First Community Arena at the Vadalabene Center

The Vadalabene Center is the home of the SIU Edwardsville Cougars basketball programs on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. It hosts the Cougars in the Ohio Valley Conference, playing in an arena inside the building known since 2019 as First Community Arena under a naming-rights partnership with First Community Credit Union. The roughly 4,000-seat facility gives SIUE a solid on-campus home-court setting for OVC play. It also serves as a hub for campus recreation and community sporting events in Edwardsville.

The building opened in December 1984 and was named for longtime Illinois State Senator Sam M. Vadalabene, a strong supporter of the university. It has anchored SIUE athletics through the program's move into NCAA Division I and its various conference realignments, most recently to the Ohio Valley Conference. In 2019, First Community Credit Union secured a 10-year, $2.3 million naming-rights deal for the arena inside, rebranding it First Community Arena while the building retained the Vadalabene name. It continues to host basketball, volleyball, and campus recreation programming for SIUE.