Smiles and handshakes filled the conference room on UAB’s campus last February.

Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne had just made his presentation to the board of trustees physical properties committee and the motion passed unanimously. The first step in building a replacement for the outdated Coleman Coliseum was complete.

That was 16 months ago.

The second step remains somewhere over the horizon.

The University of Alabama System trustees will again meet this week, but like every other such gathering since Feb. 3, 2022, nothing about the proposed arena was listed on the agenda.

So, what’s the deal?

Byrne was asked again about this delay last week at the SEC spring meetings in Destin.

“I know some people think it’s an excuse,” Byrne said. “It’s not. It’s a reality. The costs have gone up about $100 million in a year.”

FROM 2022: New Alabama basketball arena proposal details, capacity and price estimates

Byrne first sounded that alarm bell last summer in an interview with The Tuscaloosa News. In the four months since the plan was announced, Byrne told the paper costs had “skyrocketed.”

The February 2023 estimated cost was $183 million for the facility expected to seat 10,036 for basketball. The university-preferred site for the arena sits just west of McFarland Boulevard, just beyond the parking lot that sits beyond the left field wall of Rhoads Stadium, home of Alabama’s softball program. It would house both Alabama basketball programs as well as the gymnastics team.

In November 2022, UA president Stuart Bell told the Rotary Club costs had risen 30-40%, according to the Tuscaloosa Thread. That puts the number in the $250 million range.

Now Byrne is saying it’s another $30 million more.

“We’ve continued to get several seven-figure-type gifts,” Byrne said last week in Destin. “We haven’t found a $100 million gift so if anyone has somebody out there who can help, let’s talk with them. But it’s still a priority for us. We’re still actively raising money for it and it’s a need.”

FROM 2022: Artist renderings of new Alabama basketball arena

For the sake of comparison, Auburn opened what’s now known as Neville Arena in 2010. The final price tag for the 9,121-seat arena was $86 million which translates to $119.6 million when adjusted for inflation.

There’s another factor, Byrne alluded to, in his answer from last week.

“At the same time too, in the world we’re in now,” Byrne said. “The infrastructure is important, but making sure you have all the other things including NIL is just as important.”

A day short of the arena’s initial approval one-year anniversary, Yea Alabama launched. The official NIL collective for Crimson Tide athletics went live Feb. 2, 2023, and the donations solicited in that space will have some degree of impact on money going to the arena fund.

In terms of construction costs, there’s a flurry of activity nationwide.

The Buffalo Bills on Monday broke ground on its $1.54 billion stadium while new NFL stadiums or major renovations are in the works for the Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars.

The Sports Business Journal in January reported $4 billion worth of new or renovated athletics facilities were set to open this year — down from $6.2 billion in 2022 — but noted big days were coming. More than $28.5 billion worth of projects were scheduled to be completed between 2024 and 2027, which the SBJ reported was the biggest backlog they’ve seen since first tracking this activity in 1998.

A few months earlier, Fortune wrote about inflation’s impact on stadium construction. It noted the cost of materials jumped 35.7% since January 2020 — a time when Alabama was in the middle of a $106 million upgrade to Bryant-Denny Stadium. The National Association of Homebuilders noted concrete prices were the highest since 1989.

Still, that wasn’t slowing construction, the head of Sports Finance Group at U.S. Bank said in the Fortune piece.

“I have not yet seen decisions change on whether to do a project or not do a project because of the cost,” said Mulvihill, whose group helped finance the $5-plus billion SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. “It’s just more changing how are we going to fund this, how much is it going to cost rather than changing are we going to do this or not?”

Funding for university projects is quite different from most big-league stadiums that lean on taxpayer money. The Bryant-Denny Stadium upgrades completed in 2020 originally came with a $75.5 million price tag before jumping to $92.5 million and eventually $106 million. When it was a $92.5 million project, $25 million was set to come from the Crimson Standard fundraising drive with $48.4 million coming from bonds.

The Feb. 2023 paperwork filed with the trustees said the project would be funded from a combination of Crimson Standard cash and gifts as well as future general revenue bonds.

Those same documents came with a project timeline that called for bids to be taken by April 2023 — the fourth step in the approval process that’s still to reach the second tier.

Byrne said he speaks regularly with Alabama basketball coaches Nate Oats and Kristy Curry “regularly” on the arena matter.

“It’s still a priority for us,” Byrne said last week in Destin. “We’re still actively raising money for it and it’s a need. Coleman is over 50 years old. That’s not getting younger. It’s about the same age as I am so we need to find a long-term solution for that.”

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.