Photo courtesy of Nevada Athletics

Although the haze from the King Fire is a distant memory for those in the Washoe Valley, the blaze and prior weather conditions served as a reminder of how necessary an indoor facility is for Wolf Pack athletics and the wider Reno community.

The fire that rampaged across 97,717 acres was the most recent case of why the proposed indoor athletic facility, or Fieldhouse, Wolf Pack Athletics is raising funds for is so critical to sustained future success for Nevada sports in the Mountain West Conference.

A handful of construction projects pertaining to athletics have been discussed, including renovations to Mackay Stadium, a new tennis facility and the Champions Plaza project. However, there has been little headway in making the indoor athletic facility a reality.

Aside from a portion of student fees going to fund the E.L. Wiegand Fitness Center and the upcoming indoor athletic facility, construction has not started due to the difficulty of raising funds for these projects and the obstacle of finding new places for students and faculty to park.

The problems that the new athletic facility will solve are evidenced by something every Reno resident understands: the weather in the region is extremely unpredictable, particularly in the fall and spring. Sports teams, especially football, will benefit greatly from having the ability to practice indoors on turf instead of inside Lawlor Events Center or the Lombardi Recreation Center as they did throughout the King Fire.

Nevada is one of a few NCAA Division I schools in a cold climate that does not maintain an indoor facility. Not only would the facility help to make nearly every Nevada sport more competitive by providing a stable home to practice, it will also increase the university’s credibility to new recruits and coaches visiting campus.

While this facility will primarily serve to help the athletics department, it will also serve the rest of the university’s population. According to the Associated Students of the University of Nevada website, this facility would also be open to students, intramurals and club sports in the evening hours past 6 p.m.

As evidenced by the fires of this year and the Rim Fire from last year, intramurals are also affected by weather conditions. This facility would also have the capabilities to house indoor track meets which could generate revenue for the school. In addition, it would be the first such facility in the region since the Bill Cosby Indoor Track Facility was closed in the late-2000s and much closer for western teams to travel to than Boise State’s Jackson Indoor Track Facility.

Other construction projects for athletics are admirable and do provide some utility, but are not nearly as necessary as the Fieldhouse. Mackay Stadium will soon need to be renovated, but this massive project should not take precedence. The construction of an indoor facility will address a more immediate need and is an investment in the program’s future efforts that could see quicker dividends being paid out if the teams on the field are more successful.

Even students who do not participate in athletics or intramurals will benefit from the indoor facility indirectly due to its potential to create increased revenue. A facility of this kind could act as a recruitment tool for prospective students, and the influx in student fees could be used to further develop programs across all sections of campus. As our university expands, so too do its programs and an indoor facility can catalyze that expansion.

However, a significant obstacle to overcome is the lack of funding provided to the university from the State of Nevada Legislature, which Nevada has to split with UNLV. To offer a comparison, the University of Wyoming paid $11 million for their facility in 2007 with the help from fundraising and the legislature.

Nevada doesn’t have that luxury as the state gave the university $4,935,954 last year, which it had to disperse among different departments. It also suffers from having a much smaller student population in comparison to other Mountain West schools and furthermore its athletic budget is one of the lowest in the conference.

Even though the fitness center and indoor facility projects will cost a combined $71.3 million and will take until the end of the decade to complete, students and alumni can expedite this process.

While students are already getting taxed for the facility through their student fees, they can still contribute by writing letters of support to the state legislature and donating money to the effort. Athletic director Doug Knuth has worked diligently to fundraise for the numerous projects, but student support is critical in building for the future of the campus.

This is a great opportunity for students and alumni who want to see their alma mater become an all-around Tier One institution in both academics and athletics.

The Nevada Sagebrush editorial staff can be reached at cboline@sagebrush.unr.edu.