kind of multi-purpose venue that this was expected to be,” he said. “Concerts, youth rallies, graduations … but one of the highlights for me has been the SLU commencement ceremony, because it has been a number of years since that has been held on campus.”

Despite being surrounded by thousands of college-aged students, the Chaifetz staff hopes to draw from the greater St. Louis community, as well as out of town guests, when it comes to filling the arena’s 10,600 seats.

“Everyone has that favorite artist, that favorite event that they’ll travel for,” Dunn said. “We want an event that touches just about all aspects of the community … each segment can look at something and say, ‘That’s something that interests me.'”

Dunn points to the concerts of Barry Manilow and Stevie Nicks as being two of the acts that helped to attract a wider variety of people through the arena doors, crediting the acts’ “intensely loyal fans.”

Though the arena focuses on meeting the demands of the greater area, its managers are intent on also catering to the needs of the SLU community.

“We are continuing to work hard with other groups on campus,” said Dunn. “This [arena] is something that the campus, the alumni, the students can all be proud of.” In addition to various concerts and events, Chaifetz will house many of SLU’s sports teams, an exciting development says Dunn.

“Once the schedules are announced, folks are going to be marking their calendars,” Dunn said. “People are getting thoroughly excited about the Billiken athletic season.”

The Chaifetz Arena’s next scheduled event is the Billiken Invitational on Sept. 5 and 6.

The women’s volleyball team will welcome teams from Illinois, William & Mary and Stanford, marking SLU’s first athletic event in the new arena.

Information, as well as a schedule of upcoming events, can be found at www.thechaifetzarena.com.