Last week after the controversy surrounding Paige Laurie and accusations that she cheated her way through USC, her parents, Bill and Nancy Laurie, decided to hand naming rights of Mizzou’s $75-million basketball arena back to the University. The Laurie’s donated $25-million to the construction of the arena and named it after their daughter. An expose on ABC’s “20/20” interviewed a former roommate who said she did most of Laurie’s class work in college. Last week the name of the arena was changed from Paige Sports Arena to Mizzou Arena, but that was the easy part. The task facing the university is getting rid of, taking down or painting over anything that says “Paige Sports Arena”. MU Director of Media Relations Chad Moller said it will cost about $30,000 to replace everything. That bill will be picked up by the Laurie’s. The bulk of the cost will come from removing the signage on the outside of the building. Moller isn’t sure when that will be completed but said it will happen “as soon as possible”. In Mizzou’s win over Murray State last Sunday, the Paige Sports Arena Logo was still on the floor, but that will change when they host Oakland this Saturday. A temporary decal will be placed over the logo. A permanent replacement would take 10 days to two weeks and there isn’t enough time during the season to do it.
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