New handicapped seats at T&M

Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2000 | 9:56 a.m.

Physically disabled fans who attend the UNLV Rebels men's basketball home opener Friday against Northern Arizona University will have access to new handicapped parking and floor seating.

But the mother of a disabled 12-year-old fan whose sour experience at the university's Thomas & Mack Center during a February game sparked some of the changes said she remained displeased with arena officials.

The university has added 15 handicapped seating spaces, each with a companion seat, on the floor behind both baskets. Those seats will be available first to season ticket holders at $425 per season per seat, or $25 each for individual games, the same price charged other fans who sit in the lower bowl.

There also will be 58 marked handicapped parking spaces next to the arena and the adjacent Cox Pavilion, now under construction. Permanent signs for those spaces are on order. Meanwhile, temporary signs will be used to help identify those spaces.

However, Las Vegan Vicki Quinn, mother of wheelchair user Stephen Quinn, said her husband and sons encountered difficulty when they attended the Oct. 23 National Basketball Association exhibition game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings.

She said one gaffe occurred when fan-related exhibits on behalf of the Lakers were set up on spaces designated for handicapped parking. Joseph Santiago, the arena's marketing director, said that problem was rectified shortly before game time and will not occur for Rebels games.

But Quinn also said her son, who secured one of the designated floor seats, had trouble seeing over game personnel near the Lakers' bench.

"I wanted them to put the seats in the most easily accessible places where they would be elevated off the floor," Quinn said. "The problem is they would have to take season ticket holders out of their seats."

Santiago said there was nothing arena officials could have done to control Lakers personnel. But he said Rebels cheerleaders will be instructed not to block the view of paying customers on the floor. Whether media photographers also can work behind the baskets without obstructing the view of wheelchair users remains to be seen.

"We didn't create those seats to allow people to stand in front of them," Santiago said. "When we have paying customers on the floor, we don't want them to be blocked by cheerleaders, media or staff."

Quinn said she had hoped that the wheelchair seats on the floor level had been elevated to remove the potential of a partially obstructed view. But Santiago said the arena does not have enough money now to make such changes.

He said that is why the arena intends to seek about $1.5 million in state and private funds to made additional improvements, including the addition of wheelchair-accessible dugouts in the lower bowl that would be elevated from the floor.

Arena director Pat Christenson told the state Board of Regents in September that the facility had been renovated beyond the legal requirements of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. But Quinn disagreed and has written a letter to each of the state's legislators.

"Unfortunately, action does not always follow words, and commitment does not guarantee commencement nor completion," she wrote. "We are at a loss to understand why this priority of providing access for all citizens to one of the most prominent public facilities in the state does not move to the top of the list for capital spending."