McKale Center will not be filled with Orange and Purple this fall.

The Phoenix Suns NBA team has elected to spend its preseason training camp in San Diego, Calif., instead of McKale Center, as it has done for the past two years.

The Suns will hold camp at the University of San Diego from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4.

Steve Kerr, a former Wildcat and current Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager, said the team is just looking for something new.

“”We very much appreciate the hospitality Tucson and the University of Arizona have shown our team the past few years and we look forward to returning in the future, but this season felt like an appropriate time to move camp out of town,”” Kerr said in a press release. “”It’s not uncommon for a team to train away from home and San Diego presents an opportunity to focus on the task at hand.””

The Suns have trained in McKale Center three of the last four seasons (2008, 2007, 2005). It gave local fans a chance to get up close to the professionals during an end-of-the-week intrasquad scrimmage, as well as give the UA athletics program some extra cash. Arizona Athletics made about $35,000 last year from the Suns’ visit.

Phoenix trained in Treviso, Italy, as part of the NBA Europe Live Tour in 2006. Before moving to Tucson, the Suns spent 16 of the previous 19 seasons training in Flagstaff from 1986-2004, with the remaining years in Phoenix at then-America West Arena (1997-1998) and Veterans Memorial Coliseum (2003).