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By Will
Lofdahl and Gary Rachele
Two years ago, our arena — the
13,000- seat Pan American Center — was about to undergo a major renovation.
Prior to construction, we asked the following question of arena managers who
had either undergone a major renovation or built from scratch: What do you
know now that you wish you had known before your project began?
We were fortunate to receive very pertinent advice. Hopefully this chronicle
of our renovation experience will prove equally pertinent to those
contemplating a similar project.
Ongoing Needs
In 1968, New Mexico State University completed construction on a 13,000-seat
arena to be used as the home court of its men’s and women’s basketball
teams. The total cost of the project was approximately $3.5 million. For the
next 30 years this facility served the university well. Our men’s basketball
program reached the Final Four twice during this time period, and the
facility also played host to nearly every major entertainment tour.
However, as time marches on, what was once state of the art becomes
antiquated. In 1968, the year the Pan American Center was opened, Bobby
Unser won the Indianapolis 500. If you asked Unser today to compete in the
next Indy 500 with his 1968 race car, he’d be quick to tell you that the car
wouldn’t even qualify for the race. Similarly, our nearly 40-year-old arena
had lost its competitiveness.
 We
launched an effort to foster support within the university’s board of
regents and the state legislature for resources to be used toward a
renovation of the Pan American Center. Over the course of the next year and
a half, we managed to move a bill through the legislature to appropriate
funding for the project. These funds, along with those contributed by the
university itself and student government, provided a total pool of some $25
million.
We took advantage of situations as they arose. For example, we knew that the
student body president was a big George Strait fan. When Strait performed at
our facility, we made sure that the student body president had great seats
and met Strait. The next day we took the president to lunch and asked for a
contribution to the project. We were successful.
Evaluating Needs
We hired an architect and went about the task of designing enhancements that
would allow our facility to provide a higher level of customer convenience
and comfort. We specifically wanted to improve the event experience for the
general public, the university’s athletic department and touring shows.
We had many needs, as our arena had only bench seats in the upper level, no
loading dock, only four sets of restrooms, two permanent concessions stands,
inadequate locker/dressing room accommodations and no basketball practice
facilities. We soon found out that although it’s a lot of money, $25 million
doesn’t go as far as you would like it to. This prompted a hard look at our
project and, as a result, the scope of our needs had to be trimmed back. We
did this trimming through a series of meetings that were often difficult and
intense.
Addressing Challenges
Finally, we had a project that the estimators projected would fit within our
budget, and we put it out to bid. However, construction costs were rising at
a geometric rate, and we soon found that the lowest bid was still above our
budget. This sent us back to the planning table once again.
At this point, not only was the budget an issue, but the project’s timeline
was a concern. We initially intended to fit the construction into the window
of time between basketball seasons, as we couldn’t displace our basketball
teams. We also had other tenants that couldn’t move their events to other
facilities or sit out a year.
We were now faced with two dilemmas. First, we needed to trim the scope of
our project even further; second, we needed to develop a plan to have
construction coincide with the event season. We weren’t in a position to
wait another year for the window between basketball seasons to open up
again.
 We
went about the task of addressing these two dilemmas. We had to make hard
choices that would impact the improvements that were dearly needed. We
eventually ended up with a project that significantly improved the facility
but didn’t provide all the desired amenities. For example, we had to cut the
loading dock and upper level seat backs from our project.
To have a facility under construction and remain operational is challenging
on two dimensions. First, the contractor has deadlines and needs access to
the facility so he can do his job. At the same time, our clients are
deserving of a facility that’s clean, safe and functional. Meeting these two
objectives was our charge.
We met with our tenants and general contractor on a regular basis to
communicate the challenges ahead. We committed to keeping the channels of
communication open, as the construction process had a certain component of
unpredictability associated with it. We developed a plan so that our event
preparation crews could access the facility on event days to work alongside
the construction crews. This way, we could open the doors for an event a
mere hour after construction had concluded each day.
Lessons Learned
We learned to be flexible and patient — and above all, not to lose our sense
of humor, as this project displaced our staff from our offices and into a
construction trailer. At about the same time, a family of skunks also
decided to make the area under the trailer their home.
We had to educate the public as to the constraints that construction placed
on the facility. Certain areas were off limits to the public, and these
areas changed from event to event.
Event attendees who had accessed the facility for years through a certain
entrance and took the same path to their seats were now faced with finding
alternate routes.
We worked with the media to inform the community about what changes could be
anticipated as events approached, and we provided fliers and made public
address announcements. Even though a thorough cleaning took place prior to
each event, we equipped our ushers with rags to wipe off seats as patrons
arrived; a construction environment is a dusty environment. These tactics,
along with others, helped ease concerns and mitigate inconveniences.
As of this writing, work crews are busily preparing the Pan American Center
for our reopening. The new center-hung scoreboard is scheduled to be in
place the day before we kick off our opening with a regional Mariachi
Conference. We learned a lot and developed a strong appreciation for the
concepts of compromise and teamwork.
Will Lofdahl is the director and
Gary Rachele the assistant director of the Pan American Center and Aggie
Memorial Stadium at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M. |
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