Moody Center

Moody Center is Austin’s 15,000-seat concert configuration on the University of Texas campus, built to carry arena tours alongside Longhorn basketball. Its defining feature is an unusually open arrival experience for an indoor arena: the building sits into a hillside, using 360 degrees of glass walls and at-grade access to every concourse. John Mayer played the first public event on April 20, 2022, giving the room a clear music-first opening statement before its formal launch weekend.

Built for the handoff

The project began as UT’s replacement for the 42-year-old Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center, whose site was intended for Dell Medical School expansion. In December 2018, UT and a group led by Oak View Group announced plans for a campus arena serving basketball, graduations, concerts and community events; the Moody Foundation’s $130 million grant gave the building its name in November 2019. Ground broke on December 3, 2019, on a site south of UT’s soccer and track complex. The building opened three years later, with John Mayer’s April 20, 2022 concert followed by the April 29–30 grand-opening celebration, “Strait from Moody Center,” featuring George Strait, Willie Nelson & Family and Randy Rogers Band. That sequence captured the venue’s intended scale: a modern university arena with a launch bill drawn from Texas music royalty.

The room in use

Oak View Group operates Moody Center, while its development group included Live Nation/C3 Presents, positioning the calendar around touring concerts plus UT men’s and women’s basketball and campus events. The concert slate spans rock, pop, country, hip-hop, R&B, jazz, indie and alternative bills. For showgoers, the practical details are broad concourses reached at ground level, a concert capacity of 15,000, self-checkout concessions, and full-service bars on the Self Concourse. Premium clubs and suites add separate viewing and hospitality options, while the main bowl keeps the emphasis on a full-production arena presentation.