Bowling Green will build a new arena with an $8 million donation recently received from long-time university supporters.

The new 5,000-seat facility will be named the Stroh Convocation Center after donors Kermit and Mary Lu Stroh. The project has an estimated $36 million price tag and should be completed by 2012. In addition to graduation ceremonies and major guest speakers, the center will house basketball and volleyball games.

Of the  $8 million donation, $7.7 million will go toward the center. An additional $200,000 will go to the athletics department and $100,000 will continue the funding of the Kermit and Mary Lu Stroh endowed scholarship. The gift is the largest donation in the institution’s history.

Kermit Stroh was a play-by-play announcer for high school sporting events held on Bowling Green’s campus 45 years ago and served on the school’s board of trustees. The couple’s two daughters, son-in-law and two grandsons graduated from the university.

"The BGSU community will remember this gift even more than the facility itself," said Marcia Latta, the senior associate vice president for university advancement. "[This] is much less about a facility, but what a family wanted to do for this University."