 "Photo: Alma E. Hernandez / The Pan American")
The University might consider inviting Ty Pennington, host of the popular television series “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” for a visit to the UTPA Fieldhouse to host his next show.
The demolition of the interior of the gym that hosts Broncs basketball and volleyball games started the week of June 14 and will continue throughout this summer. Improvements made to the inside of the UTPA Fieldhouse are an attempt to enhance the appearance, safety, and overall game-day and event experience for the community, fans and alumni.
UTPA Athletic Director Chris King is very impressed with the continuing work-in-progress.
“We’re excited about this process; it’s going along fairly on schedule,” King commented. “The demolition project includes taking out the old court and replacing it with a new one. We should receive it (the new court) on tomorrow (Tuesday) and have it put in. The court must be acclimatized for a couple of days before it gets nailed to the floor.”
Bleachers and chairs that symbolize many exciting historical moments and events are being removed one by one. This will make way for new courtside seats, chair-back seating on both the north and south sections, and new bench-bleachers in the top sections. Safety rails will also be installed along the stairways of each section to meet ADA regulations.
“The bleachers will be state of the art, with comfortable chair-back seating on both sides of the gym,” King stated. “There will be a reduction of seats, but the good thing is that the luxury of the seating will be more appealing to the fan, thus accommodating the home-court advantage during games.”
Along with the entire court being restored, the center court will be replaced by the updated UTPA Broncs logo and word mark. Also, new sponsorship panels with exciting graphics will be added to the décor of the Broncs’ rejuvenated gym. These alterations will be the finishing touches to renovations for the new and improved UTPA Fieldhouse.
According to King, the court and seating should be ready around Labor Day, just before the start of the 2010 Bronc basketball season. He said that the Lady Bronc volleyball team will use the gym facilities at the UTPA Wellness and Recreational Sports Complex to practice and for preseason, as well as the first home tournament of the season, which is Aug 27-28.
“Recreational services (UTPA WRSC) have been great, allowing us to use their facilities for the volleyball team,” he said. “The volleyball coach (Angela Hubbard) has been a real trooper, understanding that we have to adapt to these changes brought on by the circumstances of the Field House demolition.”
Economically, the UTPA athletic program could flourish with the changes made to its gymnasium, but King stressed that the renovations have been pursued primarily to ensure the safety of the athletes and fans.
“First and foremost, the revamping of our gym was done because of safety issues. The bleachers were old, so that raised some concern,” he said.
King continued to praise the potential of raising the bar and improving the athlete’s experience with the construction.
“As far as the overall game-day experience, the changes will help enhance the environment. The athletes are excited about playing on a nice, new center court floating system,” King stated.
He also mentioned that basketball players, for example, will feel like they are jumping higher than they actually are with the advantage of the new floating system-style court. The new court will be shock-absorbent, similar to an NBA-style basketball court.
Be the first to comment on this article!