Cox Pavilion ushers UNLV programs into ‘big time’

Victoria Sun

Thursday, March 29, 2001 | 10:48 a.m.

"From worst to first" is how UNLV volleyball coach Deitre Collins described the difference between playing in the Lied Athletic Complex and competing in the nearly finished Cox Pavilion.

"You can't even begin to compare Lied gym to the Cox Pavilion," Collins said Wednesday after a tour of the facilities. "And for where we want to go with our program, big-time athletes need to feel like they're at a big-time place and this gets us much closer to that.

"There are no words for it. Just sitting in the competition floor and thinking of the other venues we play in the conference, we're right up there with the best."

The 78,300-square foot building adjacent to the Thomas & Mack Center is scheduled to open in May. A debut concert featuring country star Vince Gill will be held at Cox Pavilion May 25 with tickets going on sale April 14.

The plush pavilion -- complete with a steam room, coaches' locker rooms, officials' locker rooms and two visiting locker rooms -- will house the UNLV women's volleyball and basketball teams. It will also serve as a practice facility for the men's basketball team as necessary.

All three teams will use the new locker rooms in the Cox Pavilion.

Across from the 6,500-square foot locker room area is a 10,000-square foot practice facility that will have a basketball court and three volleyball courts. The main arena floor is roughly 24,000 square feet.

"You're really known in collegiate athletics by two or three standards," UNLV athletic director Charlie Cavagnaro said. "It's those people you associate with and the facilities that you have to offer to your student-athletes and your fans.

"We feel like we broke code in terms of people we associate with by joining in part of a formation of our new conference. Now we think with the addition of Cox Pavilion, we have a very specific place for our women's basketball and volleyball team. To have a place they can call their own, those are big deals when it comes to recruiting the type of young ladies we want at UNLV."

The women's volleyball team has played most of its games at the Lied and a few at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Collins said the buzz about the new arena has piqued the interest of recruits.

"Just with it being on our website, it's amazing how many kids have told us they've seen it and they're excited about it," Collins said. "The way it's structured, the seats are right down on the floor.

"As an athlete, you always like to feel like your people are right there. It's just a perfect volleyball-size facility."

Originally, the Cox Pavilion was supposed to open at the end of March, but budget concerns and the wishes of women's basketball coach Regina Miller pushed things back.

"It was more important for us to be on budget than to be on time," director of planning and construction Mike Enoch said. "We could have worked around the clock to get this done on time, but that would have cost a lot of overtime.

"Another factor was that Regina said that it would be better if the team didn't play their last couple of games this season in Cox and to start anew next season."

Cox Communications donated $5 million to help fund the $16.8 million building that has the capacity to seat 2,429 for sporting events and 2,800 for concerts.

The remainder of the cost will be generated from revenue collected from events held at the pavilion.

"What we're going to have to do is do events to pay the bills," Thomas & Mack Center director Pat Christensen said. "In order for us to meet our budget, we're going to use the synergy of the current events we do."