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The Roanoke Times (Virginia)
Cassell Coliseum is getting a $1 million makeover.
Virginia Tech spent about $500,000 to replace a little more than one-third of the seats in Cassell Coliseum, according to senior associate athletic director Tom Gabbard.
About 3,600 wooden chair-back seats that had been in the arena since its 1962 debut have been replaced by wider, maroon-colored leather seats that have cup holders. About 400 seats were lost in the process, but the arena still has about 9,100 seats.
The coliseum court has a new design. The floor, which was taken down to the bare wood and recoated, features graphic illustrations of what Gabbard termed "the three icons on campus" - Burruss Hall, the War Memorial and the Torgersen Bridge. The borders of the court are designed to look like Hokie Stone. Damian Salas, the webmaster of hokiesports.com, came up with the design.
Virginia Tech spent about $30,000 to not only redo the court but to also refinish the two courts in the basketball practice facility and a back gym in Cassell.
Tech is spending about $480,000-$490,000 to refurbish the men's basketball team's locker room at Cassell Coliseum. That project is expected to be completed in time for next month's season opener.
Virginia Tech had already done some work on the women's basketball team's locker room in recent years.
Tech has also replaced the NCAA Tournament and NIT banners at Cassell with new banners. Tech has also added banners representing all the ACC schools.
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