Why the Wolf Pack women's basketball team will not be moving into GSR's new 'Nevada Arena'
The construction of a $400 million basketball arena as part of a proposed $1 billion revitalization of Grand Sierra Resort would be the future home of the Nevada men's basketball team. But the plan does not include also making the Wolf Pack women's program a primary tenant, too.
The current plan would keep the Nevada women at Lawlor Events Center, the 11,536-capacity arena built in 1983. Nevada athletic director Stephanie Rempe said nothing has been finalized thus far— for starters, the Nevada Board of Regents must approve the men moving to "Nevada Arena"— but the goal is to brand Lawlor as the home of Wolf Pack women's hoops when the men move to its new arena, most likely in 2026-27.
"There's a lot of pieces to that, and we're continuing to work through it," Rempe said. "It's still a couple of years off. We have the opportunity to make Lawlor the home of our women's basketball team and really buckle down on that and make sure that their venue fits them. We think that's really important. So, we'll continue to work through that, and obviously Coach (Amanda) Levens is a fantastic coach, and she's going to continue to build our program and we'll see where it goes."
Levens expressed excitement for the project given the impact it could have on Wolf Pack athletics and Northern Nevada.
"I think it's amazing for our community," Levens said. "It's amazing for our men's basketball program. It's amazing for the university as a whole. As a resident, I'm excited about the concerts and the shows that we're going to get here and another venue to see them in. And it's just amazing to see people in our community get behind the campus and get behind athletics."
Levens said being the only team that plays at Lawlor Events Center would provide her team the ability to put its stamp on the arena. The Wolf Pack women also will move into the Eric and Linda Lannes Basketball Building, an $8 million locker room and players lounge it will share with the Nevada men. That project should be completed by fall 2024.
"It's exciting," Levens said of potentially being Lawlor's sole tenant. "Not a lot of women's programs have their own facility like that, so I think we're in a unique position. There's a lot of things that we can do in there. There's a lot of space, and it's a pretty good facility if you look at the structure itself. It does need a little bit of updating, but I think that's something that will be coming now that we know this will be happening for the men's team.
"We'll have the venue to ourselves. I think it gives us an opportunity to kind of brand that facility, so it just reflects Nevada women's basketball. Getting the new Lannes building is going to be amazing from a recruiting standpoint from a student-athlete experience standpoint. I think it can be a really positive for both programs."
Levens said she expects some opportunities for the Nevada women's team to play at the new GSR arena, whether that's one-off regular-season marquee games or a multi-team event (MTE) that could potentially draw high-level programs. Nevada has typically hosted the four-team Nugget Classic every year but could be set up to get bigger teams to town.
"Maybe we partner with the men and bring in a men's MTE event with a women's MTE event, and maybe you can attract some of the same programs," Levens said. "So, now when their fans travel they get to watch both the men's and women's teams. I think that's something I've really admired about the (West Coast Conference) is they have their men's and women's tournament kind of going on at the same time. I had the opportunity to go one year, and the Gonzaga fans, they're there for the men's game and they're there for the women's game. They really brought a lot of people, and maybe those are some things that we could look to do here as well. Being connected to a hotel, they can walk over to the game."
Nevada wouldn't be the only college with separate basketball home arenas for its men's and women's programs. UNLV's men play at Thomas & Mack while the women play at the smaller Cox Pavilion, which provides a more intimate feel. Those two buildings are connected whereas Nevada's would be separated by several miles. The teams would share practice facility, the Ramon Sessions Performance Center, in addition to the Lannes building.
The Wolf Pack, with the guidance of UNR president Brian Sandoval, has completed a number of facility improvements for women's sports over the last 18 months, including a new $3 million playing surface for the softball team; new locker rooms for women's swimming and diving, track and field andsoccer; a new playing surface at Mackay Stadium, home of the soccer team; and the Lannes building. The Wolf Pack also established the Alpha Fund, a nutrition program that supports women's sports.
"It's just really going in the right direction," Levens said. "I think President Sandoval and Stephanie have really put an emphasis on equity. You've seen a lot of our women's teams get new facilities, get new locker rooms, and just a lot of positive things right now that I think everybody is excited about."
