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Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Baby, it's cold Inside
By Mark Smith
Journal Staff Writer
It was great weather for football.
Crisp, cold and a bit overcast.
Those were the conditions for Saturday's UNM-Brigham Young football game. Problem was, the conditions were similar when the University of New Mexico women played inside the Pit on Sunday afternoon.
The crowd at Sunday's Lobo-Florida Gulf Coast women's game looked more like a December gridiron throng, with fans wearing coats, hats and gloves. A few even broke out stadium blankets.
"When we first went out there, it was really cold," said senior Amy Beggin, a Minnesota native. "It got a little better after we warmed up and started running, but those first couple minutes were kind of rough."
It shouldn't be that frigid again, says Tim Cass, UNM's senior associate athletics director who is in charge of the Pit's ongoing $60 million renovation.
Cass apologized to Lobo fans and said the main issue at Sunday afternoon's game was a computer glitch that turned one of the two air-handling units, which heat the Pit, off overnight.
The problem was compounded by the winter-like storm and the large openings in the Pit walls.
Cass said both issues should be rectified for the Lobo-Oklahoma State women's game on Wednesday night in the Pit.
"Because of fire safety requirements, we have to have those large openings," Cass said. "... We have air curtain machines that force the air down
at the openings, keeping the cold air out and the warm air in. But with
20 mph winds on Sunday, a 38 degree high and 20 degrees overnight, the cold wind blew in.
"We close those openings when the building's not being occupied. But for this particular game, we also had an issue with one of the air handlers. It shut off overnight, sometime between the end of the men's game on Saturday night and Sunday at 10 a.m."
Cass said the air handler was set to come on at a certain time, but the device to trigger it did not work. When the general contractor became aware of the problem Sunday morning, the air-heating device was immediately turned on, but it didn't have enough time to properly heat the building for the 2 p.m. game.
"Only one heating unit was operating when the Pit was opened up, about 10 a.m.," Cass said. "We got it up and running, but at the same point we were opening doors and it was 30 degrees outside. The building dropped to 58 to 64 degrees during the game. We try to always have it around 70 degrees."
Cass said the air handlers will now be rechecked manually so the problem doesn't occur again. In addition, the following changes will take place:
â– A 6-foot draft wall will be installed behind the top row of seats to block the air draft from the openings.
â– Some of the Pit's entrances might be covered with plastic-slatted curtains, similar to those in a freezer.
"We're exploring that at certain entrances," Cass said. "At this time, they will not be placed in the openings where the concessions are located, so fans don't have to push through the curtains with food and drinks in their hands.
"We're also very conscious of flu season and fans touching them with food in their hands."
â– Radiant floor heat (heating pipes in the floor) will be up and running within the next three to four weeks, putting more heat on the concourse and throughout the building.
â– Other heaters will be added in the ramp area.
"So far, we've had snow, rain and temperatures in the 30s this season," Cass says of the two men's and two women's games (counting exhibitions). "It's almost winter, so we know that's possible. But in reality, we're glad it's happening now so we can work through some of the kinks. It wouldn't be unusual for the weather to be 60 degrees at this time of year, and we wouldn't learn something like this until the middle of December."
UNM women's coach Don Flanagan said he and his team certainly felt the chill during their win Sunday.
"I'm from New England, so I'm used to having ice-skating rinks underneath the court," he said. "But the cold is not good, and I feel for our fans on that. We're in a year of transition, but I think it's going to be much improved on Wednesday. That's what everyone is telling me."
The temperature didn't seem to be much of a problem during the UNM men's win against UC Riverside on Saturday night. But more than a few folks had to be wondering if many in the crowd of 11,871 forgot to shower that day.
There was quite a stench for a few hours prior to tipoff.
Cass said facility officials told him it's a smell that originates "around the floor level. It comes from time to time, it has for the past 20 years."
The smell seemed to dissipate as the game progressed.
"It comes and goes," said UNM men's coach Steve Alford, whose basketball office is located in the Davalos Center, just outside the Pit. "That's all part of the renovation process.
"Those things are going to happen, there are going to be times when it's cold, times when it's hot. But I'd rather have a year of not having the temperature right, not having the locker room right and knowing that we're going to have the best basketball venue in the country a year from now. The school is allowing us to have a $60 million renovation project. I'd rather have those growing pains and be playing in the Pit than somewhere else."
Journal staff writer Ken Sickenger contributed to this report.
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