University of New Mexico officials hope to modernize The Pit while maintaining its old-school character.
Rendering of The Pit at UNM
One of college basketball's most revered venues - The Pit - is undergoing a $60 million renovation, its most comprehensive since the facility first opened on the University of New Mexico campus in 1966. Despite the fact that UNM lacks the hoops profile of, say, Duke, North Carolina or UCLA, The Pit has routinely ranked among the top 10 Division I schools in overall fan attendance, averaging more than 15,000 fans and 95 percent capacity since its opening. And those fans are loud; decibel levels have been measured at 118 during Lobos games (physical pain begins at approximately 125 decibels).
Rendering of The Pit at UNMFor those responsible for the renovation, there's naturally going to be some trepidation when you're messing with that much cachet. "The scary part for me, personally, is this building has really stood the test of time for 43 years," UNM senior associate athletic director Tim Cass told the Albuquerque Journal in May. "Part of the onus on me is that it stands the test of time for another 43 years."
Rendering of The Pit at UNMIn an effort to modernize the venue - which in 1999 was ranked 13th in Sports Illustrated's list of "Top 20 Sporting Venues of the 20th Century" - the project includes the addition of 40 luxury suites and 300 club seats, state-of-the-art locker rooms, new scoreboards, an expanded concourse, new restrooms and concessions areas, and a dramatic main entrance highlighted by large expanses of glass. Albuquerque-based Molzen-Corbin & Associates and Denver-based Sink Combs Dethlefs led the design.
Rendering of The Pit at UNMThe Lobo athletic department assures fans that the facility's character will not be lost in the improvements. "It will be that sunken cauldron of emotion surrounding the hostile Bob King Court that the enemy has to reach by running down a steep ramp that takes them smack dab into the middle of all that Lobo love," senior writer Richard Stevens wrote at www.golobos.com.
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