The home to Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears basketball, concerts, graduations and other events will now be known as Great Southern Bank Arena.
The Missouri State Foundation announced the name change in a news conference Thursday morning at the PRIME Overtime Club inside the arena that opened in November, 2008.
The announcement ends a three year process of Missouri State seeking a new partner for naming rights to the arena.
Springfield business icon John Q. Hammons pledged millions to help build the arena, and that included naming rights.
in 2016, three years after Hammons’ death, his company filed for bankruptcy protection in federal court.
$22 million of the amount promised by Hammons was transferred to JD Holdings in 2018 as part of a bankruptcy settlement.
MSU filed a claim against the company for the rest of the money owed in exchange for arena naming rights.
The university actually began removing JQH Arena signage in June of 2019, anticipating a name change within the year, but the search for a new partnership was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.